84 Monte Carlo stalled and would not restart.

[Eric1974]

Make

Chevrolet

Model

Monte Carlo

Year

1984

Miles

72,000

Engine

305

Got the car out for the first time this year it gets stored in the winter and occasionally gets started up during the cold months but the battery was still dead. I was not as on it as I should have been. No problem, buddy jumped me and let it run for a good bit and started fine after that. Wasn't to long and the car while in gear started idling very rough like it wanted to stall and was missing but then once you accelerated it was perfectly smooth running but about 5 minutes later it started losing speed and the engine just stopped. Almost like it was no longer getting any fuel so I was maybe leaning towards fuel pump perhaps. Had smelled gas but there were no signs of leaking anything. In 2015 I did a lot of work to the car. New gas tank, carburetor, fuel pump, radiator, rebuilt the distributor, got rid of most of the pollution garbage and some other little things I have forgotten about. Any idea's would be much appreciated.

Thank you
Eric

 

[JackC]

Have you checked the fuel supply? Any fuel in the carb? Does accelerator pump squirt fuel when pumping accelerator?

If not, check the little inline fuel filter right in front of the carb. (If it has one??)

 

[Eric1974]

I took the fuel line off the carburetor a little bit ago and it's dry as a bone. Literally no gas at all not even a sign of any wetness at all.

 

[Eric1974]

Well I put the new fuel pump on and am getting fuel to the carburetor again and tried to start it but it would not stay running. Plugs were severely fouled out so I replaced those and it still is running bad so there is other problems going on now. It's like like I'm back to where I was when I put all that new stuff on it after sitting for 15 years. I'll put new wires on it, check the distributor and all the vacuum lines next i suppose.

 

[billr]

Have you checked compression? Feel free to post actual readings, not just "it's good"!

 

[Eric1974]

No I have not checked that. I don't have a tester right now. Checked the cap and rotor on the distributor still looks new, put a couple new plug offs on the carburetor that I discovered were dry rotted nearly off and put a new fuel filter in it while I was at it. Can't keep the thing running. It's like it instantly went right back to how it was when I pulled it out of storage after 15 years back in 2015. Everything went rapidly down hill right after the fuel pump went out on me this past Sunday.

 

[bob428]

Fuel filter?

 

[Eric1974]

Fuel filter that's inside the carburetor right where the fuel line goes in.

 

[Mobile Dan]

Recheck your new spark plugs to see if they are fouled again. If so, suspect too much fuel from carb, or incomplete combustion due to timing issue, low compression, or bad gas.

 

[billr]

I gotta ask... is this carb a simple mechanical one, or one of those electronic feed-back thingies? If there is any electronic control of the engine, are there any codes set?

 

[Eric1974]

Mechanical I believe. Car has the computer in it. Very primitive, first year for it I think. Electronic distributor, not vacuum. I will get a compression tester off a friend and check that to eliminate that possibility as well.

 

[jd]

Simple by today's standards but not your 60's car either.

As just an example, it has EGR and EGR can stick to make a vacuum loss problem. I don't know if your small block Chevy has a heat passage right across under the carb. I had a Pontiac that did and the gasket on one end.. the side of a head.. blew out. I had a Ford with the EGR on a plate they added between manifold and carb to keep from making new manifolds. It rusted to the mounting studs so no more pressure on the gasket and the gasket blew, vacuum leak.

So my advise is: Check For Vacuum Leaks! You can find problems with a good visual inspection that won't put a code in the ECM

 

[Eric1974]

Yeah it has the EGR I had put a new one on 3 years ago as well when I did all that work to it.

 

[JackC]

You now have fuel "TO" the carb. But possibly the fuel is not getting to the engine or too much fuel is getting there.

You had fouled plugs so it may be that the seat of the needle and seat is old and brittle and allowing extra fuel into the bowl that is flooding out at idle. Or the long storage and dried up carb may have left jets clogged and fuel is unable to get to the engine. Hard to say.

I suggest inspecting, overhauling or possibly replacing the carb if you find it to be defective.

 

[billr]

"Mechanical I believe."

If there is any doubt about that, post a picture of it. We will be wandering way out in the weeds if the carb is computer-controlled and we don't know about it.