Ok, I've about had it with the Mopar Performance distributor/ignition

[moparedtn]

Well at this point you are still not sure what the cause is?

What I know / did about fuel lines / clamps

I bought this stuff to update the 5/16" factory line just to make sure delivery was on par and since the car was 44 years old and I could not look inside I just upgraded it, if you shop around you can find it cheaper I paid $25 forgot where free shipping I think.
http://www.jegs.com/i/Moroso/710/65330/10002/-1


As far as clamps go I switched to these for fuel, yes they are size specific but they work! and works well, I didn't buy from this place this is just an example I think autozone or orileys sells them.

http://www.karishmasteels.com/Galvanised-Hose-Clamps.asp


http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-hose-clamps/=yir0lk

http://www.directindustry.com/prod/mpc-industries/product-65240-719197.html


http://www.kartek.com/Product/3228/JAMAR-Black-Aluminum-Hose-Clamps.aspx

Yep, the GTX has the 3/8" fuel line all the way up from the tank like it's supposed to; found that out when I swapped the tank and pickup.
The fuel return line has been disconnected and capped by previous owner, so I put a vented gas cap on the tank and made sure the tank vent lines were in place and clear.
Wish I had the original metal line from pump to carb, but I'd have hacked on it because of the Holley anyways. I don't care for the fact Mopar ran everything on the passenger side of the front of the motor, though - alternator/distributor/heater hose lines make for a tight squeeze for the fuel line through there, part of the reason I did the fuel line like I did this time.
Yep, mystery continues until a parts store opens up and I can get some clamps...

 

[moparedtn]

Update #4bazillion:
Got some nice clamps like JB showed/linked to and put the whole she-bang back together, locating the fuel filter for (supposedly) easier future servicing:

The local parts store refers to these as "fuel injection clamps". Eh, whatever, they're rounded over on the edges so they won't cut into the fuel line and the method of clamping is far superior to worm drive clamps we all are used to.

Got it fired up, checked for leaks and had the wife hold the speed at around 3400RPM once it got warmed up.
I again set the timing by ear for smoothest running at that speed, adjusted idle to around 800RPM and we set off for a test run...
I noticed right away it held an idle from cold, even with no choke, for the first time ever. Usually I got to stay with it for a couple minutes until it gets some heat in it. Not this time - it held idle almost from the get-go.
(Remember, at this point I'm looking for ANY progress, so maybe this is a bit silly to most folks, but...)

We took off down the 4-lane and I started rowing it through the gears:
1st - revved right up to around 4600, hesitated a wee bit, then took off over 5k
2nd - same as 1st, a couple shudders over 4k, then off to 5k with a couple little shudders along the way
3rd - yup, a little more pronounced hesistation a couple quick times, then off over 5k. YES!!
4th - well, it got a little scary at that point, but suffice to say if I could have stayed in it, it would have done same as 3rd

In other words, ladies and gentlemen - PROGRESS.
Not perfect by any stretch, but that's the first time this car and this engine has seen 5k under load. You can tell it ain't exactly right, but it's in the neighborhood and can see "right" from here.

Of course, everything couldn't be perfect on our test run. Remember, I still don't have the vacuum advance hooked up, so right off idle was a little hesitant a time or two, but I attribute that more to the #$%#^$ gasoline than anything else.
I've learned to keep my big toe on the throttle as I come to a stop just in case it wants to stumble/die upon occasion.

Oh, and it did show its' *** on the way home from buying some supposedly "ethanol-free" 93 octane:
Coming down off the 4-lane, it made some God-awful noise and quit.
At speed.
I had no throttle and it sounded like hell when I tried to re-fire it.
Visions of a blown engine danced in my head as we coasted off to a parking lot.
With zero tools with me, I pulled off the air cleaner and found gas ponded everywhere.
Mopped all that up with a rag and turned over the engine gingerly, to be greeted by a gas fountain spewing out the Holley.
Yep - float stuck, for whatever reason. Did I just buy bad gas? What the heck is that new fuel filter doing, nothing?

Beat hell out of the front fuel bowl with the breather off the valve cover, turned her over and everything was ok once it cleared its' throat. Thank you, electronic ignition!
Drove home, gingerly, without further incident.

All in a days' fun with the GTX....

PS - I really need to change the title of this thread, don't I?:icon_cheers:

 

[bigmanjbmopar]

Progress yeah! Looks like a carb issue now floats adjusted to spec? Fuel level half way up site glass? I'll let the carb guys take it from here since I'm just the electrical dude glad to see progress though

 

[moparedtn]

Yep, when I had the carb off, I spit-shined everything, blew out all the orifices and checked float levels again (using drill bit method).
I don't know whether some garbage got up in there or if the new fuel pump simply overpowered the needle/seat? A good old-fashioned beating took care of whatever it was. Do I remember correctly that they make other needle/seat/floats for these that resist the urge to do this, though?

Oh, here's a couple pics of the fuel pump pushrod I replaced. You can clearly see why they recommend to do so:

Notice the hardened end metal has been worn off the one end and there's an actual wear groove dug into the other end? It does actually measure slightly shorter than spec, around .1 inch shorter. Not much, but enough to make a slight difference in pump stroke.

Thanks again for hanging in here with me, JB. I can see daylight at the end of the tunnel now. I'm probably going to fetch another bone stock distributor now just to eliminate that as a possible cause of this really low timing issue.

 

[bigmanjbmopar]

No worries been there done that a couple of times already lol. also forgot not sure what distributor you have but I got the firecore one from Mancini and think it's awesome! just saying.

 

[SlinktRR]

Nice pump! Sometimes with rubber lines you can get pieces of rubber come off inside the line when changing filters, then when you fire it goes straight to the needle and seat. Hope it's something simple like that! Stuttering may be lean/rich spots and you can tune it out with jetting, secondaries? When I get surging or flat spots it's usually too lean. Tuning is a lot more fun than fixing!

 

[moparedtn]

No worries been there done that a couple of times already lol. also forgot not sure what distributor you have but I got the firecore one from Mancini and think it's awesome! just saying.

The car has the Mopar electronic ignition conversion kit in it, so it's one of Mopars' distributors (that the car won't let me connect the vacuum advance on).
I want to see if a regular ol' stock distributor would behave a bit more normally in the car and even allow use of the vacuum advance again - something is just whacked about the advance in this one.

- - - Updated - - -

Nice pump! Sometimes with rubber lines you can get pieces of rubber come off inside the line when changing filters, then when you fire it goes straight to the needle and seat. Hope it's something simple like that! Stuttering may be lean/rich spots and you can tune it out with jetting, secondaries? When I get surging or flat spots it's usually too lean. Tuning is a lot more fun than fixing!

I hope so too - it was a good sign that I was able to beat on the bowl and it to respond properly.
As far as jetting goes, I've taken the 72 primaries out and installed 75's, but the carb is vacuum secondary.
According to Holley, all these 750cfm vacsec carbs have the same secondary metering plate, so short of replacing that metering plate with one out of a mechanical secondary one, there's not much to improve on there I guess.

I can't see going much bigger on the primaries - after all, this is pretty much a stock 440.

It's almost like the car is telling me it wants even MORE timing retarding (from the current 0*TDC!). Well, that's an indicated TDC, anyways, who knows if the balancer is accurate there.

Even more, it may just be that the cam (which I installed straight up) might have wanted some advance on it as well, even though Comp Cams instructions said to install it straight up, I dunno. Mechanically, the engine sounds happy.