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318 Stalling Out at Idle

69SatelliteGuy

Well-Known Member
Local time
2:42 AM
Joined
Oct 15, 2020
Messages
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Location
Connecticut
So the 318 in my Satellite was running minty. No issues at all. Well its been sitting a few weeks so I went to go start it up. Started up, idled a bit and then it stalled. Maybe three minutes. Started it again and it progressively starts sputtering until it stalls, takes maybe 30 seconds. Now the 360 in my truck was doing the same thing and cleaning the needle and seat fixed it. Tried it here and it had no effect. Any ideas what it could be? if I keep my foot on the gas it doesn't stall out so I'm leaning toward vacuum leak. Carb shoots fuel nice and the bowl fills up so I don't think it's fuel delivery. Engine is a 318 with the factory Carter two barrel.
 
Id second the vacuum leak. And maybe think about timing. What is the initial timing at?
 
I think initial was at 10* btdc. I was able to get it running long enough at idle to smother the carb and it died so no vacuum leaks. Pulled the carb off and am gonna go through it. Tried capping distributor advance and the PCV with no change.
 
Well I don't know what I did, but it seems fixed. Reset distributor to 10* BTDC, pulled carb apart and cleaned it. Decided to replace the bottom bit with throttle shaft because it had a little play, just in case that was it. Put it back together and the car stalled a couple of times. Kept my foot in the accelerator for a minute or two while in drive with the brake on then in park and now it seems to be just fine. Maybe it got something in the fuel system during those couple of weeks, I can tell you the mice got to the MINT headliner while it sat:mad:
 
And it’s back doing it this morning, mystery vacuum leak. Sometimes I can smother the carb and kill it, sometimes it idles up.
 
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