Duff's - 1971 'Cuda 383 4spd B5 Blue

[Duff]

Man I feel like an idiot.  I don't know what style choke is on it.  It's the stock Holley carb that came on this car.  It's def not auto choke, and on the intake it has the well on the passenger side but it's got a bowl looking cap.  I'm used to seeing that used on a Chevy and it's not used on mine.

[Cuda Cody]

It sounds like an easy adjustment.  You need to adjust the choke so it work when it's hot and cold.  If it's the original Holley then it's as simple as bending the choke rod so the choke is pulled off the right amount.  Maybe do some google searches and it might be easier if you see someone do it.  Once you see it done it's super simple.

Man I feel like an idiot.  I don't know what style choke is on it.  It's the stock Holley carb that came on this car.  It's def not auto choke, and on the intake it has the well on the passenger side but it's got a bowl looking cap.  I'm used to seeing that used on a Chevy and it's not used on mine.

[Duff]

Okay cool I'll check that out Cody thanks. 

More bad news.  I started the car today to check things out there appears to be fluid (antifreeze?) bubbling from the special exhaust manifold bolt on the drivers side just above the exhaust.  I start it up and it smokes from that area and I see a trail of fluid coming out and burning onto the exhaust.  I guess this is prob a water jacket that I should remove the bolt, seal, and it should fix it?  I'll try tightening it first

Rough idling was the brake booster vacuum line got hot, fell down close to the exhaust manifold and cracked causing a vacuum leak

One by one I'll get this stuff...

[dutch]

I`m not sure how oil would leak there.  Unless there`s a crack in the head, I think it comes from the valve cover.  Whenever I can`t find the source of a leak, I clean it all up and apply some tallow powder.  The fluid will leave a nice trace.

[Cuda Cody]

Super easy fix.  Take the front and rear exhaust manifold bolts out and put some high temp sealant on them and put them back in.  It's pretty common for them to leak, but it's an easy fix.

Okay cool I'll check that out Cody thanks. 

More bad news.  I started the car today to check things out and it appears to be leaking fluid (antifreeze?) from the exhaust manifold bolts, you know the special ing cylinder ones that you couldn't buy at a hardware store.  I start it up and it starts smoking from those holes.  Holy sh** I've got some gremlins... Ugh!

[Haddixj]

I've used teflon paste to seal up the bolts also, dries and comes off easy should you need to pull them out.

[dutch]

Super easy fix.  Take the front and rear exhaust manifold bolts out and put some high temp sealant on them and put them back in.  It's pretty common for them to leak, but it's an easy fix.

      no clue why I read it was leaking oil.... 
Teflontape helped me out.

[Duff]

Oh wow.  I was about to pull the manifold and stud and try that, but I'll try the sealant first.  Cool.  And Dutch you read oil right, I just modified my post after getting a better look at it.  The stuff bubbling out dries like brownish so I figured at first that is was oil coming from the valve cover, but upon further inspection it's definitely the bolt leaking...  Thanks again guys.  Oh and I think I'm going to change the fan clutch today too and see if that helps with the temperature

[BFM_Cuda]

I think I'm going to change the fan clutch today too and see if that helps with the temperature

Good place to start. Also, make sure you have a fan shroud. Your engine picture on page 14 doesnt show one, or the fan is too far back and sitting outside the shroud. I cant tell for sure in that picture.

Good luck, I have gone through the same headaches with cooling my superbee....

[Duff]

Fan shroud is on the car. 

Got a new "heavy duty" fan clutch and installed it.  It sets the fan into the shroud about a half inch more than the previous one and has less slop than the previous. 

Did a compression test today for a baseline on the car to be used in the future.  Got 135-140 per cylinder across the board. 

Warmed the car up and set the idle via a digital snap on timing light to 625-650 rpm. 
Read timing (was set to 4 deg btdc). 

Set timing per manual to TDC. 

Checked my spark plug gaps and all were around 0.035.  Adjusted them to 0.40 because I've got electronic ignition.  Is this a no no or ok?  Info I found says .040 so I figured I would try it out. 

My plugs had a consistent color among them.  A light chocolate color but still a bit white, so my next move is to do a good thorough rebuild of the carb and set float levels, etc.  to be honest I'm still not overly impressed with the power of my engine so I'm going to check that the vacuum secondary is working properly and readjust my mixtures.

I did check the temps around the engine w a laser temp gauge and the rad was 180, upper hose was 175 and the water pump was 180.  Exhaust manifold was at 475.  This leads me to believe that even though the temp gauge in the dash shows high, it's possible that the car is running correctly and I might've picked not the best temp sensor for the water pump.

Thoughts?  Opinions?

[BFM_Cuda]

Its possible you have the wrong sender in the engine. I had that issue with one of mine. The engine was a 76 440, and in my 70 coronet, the gauge barely came off the low peg when warmed up. Ordered the correct sender and it's back to normal operation.

I suppose they could go bad too....

My main trouble was the carb was getting boiling hot from sucking in hot air in the engine compartment all the time. A fresh air duct hose to the air cleaner made a world of difference. Installing a ramcharger setup made it run and look cool.   

[Duff]

Per Cody's advice I readjusted the timing to 36-38 degrees at 2k rpm.  The previous timing was at about 26 degrees.  I found that the new fan clutch didn't change much as far as overheating goes, and this timing adjustment seemed to help a decent amount. Also adjusted the carb mix.  The cars now running significantly better and had improved in power as well. 

[Falbz]

Per Cody's advice I readjusted the timing to 36-38 degrees at 2k rpm.  The previous timing was at about 26 degrees.  I found that the new fan clutch didn't change much as far as overheating goes, and this timing adjustment seemed to help a decent amount. Also adjusted the carb mix.  The cars now running significantly better and had improved in power as well.

Nice