Ok- so I fired up the engine Saturday for the first time since Nov. 2002. Of course youall may know it's no-longer fuel injected etc.etc.

Problem 1- After adjusting the valves (instructions provided by Crower) and thinking I had stabbed the dist. correctly and setting it it up, here's what it does. It cranks over and starts QUICKLY but idles up to about 1300 RPM and ands runs for a little bit and then dies off- as the engine comes to a stop it blows fuel out of the Demon Carb. The regulator is backed off to it's minimum setting and it's still showing 8psi on the fuel- I cannot get it any lower. I don't have a decent timing light and not sure where the timing is- whether or not I've stabbed the Mallory dist. a tooth off or not.

Any thoughts on this?

Problem 2- I have the electric choke running off the ignition on 12V+ switch. The instructions say to run this off a switched 12V+ power wire- it doesn't specify if that wire should be hot at all times when the ignition is on or whether it should be on a toggle switch of some sort.

Problem 3- The driveshaft no longer fits. The 4L60E tailshaft yoke will not push in all the way into the 700R4 tranny which I "thought" was the same with the exception of the freaking electronic shifting. The yoke is shy about 1.25 to 1.5 from slipping in all the way- what gives? Is the yoke different on the '91-'93 trucks vs the '95 to '98?

I'm seriously getting disgruntled and bummed out getting this bucket running.

I'm not an exspert, but your first problem sounds like the dist maybe off a tooth. And I have NO clue as to your others - wish I was more help, you've helped me so many times!

See Ya ...
Later, Lips

PS. Make it a Great Day!
[url]www.photobucket.com/albums/a122/Cheve11e[url]

Jody, cant help one bit with your issue, BUT, dont give up bro, I think alot of people want to see your truck come back to life, I wouldnt get discouraged. You only live once, finish the truck, make it badass, and enjoy it! If you dont finish it, you'll end up regretting getting rid of it as I do from time to time... Goodluck.

dont worry about it...i fought my fuel system for 3 months before I finally got the ls1 up and running.

My 89 driveshaft slipped into my new 4l60e just like it did in stock 700 but I had to play with it a little. Twist and push etc...

good luck


1990 454 ss 2-4 drop, custom grill, rollpan....
1989 silverado: bagged, bodydropped, shaved, suicide doors, LS1/4l60e, 20" intro hammers/BFGs

It sounds to me like the float on the carb may be sticking, that would cause fuel to shoot out of the top of the carb


Draggin doors at Showfest 05

.... and found out that the Demon carb has 2 vacuum ports for timing advance on the dist- among other vacuum uses. Well- one of the ports is direct manifold vacuum (manifold timing for vacuum advance) whereas the other is ported vacuum (throttle opening advance). Ok- I'm using a Mallory HEI- http://www.malloryperformance.com/ProductDetails.aspx?brandID=6&productID=3575036&txtSearch=8548201C
and no longer have the 10 page instruction manual that came with it so I really don't know which port to use.

As for carb tuning- I don't know if it's the choke that's making the engine run so hard at roughly 1200 to 1400rpm idling or what. I let the thing run for a while (open headers haha) untill the thermostat opened and my temp guage never read over 179deg. I figure by then the elec choke would have cut off? No- yes, maybe so? The choke's timging can be timed too- I can twist it clockwise to decrease the amount of time it takes for the choke to pull off- however again this pulls me back to should the choke be wired in hot at all times the ignition is on, or on a separate toggle switch "I" can control (instructions very vague).

As for timing- what would a "tooth-off" on the dist/cam make any difference when you can twist the whole stalk/cap to make up the difference in timing????? I'm confused on that for sure.

As far as the distributor, you are right about the fact that if it is a tooth off you can rotate the stalk/cap to make up for it. The room for correction when it comes to this is only limited by the advance clearance if it has a vac advance because it will start getting close to or hitting things as it is turned. If this happens then you can either pull the distributor out and turn it another tooth and drop it back in to correct it if you dont have enough room or just switch the wires to the next post on the cap and adjust the timing that way. By switching the wires to different posts, that can get you within a few degrees and then just slightly rotate the stalk/cap to fine tune it.

When it comes to the choke, I think it should be setup to where you can lean/richen the mixture during the period that the motor is choked. It should have rich and lean written on the housing and arrows showing which direction is to richen or which is to lean out. By having the choke set more to the lean side it will not stay on as long because it is already starting out with some air coming in so it obviously doesnt need to stay on as long. If you have it set more the rich side then it will stay on longer which is good for colder places and higher altitudes. In Texas though I would think you would be able to go slightly more to the lean side of the default setting. This of course will make it run a little faster because of the lean condition also.

The carb should also have a fast idle cam to help keep it running when it is cold too and most of them will keep the rpm up around 1200-1500 depending on the setup. Once it has been running for a little while and is a little warmer it should drop off the fast idle down to normal idle speed. Some carbs require you to rev the motor up a little bit for it to "drop off" though. I know mine requires this. You can also do it by hand from the engine compartment as well.

No problems with the vacuum advance getting in the way- there's plenty room to spin the whole thing probably a good 30 to 40 degrees.

Maybe it sounds like the timing is off simply because the final radio of the valvetrain is 232 duration/.466 lift and I've never worked with something like this. The 3 guys that were out helping me (non mechanics) as well as myself figured it was either a timing problem, carb tuning problem, or a combination of both.....

Yeah it's got a fast idle cam but I haven't done much research regarding choke timing/fuel mixture. I'll probably work on it some again soon- it's been raining off and on.

Play around with the distributor, twist it both ways and see if that helps and, uh, GET A TIMING LIGHT! It sounds like you have too much advance. Disconnect the vacuum advance and plug all unneeded ports on the carb. Then you don't have to worry about the vacuum advance screwing things up. Do this first. Set your base timing to 12 degrees as a starting point.

You should also buy or borrow a vacuum gauge to set the idle mixture screws. Hook the gauge to a manifold vac source and tune the screws to get the highest vacuum, then adjust speed with the idle speed screw. Then put the gauge on the ported vacuum port and make sure it is at zero. If not, play around with the mixture screws again till you can get it to zero vacuum or close. This way you will not have any vacuum advance at an idle, you don't want that.

You want the choke on a switched hot wire, not a toggle. The current keeps the choke open.



406 Dart equipped.

12.20 @ 115.25mph

Bodydropped on 18" Boyd Coddington Timeless 5's

http://www.streetsourcemag.com/Profile.aspx?profileid=14746

As for timing- what would a "tooth-off" on the dist/cam make any difference when you can twist the whole stalk/cap to make up the difference in timing????? I'm confused on that for sure.

** Well, in theory that should work (as long as you can twist around all the way). I'm not sure about all this either, all I know is when I did this in my new small block and I was off just one tooth it wouldn't run below about 1700 rpm and when when-ever it died gas would come up/out of the carb. Again, just my .02

See Ya ...
Later, Lips

PS. Make it a Great Day!
[url]www.photobucket.com/albums/a122/Cheve11e[url]