Hey guys,

I am helping my brother with his 1985 Ramcharger. He doesnt know sqwat about cars so I am trying to help him get it fixed up. The Truck has a 360, I just put a new cam in it due to a worn cam lobe. Got the truck fired up last night and it runs pretty good. My problem is the only way to get it to idle decent is if I have the timing way advanced. If I even bring it back down to TDC it starts to stumble and die. I know a little advanced is okay but I cant even see the timing mark it is so far off. Also he is running a Rochester Q-jet for his carb. Why that carb is on this truck I have no idea but it has worked for the past 10 years so what the heck might as well keep running with it. Any ideas on what to check? Is it possible to plug off all the vacume lines and try to set timing to eliminate any poss vacume leak? Or is there some kind of ECM control on an 85? Thanks in advance for all of your help. Look forward to getting this beast back on the road.

 

UPdate,

Was able to get te timing set at 10 BTDC and it seems to be idleing really well, but there is no power when you hit the gas. It revs up but you can tell its chugging. And when I rev it up on the timing light the marks retard, is this normal? I thought they were supposed to advance. Also if I try and advance the dist. any more than where it is the truck doesnt want to run. Any thoughts?

 

Well I capped off all of the vacume lines to eliminate any vacume leak. The only ones attached are for the secondary, and what I assume is the Electronic advance. Runs alot better now, but still not great. I did find by spraying carb cleaner everywhere that the EGR has a leak and is letting un metered air in. I will also try just playing with the timing by ear and get it to where it has good throttle response and see where that gets me. Anyone else have any thoughts on things I could try?.......Or would I be better off asking about lifts and what exhaust I should run to get a response?