Charger won't run

[bigeric73SE]

Well I'm not really workin on it right now, but some might remember me as "bigeric17" from the old site.  I just found that this newly refurbished site was running haha.  I'll try to keep this short and sweet.  Well, I have a 73 Charger SE, 318.  This motor ran before i got my hands on it lol.  Well it was bored .060, balanced, blueprinted.  So, I rebuilt it with my friend...was my first motor build, so of coarse you expect the worst, and hope for the best.  I did nothing more to the block (as machine work goes) I had to buy different heads, the previous ones were cracked.  I had the heads gone through "new hard seats, valve guides, resurfaced."  Nothing done to the valves...new pushrods installed.  Just your basic rebuild/gasket change pretty much.  I didn't pull the pistons or crank.  The cam was pulled and re-set, New timing set installed.  Oh yea...Eddy performer intake put on, (not a fan, but it was what i could do at the time) 

Everything was hooked up and ready to fire, turned it over and no fire.  Well there was fire, but not the fire i wanted :/  It was the kind of fire that singed my buddies arm hair and hit the garage cieling (with a little exageration, but you can imagine, i'm sure i'm not the only one this has happened to)  I was told the timing could be 180 degrees out...was also told to fix this, i had to pull the whole distributor and turn it 180, then put plug wires on as if that were the correct set.   So I turned it over again and it fired up this time,  It didn't idle very good, and I couldn't get it to idle clean.. when i got it close i took it for a drive,  after a couple minutes it started to run horrible, choking up and wanted to die. 

When it did die, i couldn't get it to fire until it had cooled.  Well it has been awhile, and it still will fire up.  But now it won't idle at all, i have to keep my foot into it to keep it running.

Well I'm going to leave it at that....SO MUCH FOR KEEPING IT SHORT AND SWEET HUH??

Haha if you guys need anymore information let me know...it has been quite awhile since i have worked on it, so i might not be able to answer your questions very well, but i will do my best.
Thank you for all replies

[greenpigs]

Are your sure it isn't a tooth off?

[RD]

wb eric,

first thing i would do is to bring #1 piston to TDC on its compression stroke.  you can do this by removing the spark plug and disconnecting the coil wire.  Put your finger over the spark plug hole and have someone crank the motor over until you feel compression building.  when that happens hand crank the motor to 0 degrees by the balancer.

Now, go and arrange your distributor to have the rotor bug sit right on the #1 cylinder wire at the distributor cap.  this way, you are for certain that you are dead on.  Now make sure your firing order is 1 8 4 3 6 5 7 2.

Now, check all your vacuum ports (on your carb, intake and brake booster).  If you have an open vacuum port, your idle quality will go down the tubes quick.

On a side note, what kind of carburetor are you running?

Lastly, did you do a formal camshaft break in?  Did you change the oil after that break in?

let us know so we can help you better.

[bigeric73SE]

I am pretty sure the cam is right on.  I had a friend install the cam...so that was part of my question too...(i mean, i wasn't sure if he did it correctly)

Thanks for the welcoming...I'm going to college and working right now, so i don't have much time to work on it, but i'm sure i will work some time out for adjusting that timing.

Now as the carb goes...it was a Eddy 600 cfm, It seemed to have a problem spraying fuel, something wrong with the jets i believe,  It didn't really spray it...it kinda dripped it haha.  So just to check i had an old holley carb sitting on the shelf,  so i put it on, automatically it ran better with it, i mean i still had the crappy idle...but it distributed the fuel more eficiantly.. I'm unsure of what size this carb is, but i think it's fairly big, possibly a 750?  I need to have it rebuilt and gone through (just short on cash right now). 

And for the cam...it was the old cam that has been in the motor for who knows how long...i didn't have any work done to it.  So I didn't do any official break it...i just put it in and let it idle for a bit while i adjusted the timing.

[BigBlockSam]

first thing i would do is to bring #1 piston to TDC on its compression stroke 

you gotta attack these problems from the beginning. do what RD said. Rene

[bigeric73SE]

Will do...i'll try to find some time to do it this week.

[greezygirl]

i had a similar problem with mine.

[bigeric73SE]

what was the problem with yours ? and how did you fix it?
thank you

[greezygirl]

changed the cam from some custom ground cam to a 509 purple shaft and put a 750 cfm edlebrock carb on it.

[bigeric73SE]

Well, i'm off to adjust that timing...wish me luck haha...i'll let you know what turns out.

[bigeric73SE]

Well...hmmm...well...ummm...i set it back at TDC and now it won't fire up...i advanced the dist. and retarded it.  all i got was flame from the carb about 3 feet high, and backfire outta the headers.   

[bigeric73SE]

Oh yea...for some reason...the ballast resistor was bloody friggin hott!!!   

[RD]

Well...hmmm...well...ummm...i set it back at TDC and now it won't fire up...i advanced the dist. and retarded it.  all i got was flame from the carb about 3 feet high, and backfire outta the headers.   

did you make sure your rotor was exactly heads up with #1 on the distributor cap prior to turnign it over?

make sure you bring it to #1 TDC on compression stroke and that your rotor bug aligns to #1 on dist. cap.

Do this before you do anything else. k!

Your ballast resistor may be faulty.  the heat could be a precursor to things to come.  I would replace it and do the above prior to any more attempts at starting it.

let me know how it goes.