The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Engine Starts than dies out

Hi All,

Sorry about the length of this post. I am trying to figure out why my engine keeps dying out right after starting. The truck is a '66 c-10 with a '67? 327 with a holley 4160 carb. Recently I installed a new alternator, intake manifold and fuel filter, and afterwards everything started up and ran nicely (must have gotten lucky with the timing). A few weeks after, the engine started cutting out while running. It would restart, go a very short distance and die out again. After towing it home, initial thought was the mechanical fuel pump, but it was still getting fuel, so I decided to go ahead and change the rotor, distributor cap, wires and plugs since they haven't been changed since I bought it a year ago. Didn't seem to help. Would start and then die out. Took the mechanical pump out and installed an electric pump, blew out the fuel lines back to the tank and replaced all the non-metal fuel lines. No luck. I can get it to start and then it dies out after 5 to 10 seconds. Not sure what the next step is, but looking for some help before trying to tackle a carb rebuild which I have never done, but willing to give it a shot as it seems to be the last link in the chain.

Thanks in advance for the help.

Is the fuel fresh and the tank clean?

Might be a bad ignition switch. Try hot wiring it. Also could be the condenser if you didn't change it with the rotor and cap.

fuel is fresh, was driving it daily, but the tank, original. I haven't cleaned it, and doubt the previous owner had. After installing the electric fuel pump, I pulled the fuel line at the carb and it pumped a good volume. I don't have a pressure regulator as I was told it didn't need one since it was low pressure, so I don't really know what pressure is being delivered.

Did you check the fuel filter in the carb inlet?

It sounds like the condenser is a good thing to check and the fuel filter; is it correctly installed directionally? I would check coil output when the engine stops to see if the coil has an "open" winding after it warms up. The float bowl in the holly might not be filling. Carbureators can be very tempermental, could be the floats ar eout of adjustment.

Thanks for the suggestions, been out of town the last couple days, back now, so tomorrow I will go ahead and run through the above and see how it turns out. Will let you know what happens.

tested the coil it checked out ok, started the truck and ran for about 20 seconds then died. Removed the fuel level sight on the carb bowl and the fuel level was pretty low. Pulled the carb, removed the fuel rail, took out both the in-line fuel filters (from the primary and secondary bowls), put it all back together and it fired right up and ran smoothly. What a relief. Looking at the inlets and the filters looks like a lot of old crud had built up, before and after even after the filter.

I am wondering do I really need these filters in place (there is one before the fuel pump)?

Wish I had known there were filters on the inlet to the carb in the first place, but no harm done, needed to put in new equipment anyways, now just need to decide if I want to go back to the mechanical fuel pump or not.

Thanks for the help guys, should have asked first.

do I really need these filters in place?

if they weren't there, that crud would be clogging somewhere in your carb