Alright, I’m NOT new to wrenching; I just have NO experience with carbs...

I got the truck not running for $500 last Sunday... I got it running and drove of in it after replacing two gas hoses. The drive home was NOT pretty as it was smoking like crazy black and white, it did stall like four times but managed to get it home


The good!

The body is in amazing shape, it has decent white wall tires with the original tire caps!
It has a rebuilt tranny that shifts like a dream (guy said it didn’t work right; that the tranny shop had robbed him, turns out all it needed was a quart of fluid), and everything else seems to be in good shape just dirty from sitting so long

The bad... =[

The engine, it idles pretty good but shakes as if it had a very slight miss i think this is probably from it sitting so long, maybe the hydraulic lifters were dying with the dirty oil, please note that when i first got it running it had about 10 quarts of oil, so much it was leaking out of the front and rear crank seals, two spark plug wires that were going to the wrong cylinder on bank one and two broken sparkplugs on bank two.

The A/C it did not blow at all, the blower motor was getting no power! I replaced the lower part of the a/c control, retrofitted the system to r134a and now have cold a/c

The blinkers and many other lights on the dash did not work, replaced like 10 burnt out bulbs

The windshield wipers were dead, as with all old dodges the plastic bushings were all in pieces and the metal rods not even attached, got all new bushings and fixed that.

The gas tank is leaking I have no idea from where so I’ll be pulling the tank very soon =[


What i've done so far

A much needed oil change,

A tune up, installed new spark plugs, wires, rotor and distributor cap,

I tried timing it to the 12 degrees atdc but that didn’t work it was dying when you gave it gas, so I have it at like 25 degrees atdc but it still dies if you give it too much gas, I have been tinkering with the carb not really knowing what I’m doing and I managed to increase the idle just a bit so it doesn’t die that easy when under acceleration

The engine is also smoking a little I suspect worn valve steam seals

the good thing is that I have another two trucks that I can "borrow" parts from and one of them has a really good 318 with 90k miles that engine is complete with carb and all out of a 85 ram charger, and another complete motor with a cracked block out of a 87 ram d100

Now can someone PLEASE tell me how to rebuild and tune the carb properly and what to do with all the vacuum lines that lead nowhere, please note that this truck does not have a pollution pump someone took it out before I bought it.

 

honestly just buy a chiltons to map the lines.

sounds like a sweet find though. sorta like mine - body and frame in such good shape (untill i smashed it) that youd be stupid to junk it. but a whole lot of little things here and there do add up

 

i use alldata, ill look into it!

 

pulled the tank and it had a nasty cut on the side, fixed it with some special epoxi for fuel tanks, will go back up tomorrow!

 

Well the tank is finally back in the truck, took it for a test drive and it runs great! man i love it!

i still need to figure out where the a/c leak is, i have charged it twice and added dye to it, i just have not spent enough time on it to figure it out.

The carb and the time issue are still present, I need to mess with it some more, probably rebuild the carb I have two more I can mess with.

Checked the back brakes and they look great, the rotors and the brake shoes look like new. I have not pulled the front tires yet but I reached under the truck and ran my finger on the front disks and they feel like they are brand new

In the future I will do a major make over to the sound system and the windows are gonna get tinted.

All and all I feel very lucky to have found this truck, I’m not saying is done it still needs work here and there but once I fully restore it will be sweet.

 

pics or it never happened

 

i just got done redoing the door panels, they got cleaned and painted, they now look like new

 

Well got some more work done on the old girl, pulled the front tires, checked the brakes pulled the rotors greased the bearings and put it all back together, it feels so much better, it just seems to be moving so much easier now…

The driver side bearings were WAY too tight and the passenger side were too loose, I will have to get the rotors cut and do a front break job… the last owner just put pads on and did not turn the rotors so they are shinning if you know what I mean.

 

What will it take to make a stock 318 kick 300 hp?

 

I forgot to tell you guys I also replaced the thermostat, it was so old half of it had rusted away I tried cleaning the thermostat housing, but after installing it started leaking so I called the auto parts store to se if maybe they had one and sure enough they sell them for $5 bucks! I wasted 30 minutes, coolant, silicone and a gasket trying to make the old one work =[ I also bought the upper radiator hose and replaced it while I was at it, it all looks and works great.