Since my Ramcharger has become my daily driver for now I decided to work on a nagging problem but first, let me give you the details of my build.
360 LA block decked for 0 clearance and bored .040 over.
KB flat tops. My measured comp ratio is 10.2:1 with a 4.100 bore, .040 thick Cometic head gasket.
Stock crank turned .010 under.
Eagle I-Beam rods.
HV oil pump.
Stock rear sump truck pan. (holds 6 quarts, gotta love Dodge, lol)
Double Roller timing chain.
MP timing chain tensioner.
Late LA heads machined for 2.02 intakes with bronze guides and some home pocket porting.
Stainless Valves.
Crane valve springs, retainers and locks.
Crane Gold 1.6 ratio roller rockers w/chrome finished shaft, Hughes Engines shaft hold downs and studs, custom hardened pushrods.
Lunati Voodo Cam with 213 degrees of duration at .050 lift. Very mild and idles in gear @ 650 no problem whatsoever. Starts pulling hard at 2200 rpm and just hauls ass up to 5500 rpm or so. Great cam and I couldn't be more impressed with the Lunati products. This engine is scary fast in a 5600 lb RC and would be one heck of a daily driver in a A-body.
Wieand Action + Dual plane manifold, Exhaust heat blocked. No spacer although a phenolic spacer is in it's future. Carb likes to boil over when hitting hard vertical bumps and the fuel sloshes, even with the vent extensions I pinned in.
Holley 650 double pumper with a QuickFuel throttle body. I can't say enough about how nice the machine work is on these and having a secondary idle throttle plate adjustment is great for big cams. 72 primary jets, 6.5 power valve, no power valve in the secondary metering block and 78 jets. Electric Holley blue pump with a Summit regulator set to 6.5 psi.
MP distributor with a Mallory ignition box and MSD Blaster coil, no coil resistor. 12 degrees initial advance and 36 total not including 14 degrees of vacuum advance.
Tight heavy duty 4x4 torque converter by Hughes with a 1800 stall. I'd say it was more like 1500. 3.55 gears and 33x12.5 tires. 727 with kolene steels and red frictions, bolt in sprag and Trans-Go shift kit installed as "RV" shift.
OK, enough information? lol! Anyway, I was having a severe stutter right off idle. It got better as the truck warmed up, so I was thinking carb. Well, the carb I built this on is old, old man lol! The first thing I thought was the accelerator pump. I looked in the primaries when I lightly opened them up and saw that the pump squirt was inconsistent. I pulled the bowl off and found tons of play allowing the pump arm to twist so I drove the pin out and shimmed the arm. No more play and a consistent squirt :). "Cool" I thought, problem solved. Not. It was better, but not where it should be (I'm really freakin' picky). This is a mild cam and this is an issue that I have never experienced on such a mild build. WTF. :angry7:
I start thinking vacuum leak. I check my vacuum readings and find 20" at idle and 1 3/4 turns out. Perfect really. No leaks here. Timing now comes to mind. I search fuitlessly for 45 min for my kick ass Snap-On digital timing light. Fk, can't find it. It's still in box a somewhere. Crap. The light goes on in my head and remember that every Hot Rod daily driver that I ever built always had the vacuum advance connected to manifold vacuum, not ported vacuum which is how I had the Ramcharger set up. I swapped the vacuum line and now the RC is more responsive from a light throttle opening than I could have ever dreamed. Just touching the throttle just moves this pig to 30 NOW, lol! The tach never hits 1500 rpm and the trans just shifts it's nice tight shifts. It's a torque ORama :). Don't fooled for a minute though, this thing gets over 2 grand and the exaust note changes to a wicked rasp and it freakin goes. Can't bog this down with the double pumper either and I can feel the secondaries open by the change of tension on the accelerator as well as by the seat of my pants.
I swear by my heart of hearts that it's so much harder to build a daily driver that hauls ass at WFOT and is mellow when need be than it is to build a strip only car.
The whole reason I posted this huge diatribe was to try to help someone if they have a similiar build and are experiencing the same symptoms. :read2: Merry Christmas everyone! :-D
360 LA block decked for 0 clearance and bored .040 over.
KB flat tops. My measured comp ratio is 10.2:1 with a 4.100 bore, .040 thick Cometic head gasket.
Stock crank turned .010 under.
Eagle I-Beam rods.
HV oil pump.
Stock rear sump truck pan. (holds 6 quarts, gotta love Dodge, lol)
Double Roller timing chain.
MP timing chain tensioner.
Late LA heads machined for 2.02 intakes with bronze guides and some home pocket porting.
Stainless Valves.
Crane valve springs, retainers and locks.
Crane Gold 1.6 ratio roller rockers w/chrome finished shaft, Hughes Engines shaft hold downs and studs, custom hardened pushrods.
Lunati Voodo Cam with 213 degrees of duration at .050 lift. Very mild and idles in gear @ 650 no problem whatsoever. Starts pulling hard at 2200 rpm and just hauls ass up to 5500 rpm or so. Great cam and I couldn't be more impressed with the Lunati products. This engine is scary fast in a 5600 lb RC and would be one heck of a daily driver in a A-body.
Wieand Action + Dual plane manifold, Exhaust heat blocked. No spacer although a phenolic spacer is in it's future. Carb likes to boil over when hitting hard vertical bumps and the fuel sloshes, even with the vent extensions I pinned in.
Holley 650 double pumper with a QuickFuel throttle body. I can't say enough about how nice the machine work is on these and having a secondary idle throttle plate adjustment is great for big cams. 72 primary jets, 6.5 power valve, no power valve in the secondary metering block and 78 jets. Electric Holley blue pump with a Summit regulator set to 6.5 psi.
MP distributor with a Mallory ignition box and MSD Blaster coil, no coil resistor. 12 degrees initial advance and 36 total not including 14 degrees of vacuum advance.
Tight heavy duty 4x4 torque converter by Hughes with a 1800 stall. I'd say it was more like 1500. 3.55 gears and 33x12.5 tires. 727 with kolene steels and red frictions, bolt in sprag and Trans-Go shift kit installed as "RV" shift.
OK, enough information? lol! Anyway, I was having a severe stutter right off idle. It got better as the truck warmed up, so I was thinking carb. Well, the carb I built this on is old, old man lol! The first thing I thought was the accelerator pump. I looked in the primaries when I lightly opened them up and saw that the pump squirt was inconsistent. I pulled the bowl off and found tons of play allowing the pump arm to twist so I drove the pin out and shimmed the arm. No more play and a consistent squirt :). "Cool" I thought, problem solved. Not. It was better, but not where it should be (I'm really freakin' picky). This is a mild cam and this is an issue that I have never experienced on such a mild build. WTF. :angry7:
I start thinking vacuum leak. I check my vacuum readings and find 20" at idle and 1 3/4 turns out. Perfect really. No leaks here. Timing now comes to mind. I search fuitlessly for 45 min for my kick ass Snap-On digital timing light. Fk, can't find it. It's still in box a somewhere. Crap. The light goes on in my head and remember that every Hot Rod daily driver that I ever built always had the vacuum advance connected to manifold vacuum, not ported vacuum which is how I had the Ramcharger set up. I swapped the vacuum line and now the RC is more responsive from a light throttle opening than I could have ever dreamed. Just touching the throttle just moves this pig to 30 NOW, lol! The tach never hits 1500 rpm and the trans just shifts it's nice tight shifts. It's a torque ORama :). Don't fooled for a minute though, this thing gets over 2 grand and the exaust note changes to a wicked rasp and it freakin goes. Can't bog this down with the double pumper either and I can feel the secondaries open by the change of tension on the accelerator as well as by the seat of my pants.
I swear by my heart of hearts that it's so much harder to build a daily driver that hauls ass at WFOT and is mellow when need be than it is to build a strip only car.
The whole reason I posted this huge diatribe was to try to help someone if they have a similiar build and are experiencing the same symptoms. :read2: Merry Christmas everyone! :-D
