1983 C10 305 mind boggling engine problem

[Theweatherman]

It is a 1983 305 engine with 2 barrel carburetor. The truck never goes over 20 miles per hour as it is a ranch vehicle. I started to notice a loss of power about a month ago and it would range from no problems to a severe bog down, requiring full throttle to climb slight inclines.

As of yesterday the problem is constant the engine will rev when in neutral but under a load it always bogs down. I checked all the spark plugs everyone one is wet fouled but sparking like the engine is running rich.

The water temperature runs around 225F constantly after the initial warm up period.

The air filer is clean.

The carb is clean with both jets functioning properly.

When I get back out to the ranch I am planning on cutting out the CC and replacing the 18" section with 2.5" flex tubing to see if this fixes the problem.

[motornut]

I'd check the choke and wire it off to confirm it's not an issue
check the vacume advance under the rotor,make sure the weights move ok and the pivot holes for them are not oblonged
sometimes pulling off those small hoses loosens the small tubes going into the carb
a slight tap will reseat them...
farm truck eh? how do you get your gas? filter ok?
I've seen rusty junk stuck between the block pump and carb,drained out the line there to a cup,after evap I found almost a rusty sand sediment floating around...
as recently as this spring a new issue,the back flow valve if the fuel filter was getting sucked threw the line blocking the gas flow....I removed the valve

any pics of setup?

[mrolds88]

Sounds like its running lean to me. I would check the pick up in the tank. 30 year old truck, work vehicle could have collected enough rust/ dirt over the years to finally plug the thing enough. You can check the pump output by disconnecting the HEI wire and the fuel line at the carb and give it a crank to see how output is.