Bark

LoL!!! Glad you got it done. Sorry it took so long. And thanks for sharing your experience.

Did they use a different dist gear because of a heavier duty oil pump? Or just to confuse us.

tool

I don't know WHY they did it?

The oil pump looks identical to a regular stock 350 pump as far as I can see.

patdaly

I have no freaking idea why GM would do something slap ignorant like that.............. Even when you did have a problem with the drive system, it was the plastic collar at the oil pump that broke, the tang drive is one of the more robust systems ever developed.

Tool, don't feel bad, we have all done similar things.......don't even get me started about the 'tupid things I have done.

tool

The saga continues. Got everything back together to discover that old plug wires wouldn't work. As they were the type that fit internally to the distributor rather than snap over externally.

I also broke a one plug reinstalling.

Drive to NAPA in town to get a plug and a set of wires.

Get home to reassemble and found that one they gave me a plug entirely wrong. Like 1/2" too long.

And 2 the plug wires they gave me are way too short.

Did I mention its dropped to -5f?

I could scream.

madhat

Dude... you need to build a big fire around that truck...

Almost there.

patdaly

SHHHHHHHH!

As a guy who has been there, the temptation to build a big fire UNDER the truck is strong..............

Hang in there man, we are all pulling for you.

tool

Thanks to all who have helped out.

Rerouted the wires over top of exhaust manifolds and used zip ties to keep them from burning.

Filled her of oil hit the key and she fired right up and ran nice! Oil pressure was good all that.

Sweet!

Lets go for a load of water!

Soon as I take off and give it throttle it backfires through the carb and runs like poop.

So I drive to the well with it snapping cracking and popping.

What the heck now?

This is what it was doing when I started this adventure.

Could still be too much timing advance and I don't have a light but I doubt it.

patdaly

First off, if you got your water, forget about the stupid thing for tonight.

If you can wait till this cold snap goes thru, then you might try and diagnose it.

Does it run smoothly at a steady elevated RPM, say 2500? Is the snapping and popping only on throttle transitions such as you might expect with a accelerator pump not working?

How long has it been since you pulled the plugs and looked at them, how long has the fuel been in the tank without adding, is the carb. a governor style or a regular passenger style carburetor.

tool

I believe these trucks have a govenor, although I'm not sure what type.

One thing I just noticed as it idles in the driveway with the hoist up unloading water is that I could hear a sever vacuum leak.

So by flashlight, I discovered that the large hose 1/2" or so? that goes from the centre of the intake manifold to the drivers side valve cover was off the little grommet.

Put that back on and noticed that the idle smoothed out significantly.

The hose connection to that grommet is also very loose?

I'm wondering if a bad vacuum leak combined with a little tweaking of timing is needed.

There is no vacuum advance hooked to the distributor on this truck and hasn't been in the time I've owned it.

I'm a dummy when it comes to this thing as everything in my world runs on diesel, I've never owned a V8 or a Chevy anything in my life and haven't worked on any since I was a teenager. and this truck was built LONG before my birthdate.

Bark

Weird. I was pretty sure they had a vacuum line coming from the bottom of the carb to the distributor.
Wonder if somebody put a plug over it.

tool

The vaccum Advance is plugged on the new dist and was on the old one as well.

Looks to me that from the factory it got vacuum from the back of the accelerator pump if that makes sense?

What would the big line under lots of vacuum from the valve cover to the bottom of the carb be for? Govenor perhaps?

Bark

Only thing I can think of would be for a PCV valve.

patdaly

Yep, PCV valve. Should be no reason you can't cap her off, I think you would blow up any emissions sniffer even running right.......

Get rid of that vacuum leak next!

Only reason for vacuum to the dizzy is mid range timing advance, so I wouldn't get all freaked out over that either.