I just want to drive my truck, need some help!

[GoodOleBoy]

I have a 1970 chevy c10 turned 4x4 with a 383 motor, th350 trans.
Its had its ups and downs but overall pretty damn reliable for about 5 years.
Around 8 months ago I found out it had a couple burnt valves got them fixed and drove fine for about a month then the rear main seal suddenly went out on me and its been parked since. When we were tackling that nightmare in my driveway we found my flywheel had one of the bolts missing and I am guessing that caused the seal to fail. Sorry for the long story...

I have got it all back together, timed it, rebuilt carb(a couple times now), new wires/plugs, and oil changed. It sounds good when it idles but makes an odd suction noise when you initially punch the throttle. Also, when I put it in gear and accelerate it almost sounds like a pinging noise and definitely feels gutless. Not quite sure what else to do and feeling almost defeated at this point..

If anyone has any idea's I'd greatly appreciate it!

[3drburb]

Just for the sake of it check your plugs and wires to make sure everything is where it should be and for being gutless, did you adjust the trans kick down cable going to the carb after working on it?

[57taskforce]

Your timing is off>pinging and gutless. How did you set it? Where did you set it at-What is your base timing and all in timing?

[kwmech]

Vacuum leak/s

[GoodOleBoy]

Well I used an advance timing light, made sure i was at tdc and adjusted from there with the vacuum advance plugged and set it at 12 degrees to the left of the tdc mark

[GoodOleBoy]

I’ve tried to find vacuum leaks using brake cleaner around intake an vacuum lines and carb with no change at all

I have checked all plugs and wires but as to the kick down cable I’m not quite sure how correctly its set up.

[geezer#99]

What carb and what distributor do you have?

When the heads were redone was anything else done?

[GoodOleBoy]

It has an edelbrock 1406 carb its either 600 or 650 cfm and an hei distributor

[geezer#99]

And my second question!
Anything else done when heads were done?

[D.B]

How old is the gas.

[dmjlambert]

You may need to adjust timing. 57taskforce asks what is your all-in timing, and that means how many degrees before TDC you have with vacuum advance connected and at high enough RPM to get your mechanical advance all the way. Depending on what mechanical advance springs you have installed your RPM for that could be up to 4000. Depending on what vacuum can you have on your HEI distributor you may get anywhere from 10 to about 22 degrees vacuum advance.

I suggest set advance to 0 at idle with vacuum line to distributor disconnnected and plugged. Then measure how much advance you get with vacuum still disconnected as you increase from idle to high RPM. Repeat that measurement with vacuum connected. If you report back with what is your all-in timing and at what RPM it stops advancing any more, folks here will be able to tell you what to set your timing advance to, probably 34-36 all-in.

[GoodOleBoy]

Nothing else done when I head the valves done, sorry for the late response to that.
The fuel was 8 months old but it had very little and I filled her up with fresh 91 fuel.

As to all in timing, how do I go about adjusting that?I will hook my timing light up and see what it is at during high rpm and get back to you shortly

[GoodOleBoy]

So with high rpm it looks to be at about 35 degrees open an its around 14 at idle with vacuum disconnected,

When I have it connected though it seems to go way above 40 all in

[dmjlambert]

Adjust it to be 34 all in then test drive it.

[dmjlambert]

Also make sure the vacuum port the distributor is connected to is manifold vacuum. You can tell because when idling and you connect or disconnect the hose it will change the idle speed. When connecting/disconnecting it to a ported vacuum source, it won't affect the idle speed. With the hose connected to manifold vacuum, adjust the idle speed to 700 to 800.