383 stalls after cold start, whines under acceleration, hard to start after

[copperstate68]

Hi all, I’ve recently gotten back into the hobby and have a ‘68 Charger (383 HP 4sp) that is a decent driver but has some motor issues and am hoping you more experienced folks can help me understand what’s going on.

• Easy to cold start and keeps running if I give it gas
• If I let off the gas and let it idle, it struggles at idle and will stall if I don’t give it gas
• If it stalls, it’s really hard to get it to start again
• If it gets up to normal temperature, it usually runs a little better
• Whistling/whining kind of sound under acceleration / deceleration (you can kind of hear the whine sound in the video)
• Sometimes after acting like this, hours after the motor has been off, I see coolant has leaked and usually pooled up on the k member, but can’t tell where it’s coming from
• Something is leaking and pooling up on the intake and boiling off- seems to be coming from one of the bolts mounting the intake to the head. (you can see this in the video also)

Could some of the issues causing it to stall and not start again be related to a vacuum leak caused by failing gaskets (intake, head and valve cover might all be leaking a bit from the looks of it) or am I way off?

 

[PurpleBeeper]

Cold Start - something with your choke isn’t working correctly. If it won’t re-start, pop off the air cleaner lid and hold the choke open with a screwdriver or something to re-start.
Whistle - it does sound like a vacuum leak. Spray around with flammable brake cleaner and the idle will jump up when you find the vacuum leak.
Oil - valve cover gasket

 

[RemCharger]

It has a header leak. Could be part and parcel with leaking header bolts.

 

[DanielSlocum]

No coolant associated with the intake. Most likely water neck,water pump,header bolts or studs in head. Oil can travel up threads of intake mounting bolts. Steel valve covers very prone to leak oil if not strait or sealed properly. PCV is very important to keep crankcase pressure from pushing oil out in various places. Maybe try a vacuum gauge and/or brake clean suggested above to check for vacuum leak. Choke may be sticking or opening too slowly fouling plugs. Good luck.

 

[copperstate68]

Thanks for the replies! Will try the brake cleaner vacuum leak check and see what I find.

Might be worth redoing all of the seals around the motor from the sound of it.

Btw- it’s a manual choke and can confirm it’s all the way open.