I recently bought a 66 Barracuda, that has a slant six in it. This motor is not the orig. one it was a V8 car from the factory. It is an older slant with sparkplug Tubes and no real smog equipment except for a PCV Valve. The motor is "said" to be rebuilt by the prior owner I belive the bearings and rockers and rocker "rod" were replaced, as well as gaskets.

The block and head were already assembled and in place in the engine compartment, but everything else was in a couple of big crates. I pieced everything together and now have it running, but I cant seem to get it running very well.

I have replaced the coil, Plugs, Plugwires, and the ceramic regulator thingy. I bought a timing light, and have set the timing to what I belive is marked as 10 degrees before TDC. these things helped a bit with the running, but not enough. the carb appears to be in reasonable shape and is clean, but I am no carb expert. it is stamped as a Ball& Ball carb, but has no tag on it where most are located?

I have made valve adjustment and it sounds better, but I am not experiencing the performance I expect. it runs poorly when cold, and will stall when i am starting from a stand still unless it is really warm. Also at a light the motor seems to really shake/Vibrate the car.

According to my Haynes manual, there is supposed to be a tube coming from the exhaust manifold to the air cleaner housing. I do not however have anywhere on the manifold that this would connect to despite the fact that the aircleaner has the connection. Would this contribute to my driveability issues?

Robb

What kind of vacuum readings are you getting? Do you experience a large drop in RPM's when you put the car in gear?

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Used to own:
'82 Dodge D150
Erson 270 Cam, O/S valves, mild port work, ~9.5:1 compression

Currently fighting with an '85 VW Cabriolet

My other passion

It sounds like you have a substantial vacuum leak. Try spraying some WD-40 around the carb base and where the intake meets the head. if you hear a change in idle you have found your leak.
Mine shakes the car at a stop light also but it has a lot of modifications.

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Yes there is a drop in RPM

Almost certainly a vacuum leak then. Check to make sure all your carb fittings are properly connected and/or plugged, and then try along the manifold to head sealing surface w/ the aforementioned wd-40 or carb cleaner.

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Used to own:
'82 Dodge D150
Erson 270 Cam, O/S valves, mild port work, ~9.5:1 compression

Currently fighting with an '85 VW Cabriolet

My other passion

What about the fuel pump? is it al right?

About the cleaner you talked about, is not so important as to make your engine go wrong... My Slant has those disconected, and helps the mix to be cooler at the explotion time, increasing performance... (but in a very low and imperceptible rate!)

When it shakes or vibrates, it could be posible that your Slant starts in 5. Check that the cylinder head was properly done, and check the manifold conducts (they may be letting water pass the cam).

Verify with the forum experts... !!!

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Mopar or no Car!

The tube from the exhaust man to the air cleaner is just to channel heat to the carb during cold weather, I don't think that's going to be a big issue at all... My truck doesn't have one either... If you look at the piece on the manifold, you'll see it's just a metal shroud with a connection tube on top, it doesn't really do much else...

I had a lot of problems when I bought my car originally because the carb base gasket had a leak... But these other guys know a lot more than me...

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1973 Dart Swinger Super 6 with 71k
1976 Datsun 280ZX with Mopar I-6

I checked the vacuume readings, and I am at 15 inches or whatever. I live in calgary alberta , so I think our elevation is around 3400 feet so I believe that is an adjusted reading of 18.5 ish this reading was taken by hooking the hose that comes off the carb base and into the pcv Valve up at the PCV End of the hose. I also took a reading of the vaccume advance hose at the distributer end and only got a reading of about 3. I did spray WD40 all around the carb and found no noticable issues. However now that I have been driving the car I have found there to be an exhaust leak where the manifold connects to the muffler piping, right where the 2 flanges meet. There is a sooty deposit building up on my freshly painted motor

Robb