428 Stalling Problem

I need help with a 428 big block.  The motor starts fine and will idle forever, but take it for a ride and it will stall as soon as the end of the driveway or as far as 2 miles from home. Sometimes it will restart and I can "nurse" it back home and other times it won't re-start and has to be towed home. Once it sits for awhile - an hour or so, it will start right up.

I have replaced the stock distributor which had an Ignitor with a new FlameThrower with and Ignitor 11. The coil has been replaced with an original style coil.  The Voltage Regulator has been replaced. The Carb has been rebuilt and rechecked.  All rubber fuel lines were replaced with hard lines and a new fuel pump was installed.
The tank was emptied and checked for debris, a new "sock" was installed.  I also installed a new fuel filter.

I have "spark" from the plug to the ignition wire, from the ignition wire to the distributor, from the distributor to the coil wire and from the coil wire to the coil.

The last thing I did was put in the new fuel pump and the engine reacted as follows:  It started up and ran fine at idle. I started to rev it a few times from the Carb linkage and it stalled. I restarted it and it ran very rough and stalled if I let my foot off the accelerator.

I have let the car sit for about 10 days. Today, I changed the fuel filter (the one in the car has less than 50 miles on it). The fuel filter is the original screw in type for a Holly Carb (which is what is on the engine).  Two things struck me as I changed the fuel filter: First no gas leaked out and second when I looked into the filter, I could see the filter material was a very dark color.  When I blew through the filter, the filter material was white, same color as the new filter.

I haven't tried to start the car up yet and am wondering if, despite the fact that I have checked the tank and changed the "sock", I could still have dirt somewhere in the fuel system. I don't know what a fuel filter should look like with less than 50 miles on it.  I am thinking about taking off the hard fuel line between the fuel pump and the carb and replacing it with rubber line and a "see through" filter. Not sure if I am going in the right direction or where else I should be checking to solve this problem.

Thanks, Andy  

Your problem may be different from mine, but the story you tell is very similar.  My problem was a corroded gas tank that sent debris toward the carb.  It gave up enough gas to run but any load would cause a stall and questionable starting afterward.  Removing the tank revealed a bottom loaded with rust.  The particles moved up the lines, plugged previously cleaned lines, the carb, and filters.  I would think I had eliminated a certain possibility but it would get clogged again.  No problems since changing to a new tank.  Just food for thought.  

Sure sounds like a fuel delivery problem. Try draining some gas from the tank into a container and examine it for rust particles or crud. If it looks clean, your issue is probably at the engine. Use the tank drain, not a siphon so you can be sure you are getting gas from the bottom of the tank. You could install a clear fuel filter in the line between the fuel pump and carb and see it it is empty when the engine stalls. Another way would be to install a fuel pressure guage on the output of the pump and see if your fuel pressure drops off before a stall.  

Also, think back for any work that was done on the car before this problem started. I worked on a similiar problem on a 413 Chryler. Car would idle but not much more. Low fuel pressure that turned out to be a wiped fuel pump lobe on the camshaft. The owner had replaced the cam several months before and apparently did not do a very good job.  

Thanks for the feed back.  I got the car running today and drove it home over 20 miles from the shop.  Here is what we did.  Since the gas tank was clean, we decided that the only other source of debris in the fuel filter had to be in the hard lines from the tank to the fuel pump.  We put a "clear filter" in-line just befree the fuel pump.  Started the car and we could see particles swirling in the filter.  We replaced the lines from the tank to the fuel pump and as an extra measure of added safety we left the "clear filter" in the line before the fuel pump.  We cut the old lines open and could see rust in the lines, on the bottom where the fuel would flow.  Apparently this car must have sat with an empty or nearly empty tank and moisture got in the fuel lines.  The gas tank may have been cleaned out by one of the previous owners, but it looks like the fuel lines were never touched.  Hope this helps someone with a similiar problem.

Andy  

Another thing you can do is take the top off of the carb, if ford style, or the float bowl off, if holley, and look for crud in the wells/needle/seat. If you could blow the filter clean, then it wasn't all that clogged. I used to change these ford style filters all the time and the general sympton of a clogged filter was little to no speed up or a pronounced bog upon flooring the throttle.  

Sounds as if you really need a new gas tandk. had to replace the one on my 67.  buddy of mine had a similar problem with his plymouth satelitte w/426 max wedge, but his explaination was the slow camaro's he kept running up behind and clogging up his car.  he referred to them as kudzu of the road.