Rough 327 in middle RPMs

[Peter S.]

My engine (327/250, Edelbrock 4bbl carb and mainfold) was running pretty good but then all of sudden started running rough. The fuel filter was pretty full of gunk so I cleaned that out. No difference. Had a set of plugs, so I replaced those, no difference. The old plugs didn't look too bad. The points were pretty burnt, so I replaced the points, condenser, rotor and distributor cap. Ran much better and idles smooth now. Adjusted the mixture a little and dwell was set but couldn't really time it that good because the distrubutor is one tooth CCW from where it should be. But my friend timed it by guess and by golly, and it seems good.

It idles great, and if you get on it, it sounds good and accelerates good. But if you are crusing along at say 35mph, 2k rpm in fourth, it stutters and learches a lot. Other symptoms are when you slow to a stop the RPMs go up as if you are putting your foot on the gas, or downshifted, but the clutch is all the way in. Same if you go around a corner, the engine revs up noticably even if your foot isn't on the accelerator.

Is this some kind of a carb thing? Maybe something gunked up the carb when I cleaned out the fuel filter, but I tried to do it carefully...

Any ideas?

[John F.]

Re: Rough 327 in middle RPMs

I would never try to clean a fuel filter, just replace it. They catch stuff so small you can't see it. If the distributor is off, I would pull and reset it. You can take a long handle screw driver and rotate the the oil pump groove just a notch then re-install the distributor. Bring number one cylinder up to TDC before pulling distributor. Have you rebuilt the carb lately? Sounds like an accelerator pump problem or float setting problem.

[Bruce B.]

Re: Rough 327 in middle RPMs

Peter,
Did you pull the top off the carb and see if there was any junk or water in the float bowls?
Sounds like you sucked some junk into the fuel system.
As far as the distributor goes. Pull it and get it in the right position.
Or I believe you can pull one plug wire and change the position of all of them by one position. I'm not sure what direction you need to go.

[Edward J.]

Re: Rough 327 in middle RPMs

Pete, whatever was in the fuel filter is more than likely sitting in the float bowl of carburator, carb could be running lean,you may have to remove air horn on carb. and clean out float bowl.

[Peter S.]

Re: Rough 327 in middle RPMs

Thanks Bruce, I'll check out the float bowls.

[Peter S.]

Re: Rough 327 in middle RPMs

ok I cleaned out the float bowls (a little gunky) and shot the inside of the bowls with carb cleaner. Seems like both floats are working properly, both bowls were full, acellerator pump seems to be working fine. Put it back together and it runs -- what I see on the starboard side is gas dripping out of the jet, don't see that on the port side. Which should it be doing and how to fix?

Kind of scared to take the jets out...

[Peter S.]

Re: Rough 327 in middle RPMs

Dudes! I think I got it! I took the jets out and blew them out and no more drip drip drip! Idle speed just went up about 400rpm! I think the drip drip drip was maybe flooding it out a little off and on.

Now if I can just figure out how to put that blasted choke linkage back together...

Thanks for all your advice and help.

I'll get my ticker straightened out soon once I get the nerve...

[Tom L.]

Re: Rough 327 in middle RPMs

FWIW, I was sold , or read somewhere, that "95% of carburator problems are electrical". I rebuilt the distributoer, found some issues and the carb works fine. Hope this helps, Have fun!!