Max fuel pressure for Carter 3705 carbs?

[4406bbl]

I see and understand on the high idle and trans slamming into gear deal, much over 900rpm is not fun.

 

[Geoff 2]

Forrest,
Glad to see some progress is being made. I do not believe these engines ever made 19" of vac from the factory. My understanding is the original Max Wedge cam was a SFT with 254 @ 050, about 0.525" lift. That does not make 19" at idle with a big open plenum intake.
You can check to see if VA is dropping off going into gear by doing a before/after check with the timing light. I suspect it is dropping off slightly.
So, options?
Increase the idle speed.
increase the static initial timing so that less VA is needed.
Look around for another brand of VA unit that may have a softer spring.
Pull the VA apart & see if you can lengthen the spring distance at rest. Or bend the spring slightly to reduce the tension.

 

[Dragon Slayer]

So what is your actual idle speed now in neutral? What does it drop to in gear? With a T installed you could put a vacuum gauge in line with VA unit. (Mite Vac pump even). Will tell you exactly what vacuum you have in gear, and then with timing light what timing is. Since you know your initial will let you now what is going on specifically. I am assuming as you raised timing at idle the engine increases rpm. Do you lower rpm back to a value? Your initial is right at stock setting now, so coming in with some more initial shouldn't be at issue. As long as it can restart.

 

[fmahannah]

I may have bigger issues to deal with? So I decided to take a test drive with static at 12 and vac adv at around 30. Started out OK, some hesitation on mild acceleration then it took off. Did not try to tromp on it. Made a left turn, then with mild acceleration it acted like it was out of fuel a couple times (surged hard) then went slower with pretty heavy smoke out the exhaust (seems to be oil smoke not rich). Made it back home leaving a cloud of smoke behind me. At idle in driveway still smoking. Shut it off. Disconnected vaccum advance, restarted and smoke stopped. Reconnected vac adv restarted and smoke still stopped?

Hoping it is not major engine issues like rings or head gasket. One thing to note is that that little vaccum tube on the manifold fitting that was being used for vac advance had broken off, so I jb welded the little hole and added a new manifold vacuum port barb using a tapped spot already in the base of one of the carbs. The main part of the fitting which I posted pics of (brake booster) was being used for the PCV valve in the valve cover.

Could it be as simple as the PCV valve not working causing all the oil smoke? I should be so lucky

 

[Dragon Slayer]

Confused, your picture in the first post is manual brakes. Don't see a brake booster?

 

[fmahannah]

Confused, your picture in the first post is manual brakes. Don't see a brake booster?

Yes it is manual brakes. The fitting they used on intake for the PCV and the 1/8 vacuum line is the fitting designed for the brake booster, at least that is what the replacement I ordered was called at Classic Industries

 

[fmahannah]

Checked the PCV valve, it's brand new. Hopes for a simple fix are falling fast. Not sure why it does not smoke at idle (which was the original problem with the bad carbs). But now going down the highway it's a fogger.
it did smoke at idle when I got home, but once shut down and restarted it stopped.

To give you some idea of how bad it is have any of you ever seen what comes out the exhaust when you spray seafoam into a running engine? Except this is oil smoke I think, or possibly head gasket. Does not smell rich
at all and no signs of gas in the oil like I had before the carbs were swapped.

Also can't seem to find an old school mopar mechanic anywhere in North Georgia ....

 

[Dragon Slayer]

Ok, think I understand now. One of the max wedge guys should be able to answer this, but I think the left side PVC hose does goes to the intake manifold via that fitting. Not a carb like later Chrysler did. I thought you said they had that all plugged up with tape? So maybe they defeated the PCV valve? I guess if the PCV valve doesn't have a check valve and is open tube you can be sucking oil vapor into the manifold. Normally at idle it is a controlled air bleed since vacuum closes the valve except the orifice. When at speed with low vacuum it would be open and pull more vapor.

 

[fmahannah]

They had only blocked the small vacuum tube with tape, the main line was hooked to the PCV valve in the passenger side valve cover.

No signs of coolant in the oil or in the breather cap. But I really think the smoke I am seeing is more white than blue. Head gasket is suspect but not sure how to test other than with a block test kit.

It seems like maybe the smoke did not start until the thermostat actually opened up ... With the 4 core radiator and advanced titming it is only running around 140-160 at idle which does not open the thermostat.

So when the thermostat opens could that cause a bad head gasket to show up in the exhaust, and then stop when engine cools a little?

 

[fmahannah]

Just checked and thermostat does open when idling so that was not causing the sudden smoke when going down the road. No sign of bubbles in coolant. No white or blue smoke from exhaust at idle.
So I wonder what would cause the exhaust to start smoking after driven a short distance, continue steadily until engine is stopped again and restarted?

I am afraid that somehow I have to find a mopar mechanic in my area that can be trusted as this is getting beyond my limited tinkering skills. Thinking it might need a rebuild which is odd since it only has
2500 miles on it's previous rebuild in or around 2003.

Does anywhere here know somebody in northern Georgia?

 

[4406bbl]

I doubt it. The easy no tool way to check it is to pull all the antifreeze out abs just use water. For the pcv to do that the line would be full of oil. I had a set of felpro blue head gaskets do this on a small block, burned antifreeze, swapped to copper coated steel and it stopped.

 

[fmahannah]

I doubt it. The easy no tool way to check it is to pull all the antifreeze out abs just use water. For the pcv to do that the line would be full of oil. I had a set of felpro blue head gaskets do this on a small block, burned antifreeze, swapped to copper coated steel and it stopped.

No oil at all in PCV line or valve .. what about the tests they have for exhaust in radiator?

One other strange thing I noticed is exahust manifold temps at idle for each cylinder on drivers side are less than 300*, but on passenger side they are 400*. Tried adjusting mixture screws richer on passenger side and it did not help.

 

[4406bbl]

I suppose that would tell if if it was getting in the chamber, but what if it is a crack in a head and getting in the intake tract? Do you k own if the heads are ported?

 

[fmahannah]

I suppose that would tell if if it was getting in the chamber, but what if it is a crack in a head and getting in the intake tract? Do you k own if the heads are ported?

As far as I know heads are not ported they are Max Wedge reproduction heads P5007494 (2.08/1.88)

 

[4406bbl]

If you think it is antifreeze autozone used to rent/loan a cooling system pressure test kit.

 

[Dragon Slayer]

Would think you would see residue on that exhaust side, also has coolant level dropped once cold. The cooler exhaust temp is not good, had some stuck open exhaust valves on a hemi do that, but that ran poorly as first sign. If it is running ok, just the smoke might be the head gasket.

 

[fmahannah]

Would think you would see residue on that exhaust side, also has coolant level dropped once cold. The cooler exhaust temp is not good, had some stuck open exhaust valves on a hemi do that, but that ran poorly as first sign. If it is running ok, just the smoke might be the head gasket.

Not losing coolant but have not been driving it on the highway, only idling in the garage until this morning

 

[4406bbl]

Hmm, not losing coolant, no oil in pvc hose, and it smokes. Both banks? Maybe the rings are done. Maybe the intake lost its seal on one side if only one bank smokes. Hard to diagnose without being there. Maybe a compression test and a cooling system test. If you drove the car before and it did not smoke something happened.

 

[Geoff 2]

Couple of comments:
- no way a stock PCV is going to work with low vacuum. What I do is cut open the stock PCV & remove the innards. I braze in a disc & then drill a 7/64" hole in it, which represents the area of opening at idle.
- if you were trying to tune it with the PCV, this could have caused a lot of the varying vacuum problems you were getting.
- pretty sure that intake does not use the valley pan gasket. If so, you may have a poor sealing/leaking gasket along the intake face, allowing oil [ smoke? ] to be sucked in.

 

[fmahannah]

Hmm, not losing coolant, no oil in pvc hose, and it smokes. Both banks? Maybe the rings are done. Maybe the intake lost its seal on one side if only one bank smokes. Hard to diagnose without being there. Maybe a compression test and a cooling system test. If you drove the car before and it did not smoke something happened.

It only smoked like this going down the highway this morning, never in the garage, so it has not been driven long enough to know if I am losing coolant.
Yes I did drive it before and it did not smoke like this, but the only things changed are the dizzy and the two carter carbs, nothing else has changed.

The new smoke is from both banks