carburetor fire and pop issues

[bmopars4life]

Car has been sitting a while due to having an intermittent start issue
i fixed that and one thing led to another cleaned up a few other things
lost order of plug wires
so i added new cap and rotor and wires
wired them up correctly according to some diagrams
now i get these pops and fires in the carburetor
is there a flow chart with values i can trace my issue with
or what suggestions does anyone have to try?
i have not messed with the timing , just the plugs and wired and added newer ballast resistor
fixed some broken and shorted wires in the ignition system.
any ideas?

1969 Dodge Charger 383
old style ignition system.

 

[toolmanmike]

What carb?

 

[bmopars4life]

its an edelbrock i think 650 cfm

 

[WileE]

Your idle mixture may be too lean. Or, your ignition timing could be off.

 

[bmopars4life]

its a 1407 edelbrock carb

 

[bmopars4life]

could it change form sitting?
the thing is before i parked it and went after the wiring it ran great when it wanted to start, so the timing should still be fine right?,
i wonder if the new old stock bosh plug wires are not cutting it, i like the cap and rotor that are actually copper in the cap. what wires work best?
could the ballast resistor be and issue? how can i test it?

 

[bmopars4life]

I will sleep on it and check back tomorrow, light out for now.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Your assuming the distributor gear is installed in the factory clocking.... Pull #1 plug, put your finger over the hole & bump the starter till you feel compression... Then watch the timing marks and bump the starter to bring the mark on the damper in alignment with the mark on the front cover... Now see if the rotor is pointing where #1 is supposed to be.. If so something else is going on... Could be very lean.. Could be a bad condenser... Could be a lot of things...

Don't let this happen to you...

 

[Geoff 2]

Yup, could be lots of things.

Since leads were changed, check the firing order. Turn the crank so that timing is ~ 10-12* BTDC [ shown on the timing tab ]. Rotor should be pointing to #1 or #6 tower on the cap, depending on which one is firing.

 

[oldbee]

Definitely recheck your firing order closely, also, you don’t want plug wires laying side by side to each other.

 

[Carcinogen]

Does the engine rev ok in park or neutral, then backfire through carb when engine is under load?

That is a symptom of not hot enough of a spark that has trouble firing when cylinder pressure builds up.

Check coil voltage, bad coil, ballast resistor, corroded contacts, wire might be failing due to age and internal corrosion.

 

[DanielSlocum]

Backfires are often caused by either a timing issue,wrong firing order,or a lean out. Does the carb accellerator pump squirt fuel? You could have a vacuum leak somewhere.
Good luck.

 

[bmopars4life]

thanks for all these suggestions,
the car wont start at the moment.
i will check the compression at cyl 1 timing marks
so rotor should be pointing at 1 on cap at TDC on compression stroke, got it
i think im going to take the new bosh wires off and put the old ones back on too
not super confident the wires are going far enough on the plugs after looking at it
i don't feel that satisfying snap pushing them on.

i cant check these things until tomorrow evening
also should i be getting 12 v at ballast resistor blue wire on the right?

 

[1 Wild R/T]

If it's backfiring you have voltage, it just doesn't like the timing of the spark it's getting..

 

[Geoff 2]

This is way out there...& would fool most people but is a remote possibility.
If the engine history is unknown & has a roller cam, it is possible that the cam had a 4/7 swap. Cyl 4 was swapped for #7. The plug wires would need be swapped correspondingly.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

This is way out there...& would fool most people but is a remote possibility.
If the engine history is unknown & has a roller cam, it is possible that the cam had a 4/7 swap. Cyl 4 was swapped for #7. The plug wires would need be swapped correspondingly.

Possible but super rare... Rare even in the Chevy world.... Mopar? Probably not... But if the #1 TDC is good it would be something to check..

 

[AR67GTX]

Many possibilities but I once leaned the jetting out too much in a Holley and the motor started randomly backfiring through the carb, even at idle but also when I first would feed it a little gas to start letting the clutch out. You have apparently not changed anything in the carburetor but if sitting awhile it may have some junked up air bleeds of idle passages that are leaning it out. So as a cheap thing to try, I would get a can of carburetor cleaner spray, pull the carb and spray out all the air bleeds, idle passages, vents into the fuel bowls, etc. Pull the idle screws after checking how far they are backed out first and spray the passages out. Wear eye protection.

A bad condenser is another possibility and cheap item to try. Triple checking the firing order is a good idea. You say you wired it according to a reference - but did you keep the no. 1 wire on the same cap terminal that the old no.1 wire was on?

 

[Hugh Jass]

2 things to look close at, firing order correct and if the metal ends of the plug wires are not backed up in the wire boot,but secure on the spark plug tip and in the distributor cap all the way down in the wire tower.

 

[bmopars4life]

looks like the plugs may be a big part of the issue.
these are champion plugs, what is the best plug to run?
the engine has a purple cam in it, sadly im not sure which one,
previous owner did the build a long time ago

 

[bmopars4life]

i left all the old wires on the old cap
im going to try that one after i replace the plugs NGK 5858 or are 3332 better for the 383?
and is .035 or .040 a better gap for either?

then if still no resolve do the condenser