Alright, to outline my situation we should get a few things out of the way to begin with. I['m 19 years old, come from a ford family, mustangs in particular. My dad was a big car guy, but parents split back a few years ago before I could really get into actually working with cars much.
We've had my 1984 20th anniversary mustang sitting in my backyard with 30k miles for the past 9 years. Ends up, my dad moves out, and leaves it here. I get it. Great. I've got a car that doesnt really run, and I have only limited knowledge of working on cars.
There yah go. Now that thats out of the way.
So I've got my mustang now, I get it started, it runs, runs decent. Rebuild the carb, replace and flush all fluids, replace plugs, plug wires, blah blah blah.
Now though, it aint runnin to great. ATM it runs but I've gotta make a trip tomorrow morning to get a new gasket for part of the carbs front fuel bowl thing. For the screw/nut combo thing that controls fuel level in the fuel bowl. But forgetting that, it just runs not great. Best I can describe it is "fluttery". My dad says the cars always ran really rich since the time when he was retarded and messed with the mixture, its gone through one cat already, and I'm pretty sure the one thats on it now is about gone.
But back on the fluttery. It gets this feeling only at a constant RPM. If I go out and just floor it, or accelerate hard to any degree it smooths out and just goes. But if I'm cruisin anywhere at a constant speed and RPM its just not right. The best I can describe it is almost like the engine just isnt igniting sometimes or something, you can hear it in the exhaust, and you can feel it in the car like the engines not putting out.
Does this sound like the mixture is just waaaay too rich? Like it cant ignite that much fuel, so just nothing happens sometimes? Like I said its fine if Im floorin it.
The exhaust doesnt smell particularily gassy, not in my unexperienced opinion anyway.
Also, on an unrelated note, I went to adjust the timing, since I thought that might have been what it was, and well...The timing notch on the harmonic balancer was nowhere to be found...in fact, it was aprox 160 degrees or so from the timing mark metal thing. Donno whats goin on there, theres never been ANY engine work done on the car aside from carb rebuilds. Car runs fine enough timing wise it seems though.
It could be a number of things. First things is get the small parts you need and do the install. As far as teh mixture screws go, screw both of them all the way in and go 3/4 turn out. Start here then readjust the timing, that might be off as well.
Does the car blow white smoke at WOT?
I had a similar issue on an 85 and it turned out to be the harmonic ballancer, not the carb. If the seal on the ballance starts to wear, it'll start to turn and will cause the motor to shake. Hope this helps.
__________________
1979 Pace Car – Use to have a bunch of goodies......sold them all to buy a house. She'll be alive again.
1989 GT - DSS 331 short block, Eibach Sport line springs, Magnaflow CBE, Pypes Headers/mid pipe, Trick Flow Twisted Wedge Heads & 1.6 rockers, Cobra upper/lower, 24 lb inj......so on and so on...
Also, on an unrelated note, I went to adjust the timing, since I thought that might have been what it was, and well...The timing notch on the harmonic balancer was nowhere to be found...in fact, it was aprox 160 degrees or so from the timing mark metal thing. Donno whats goin on there, theres never been ANY engine work done on the car aside from carb rebuilds. Car runs fine enough timing wise it seems though.
Was the engine running, or not running when you did this
I think the 4180 carb might work backwards, the mixture screws that is. You could try loosening them out, and see if it starts to lean back out.
I had an '84 myself, and could never get that damned carb to run right. It was always kinda rich, and hard to cold start first thing in the morning. When I put a 600 cfm Holley 4160 on it, it ran great, with no issues.
__________________
1992 Deep Emerald Green Mustang GT Hatch, 5 speed, 2.73s, Mac fenderwell cold air intake, '93 Cobra MAF, Mac 70mm throttle body & spacer, Explorer intakes, Mac unequal headers & offroad pipe, Magnaflow catback, Walbro 110lph fuel pump, Jet adjustable FPR, MSD Blaster coil, Accel 8mm wires, FRPP aluminum quadrant, UPR firewall adjuster, stock cable, Granatelli upper control arms.
Waiting to go on: Granatelli lower control arms, and GT40 Iron heads!
It could be a number of things. First things is get the small parts you need and do the install. As far as teh mixture screws go, screw both of them all the way in and go 3/4 turn out. Start here then readjust the timing, that might be off as well.
Does the car blow white smoke at WOT?
I had a similar issue on an 85 and it turned out to be the harmonic ballancer, not the carb. If the seal on the ballance starts to wear, it'll start to turn and will cause the motor to shake. Hope this helps.
Ehhhh, install?
No white smoke at WOT, least pretty sure anyway. The exhaust is kindof...not there all the way anymore. Everything totally rusted out from the muffler to the exhaust tips so i ripped all that out. My exhaust stops right about under the rear driver side seat now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jarrett
Was the engine running, or not running when you did this
Heheh, running, timing light on plug one.
Quote:
Originally Posted by meangreen92
I think the 4180 carb might work backwards, the mixture screws that is. You could try loosening them out, and see if it starts to lean back out.
I had an '84 myself, and could never get that damned carb to run right. It was always kinda rich, and hard to cold start first thing in the morning. When I put a 600 cfm Holley 4160 on it, it ran great, with no issues.
Yeah, its always a hard start after sitting for more than 2 or 3 hours. I can usually get it to start after a few tries and do its fast idle to 2k rpm but then it dies, will usually start and stay running directly after that though. My problem here is that I have to keep that carb on it. No engine modification allowed.
Help! 1984 5.0 HO not running right. 
