No bang

[06Daytona]

I had the engine running relatively well considering there was still the remains of old gas in the tank. It was firing up the second try most of the time and first try the rest of the time. I haven't had it running for about a week because I was getting 20 odd pounds of paint and bondo off the hood. I covered the carb so I wouldn't fill it with dust so I know there's little if any junk in the carb. I remembered to take the rag off the carb before trying to start it, so the engine hasn't swallowed anything it shouldn't have. I fired the car up this morning and it ran for about a minute until it died. I figured that it was out of gas because it only had about a gallon or 2 in it since I drained the old stuff. I put another gallon or so in the tank, I really need a bigger gas can, and tried to fire it up again. It cranks, but there's no bang. Occasionally I get one quick burp of the engine firing, but nothing more. I pulled of the fuel line and cranked the engine and the fuel is flowing so I know it's not a DOA fuel pump, so I've narrowed it down to electrical.
The engine has quite a bit of dust on it from all the sanding and I'm wondering if that might be shorting something out somewhere. I checked the distributor cap, coil lead, coil ground and anything else I could think of that was pretty obvious, now I need some suggestions for the not so obvious. I'm going to fire up the shop vac and suck some of the dust off the engine to see if that helps, but if that doesn't I'd like a list of things to watch for.
I'm going to check the fuse box now before of after I do the vacuum job on the engine.
 

[06Daytona]

Checked the fuses, vacuumed off most of the dust. Got a few more burps from the engine along with a few smoke blowbacks through the carb. I double checked my coil lead and the end came off in the coil so I re-connected it to the wire and it cranked a little better, but still won't start. I found a few plug wires that felt like they weren't seated properly on the distributor, and pressed them down as well. I'm starting to think that it might be a good idea to buy a few rolls of various size wire and a bunch of different connectors and redo the underhood wiring one wire at a time until I get them all replaced.
On a somewhat related topic, will a 318 intake work on a 340/360? I want to get rid of the 2 bbl and put a 4 on, but I'm swapping to either a 340 or 360 sometime in the future and I don't want to buy something I'll only be using for 6 months or a year and then it's going to live on a shelf.

[quapman]

You might be vapor locked and/or the carb bowls might be empty. Did you try pouring a little gas right into the carb? This is typical priming procedure at my house.

YES, a 318 intake will fit a 340/360 unless it's a Magnum motor with the bolts that go straight down as opposed to perpendicular to the head surface on older motors.

[06Daytona]

I dumped a little gas down the carb and it still wouldn't start. That was what I had to do when I first got it home with the old gas. I'm starting to wonder if the carb might be seriously gummed up. I haven't cleaned it since I got it, so I think that might be the next step until I get the new intake/carb. I'm still hunting down electrical issues under the hood. I'm thinking there might be a timing issue too. I haven't checked the timing because I don't have a timing light here yet, but the thing is idling like it has a big cam. which I don't think it has.

[06Daytona]

I just noticed that one of my fuel filters was in bass ackwards so I flipped it around. It didn't help, but I it made me feel like an idiot since I was the one who put it in a couple of weeks ago. I have 7mm plug wires on the car and I'm thinking of replacing them next as long as I have power to the coil when I check that. The repair I did on the coil-cap lead isn't as pretty as I'd like (because I don't have the tools here, but I do in Canadia) so I'd rather just get a new one so I can take that problem out of the equation. Somebody mentioned on one of my earlier posts that it looked like I had electronic ignition and not points, and I know with Cheby stuff HEI uses heavier wires than points. Could this be part of the problem? I have no problem upgrading to 8 or 8.8 if it's going to help me in the long run.

[quapman]

7mm wires should be fine. In fact, you might have trouble getting 8mms to fit in a stock cap. 

[06Daytona]

I picked up a new coil today and hooked it up with still no bang. Auto Zone didn't have my plug wires in stock, but they'll be there at around noon tomorrow, so I'll be changing them out as soon as I pick them up. I really hope that that solves the problem and I can get the car out for a little fun.

[Bullitt-]

My car sat for a while this winter, it would not start or if it started ran like crap & no luck keeping it running. Upon inspection my choke pull off was not working, I had a spare so I changed it out...problem solved. Turns out a little rust had clogged the nipple on the dash pod/vacuum pull off.

[06Daytona]

I'll keep a look out for that. The choke isn't such a big issue down here since it doesn't get much colder than 75 degrees but I'll watch for it.

[ShelbyDogg]

Pull the coil wire to the center of the dist cap and hold it close to ground. If you get spark while cranking,  then your engine is flooded. If you have spark and already put a little gas down the carb and it didn't fire, IT IS FLOODED.     If you had dirt in the tank, old gas, turned your filter around after putting it on backwards, then you have a dirty needle and seat that is allowing too much gas to get into the engine, it is flooded.

Try pulling the feed line to the fuel pump so you know that the carb isn't getting any gas.  Pull all of the plugs out, then crank about 15 seconds with the carb wide open to air everything out. Put in a new set of plugs while the old ones are drying out.  Try starting again making sure not to pump the carb too much since there could be fuel still in it.  You may want to hold it wide open to the "clear flood mode"  position (efi term).
Should start after a little cranking. Starting fluid may help. 

IF YOU HAVE IGNITION, YOU ARE FLOODED

[06Daytona]

Changed the coil yesterday and the plug wires today. Hooked the Charger up for a little extra battery juice and the car fired up on the first try. I guess the next step is to get the fuel system working right. I backed off the idle mixture screws, put them in 2 turns and there was no difference in how the engine runs. The idle screw is maxed out too, so I can't increase the idle to keep the car running without using a longer screw. I also threw a bottle of Lucasoil carb cleaner into the tank to help get a little more of the gum out.

[ShelbyDogg]

I still think that your needle and seat is stuck open.  2-bbl right?  Take off just the top and see if you can clean the needle and seat.  Sounds like you aren't just using the idle circuit if the air mixture screws don't do anything. Probably because you have the plates open too far. Any vacuum leaks anywhere.  If you are dumping gas, it'll die after it warms up then you won't be able to start it again till cold.

[06Daytona]

I'll check the needle and seat now. I started another thread in the engine area since I seem to have the spark part covered now

[UKcuda]

I agree with Shelbydog, putting the filter on the wrong way round will have flushed all the crap straight out of the filter and into the carb !

On the brighter side; you now have a much cleaner filter.

You could just go for your 4bbl straight away and save the bother of trying to clean out the 2bbl ?

On the inlet question, although a 340/360 inlet will bolt onto a 318 the ports are a different size which makes a "step" in the runner that the airflow doesn't like too much (it's not so bad going the other way, 318 manifold onto 340/360 heads), but it should still run OK like that.

On my '70 Challenger I had a 318 with a factory 340 manifold.  I hogged out the head port entrances to smooth out the step and it made a noticeable increase in power.