So I've been driving my car, stalling at lights over and over again.

I've found some things out which might help figure out a cure.

Now, it will idle perfectly for 15-30 seconds.

Holding the brake and giving it gas when it starts to stall only works for 2-3 seconds, then even with me trying to rev the engine up to keep it from stalling, it will just die.

Putting it in neutral doesn't help, again, it will start to stall, I rev it up, then it just stumbles and stalls while I'm reving.

It drives perfectly, but I am almost 100% sure I am hearing light pinging under load. I'm running 92 octane gas, I've got 10.7:1 pistons in my engine.

My only possible guess is a spark plug problem....I'm going to change them out ASAP. It's just a wierd thing for it to idle perfectly, AFTER driving. LIke, if I stall at a light, it will run for like 5 seconds after the restart and want to stall again. It will only hold idle for 15-30 seconds if I am driving above 25MPH, and come to a stop.

I've noticed I'm having more trouble starting the car then from a week ago, it used to start right up, now it takes 3-5 seconds instead of 1-2. It was stalling like this the entire time though.

Any more thoughts?

 

Sounds like a set of bad plugs to me.

I'm running R42LTS with my vortech heads

I started with R45LTS and kept moving down the heat range until I found a set that would last more than 1000 miles.

I had the same problem. Nasty idle, long starts, **** poor performance. I thought it was the disty, but swapped that out for an MSD unit and still had the same problems. Swapped in a set of $10 plugs, car was fine

 

Could be a bad/weak ignition coil...Are you getting bright blueish-white sparks?? Did you notice any tailpipe smoke, maybe a little black smoke?It might be loading up and wetting the plugs...

 

No odd colors coming out of my tailpipes.

We pulled the #1 sparkplug and crank the engine over several times, the spark was night and blue. That wasnt the case for the first 3 points distributors, but the MSD HEI one I'm running now was pulling bright blue.

The coil is a brand new Accel Super Stock....when we had it running on the points...it was getting VERY hot....like, burn your hand off hot, the HEI has no problems, runs cools. Again, the coil was giving me good spark with the HEI

What are you motor specs jay? I have a feeling if I'm running lean or pinging, that maybe my plugs are taking a beating. I only have 200 miles on the engine so far.

I just find it odd it only starts to stall after 15-30 seconds....and that I can't rev it to keep it going...but it drives and pulls fine. I keep thinking it must be an ignition/vacuum problem. Can spark really cause that kind of prob?

thnx

 

my motor is almost the same as yours honestly

not sure what the specs are on your cam, but mine is a 218/224 cam .498 intake, .502 exhaust

When I went through my plug nightmare, I would pull a plug, and it would be clean. No carbon or the like. I discovered that long road trips were their worst enemy. I'd drive it 300 miles or so on the highway and it wouldn't run right anymore. Swap out the plugs and all would be well again.

I replaced my 1st set (R45's)at 500 miles, second set (R44's) at 1000, third set (R43's) at 2500, and fourth set (R42's) at 5000 miles, and just replaced them again because I had the header off and didn't want to worry about them anytime soon.

Just part of tuning I guess

also ohm out your wires, perhaps you have some resistance in there somewhere that would cause the problem. The cap and rotor would tell you the same thing

 

Noticed you are running a 670 Holley carb ,just out of curriousity with all the stalling have you had any back fires? If so you might check the power valve and make sure it's not blown,this could cause some of your simptoms.

T.