Thread: 350 stalls when put in gear

Tweet

Originally Posted by TyphoonZR

If your lifters were set too tight, then they would never have been closed one hundred precent. This might have been the cause of the engine stalling when dropped into gear.

I agree. No matter what, I'd like to see you do a compression test on the motor when you get it back together. Remove all the spark plugs (so the motor will spin faster and not overheat the starter) and wire the carburetor primary throttle blades wide open. Make sure the battery is fully charged.

You can use a hand-held compression tester with a rubber tip that you just push and hold into the spark plug hole or you can use one that has the proper threads and screws into the spark plug hole.

Make sure the engine has been warmed up before beginning the test, to ensure that the oil has been warmed up. A cold engine will not test correctly.
Disable the ignition module or coil.
Insert the compression tester into one cylinder spark plug hole at a time.
Hold the throttle to full open position to ensure the engine gets adequate air intake. (Or like I said, wire the throttle open for the test).
Crank the engine continually for at least five to 10 full revolutions to obtain an accurate reading on the compression tester. (This is why you need a fully charged battery before you begin).
Record the reading for each cylinder. If any of them vary 10 percent or more from each other a problem may exist in one or more cylinders. If the variance is greater than 10 percent, specialized testing equipment may be required to fully diagnose the problem.
If all cylinder readings are within 10 percent of each other, no further testing is required and compression is considered optimal.

I'm strongly suggesting this compression test because I want to know if you have bent any valves by having the valves adjusted too tightly.

A good solid street motor should have 140 to 180 psi in all cylinders, depending on the static compression ratio and cam timing.