After some prodding from others, I decided to take my 69 Coupe out of storage. It has been sitting for 10 months plus or minus. When I put it in storage, I filled the tank w/ 91 octane fuel and added fuel stabilizer. Now that I took it out it idles rough and doesn't have much power when you step on the gas. It has the original 302 w/ 2-barrel autolite carb. I am running the stock 351W cam with a MSD 6A ignition and blaster coil. Here are the things I have done so far without fixing the problem:

Rebuilt carburetor
Drained fuel out of tank and replaced with fresh 91 octane
Checked compression of cylinders (all were 150-160 except one which was around 135-145)
Checked resistance of plug wires (all were close to the same resistance)
Checked for vacuum leaks (going to replace vacuum hoses I think just to be extra sure)
Changed out spark plugs/checked gap
Checked timing

I am running out of ideas. Was thinking of getting a rebuilt carburetor and putting that on. When adjusting the mixture screws on the carb, they don't seem very sensitive (currently set around 3.25 turns). This made me think that maybe my carb is just messed up somehow even after the rebuild kit.

Any ideas?

 

fuel air ratio?
idle adjust?

idk much but i hear those problems alot

 

coil could be bad or the fuel lines could be clogged maybe a weak fuel pump when they sit for a while the diaphram in the pump could dry rot

 

I didn't see cleaned points and checked gap on the list.

 

You knew this was coming but a Ford Racing 302 crate engine will fix you right up!

Seriously Chad I hope you get the bugs figured out so you can take me for a ride.

 

I have a Ford Duraspark distributor with a MSD 6A electronic ignition w/ a MSD blaster coil. Spark seems good and timing seems good but not to say that the MSD box couldn't be messing things up somehow. With this setup, I don't have points any more.

I have the idle speed adjusted to what sounds by ear to be around the stock setting for an automatic equipped car (~650 rpm).

The carb didn't seem to be very sensitive to adjusting the mixture screws on the carb. I could adjust it from about 2 turns to 4.5 turns without a big change in the idle quality, just started to smell rich as it got turned out to 4.5.

The car doesn't seem to starve for fuel at constant 60 mph speed so I was guessing not the fuel pump. I'll pull the fuel line at the carb and crank the motor to see if it appears to be pumping a decent amount of fuel.

I did forget to replace the gasket between the intake manifold and the PCV inlet under the carb. I'll replace that tomorrow and confirm that the intake manifold bolts are torqued down properly. Am also going to replace all the vacuum hoses I can find. The car runs like it has a vacuum leak almost but I thought I did a good job of checking that. Will spray some starter fluid around the top of the motor and see if the engine picks up idle/smoothness. That should confirm the vacuum leak or not.

Any and all ideas are welcome. Thanks for the posts!!

 

Find someone who will sell me this at cost and maybe I'd do it! $3,850 is a bit much for my pocket since I'd still need an intake, carb, exhaust, etc.. I need something that would retain factory power steering and A/C.

http://www.fordracingparts.com/parts...tKeyField=7367

5.0L/302 – 340HP GT-40 ALUMINUM HEAD FORD RACING PERFORMANCE CRATE ENGINE ASSEMBLY
M-6007-XE3M*

 

Problem solved! -Thanks for the posts.

 

Don't leave us hangin'...
Was it a vacuum leak? Gasket?

 

It's too **** embarassing, I was hoping nobody would ask. Somehow the #3 and 4 plug wires got swapped. Either happened when I pulled the plugs to spray oil into the cylinders before storage or when putting the new plugs in before taking it out of storage. Spent like 20 hours chasing the problem down. Ended up taking all of 2 minutes to check the wires and fix the problem. Runs like crazy now. I just want to kick myself in the head for being so careless.

 

Oh dude, Ive done that. Makes you feel kinda stupid, but it happens. You could take one of those paint markers and put on the ends of the wire and the distrutor and the engine the numbers 1-8, then you cant screw them up.

 

after replacing my spark plugs in my 68 i was driving down the high way and suddly lost power.. i was like wtf now ( always something) anyway i pulled to the side of the road and i open the hood and it turned outi must not ahve screwed the plug in all the way because i found it on the high way like 200 yards back lol. i screwed it back in and drove off