engine cutting out

[malcolmhookings]

can anyone give me some help re my car. i have a 302 with 351 windsor heads, electric ignition and a four barrell holley carb, flexi fan, electric fan, oil cooler.
the engine was built some 20 years ago, but has not done 800 miles.
it starts perfectly ticks over for ever, doesnt over heat even when ive taken it on a run doesnt get to much more than 80 degrees C, i have some noise coming from the centre of the engine of which ive been told is the valve train, of which whilst its annoying apparently isnt a problem, my main concern is that once shes been on the road for about 10-15 minutes although the temp gauge isnt above the 80 c and shes not boiling over shes hard to keep going, sometimes wanting to stall when dropping revs so i have to do the heal toe thing on the brake and throttle, other times shell tick over if i say free wheel but directly i press the throttle she wants to cut out.
Anyone got any ideas please, any input would be appreciated.

Thanks

Malcolm

[michael-king]

seems odd that it is not suffering the issue of trying to stall when freewheeling and left to idle.. what is the idle speed? I was first thinking a lack of a carb spacer to the manifold allowing the fuel in the bowl to heat.. but that would not explain it dropping when you use the clutch.

[redbaron]

Hi Malcom,
can you be more specific as to ambient temps etc,could be that your carb needs to be tuned also check ignition settings,is your idle speed to low?
You may have to check carb fuel level height in fuel bowls,does it stall when you brake hard etc?

[Mal]

I would start by checking you have plenty of fuel coming through the lines. If you can check the pressure it would be best. If you have good supply, check the float bowl level.

[V Mad]

It sounds like there is a carburetion problem. Check that the fuel level is correct, and the idle mixture is set to the best setting. I had a Holley on a auto Stag V8 which stalled when put into gear. The cause was incorrect idle mixture setting.

[Bobbybutton]

Hi

I had a similar problem - its a long shot but maybe you can try the following

I found that the fuel tank which had been treated to prevent rust and the treatment was starting to separate

It was getting into the fuel system and causing a blockage so despite everything appearing to work fine I still had the same cutting out issue you describe

I installed an extra in line filter with a removable and easy to clean filter section

It did the trick

Worth a check?

Bob