Ahhh the plot thickens - I now see that Vac Amplifier and Vac Solenoid are missing on my engine along with a deleted EGR and its plumbing - my understanding on these emissions plumbed engines is that ported vac is important in the overall scheme of tuning and running efficiently. Other points are capped off , vac at distributor, CCEV, etc. Anyone have these parts in a box by any chance?

 

That crap gets tossed in the trash 🗑️ as soon as I do the 1st tube up on a new to me vehicle.

 

I hear ya, I used to feel this way but on the '83, much of this comes into play with how well the engine runs and how efficiently and they were designed to work together unfortunately which is why I wish I had a 60's truck.

 

Or a 70's truck. The 80's where the worst. As long as you have vac to the brake booster and ported to the dizzy you are good.

 

There should be a sticker on the drivers side inner fender that says "Non-catalyst". If it does, just bypass what's missing and it will run just fine with a little tinkering. I had an '84 for about 20 years until the tin worms got to it and I never fooled with any of that. Being a 250, it should have the sticker. That's the difference between a D100 and D150. Same with the W series. The heavier weight rating let it slide on emissions, at least in most of the country.

 

Thanks ol grouch, my fender says "Catalyst" vs Non Catalyst - I suppose truck was possibly a California truck originally vs. a federal? Now what?

 

It depends on where you live. If you have emissions testing, and they do a visual inspection, it needs to be there. If not, or your truck is old enough top get a pass, I'd just tune it to where it runs good and go with it. We don't test where I live. I sold a car to a couple from St. Louis Mo., and they had to have it inspected to register it.

 

Thanks! Looks like on my truck, the vac line from distributor runs to the CCEV valve on tstat housing and from there to Carb so my guess is the vac for distributor is being pulled from Carb and is somewhat temp controlled? Best to just pull vac from manifold or ported?

 

Wow, I've seen the thermostat coupler many times over the years. I can't remember seeing one actually hooked up. I'd run it to the manifold. See if there's a stem on the manifold header. It'll have a large port for the brake booster and anywhere from one to many others. Just run the distributor to it, time it a little to get it running right and go with it. Here's a tip, All the V-8 engines back then used the same size threaded hole in the intake. If you don't have enough ports, find one at the bone yard that does, thread it out and put it in yours. I keep old ones but don't know where they went to.

 

Thanks ol grouch! Will follow the booster line to see whats there. I need to pull the air cleaner for painting and freshing up as I just did the valve covers when I resealed them -time to clean the intake, degrease and paint. With the AC off, I can see whats on the back side of the carburetor - almost need a scaffold just to get back there!