Hey everyone, first off my car is a heavily possessed 1976 Dodge Dart. It has the 225, 904, and 2.73 gears. Issue I've had with her since she was new to me was falling on its face off the line. Tried rebuilding the factory holley 1945 carb to no avail. Changed to a Holley 1920 and rebuilt it as well. Still, the car had zero get up and go. It chugged, it bogged, and I still had to hold my foot to the floor to get it to go up hills at 55.

So....I bit the bullet and bought a NOS holley 1945. Supposed to be for a '76 truck. I can post the casting number later if jeeded. Put it on, adjusted the idle and mixture, and she finally idles better! Woohoo! Put it in drive with the choke in and it dies. The car can't be driven until it's fully warm. Sounds like choke to me.

Other issue I have is still the same. This car has no power! To leave a red light with any amount of pep I have to floor it. To get up a hill at 55 I also have to floor it. She doesn't stumble off the line anymore, but dear God she sure is lazy.

What would you check? She's got 19" of vacuum at 850rpms in PARK. Consistently runs at around 200* once fully warm too.

My first guess is timing and/or vacuum advance. It seems apparent that the carb isn't to blame here, since all three of them yield the same driveability issues.

Open to whatever suggestions you guys may have.

(1) verify that the vacum advance hose is plugged into a source of ported vacuum and not full-time manifold vacuum. In other words, you want vacuum as soon as the trottle is opened and not when the throttle is closed.

(2) verify the accuracy of the timing mark on the vibration damper. The outer ring of the damper that has the timing mark can slip as the damper ages and no longer properly indicate TDC. Use a piston stop tool to verify the accuracy of the timing mark on the damper and make a new mark if the old mark is no longer accurate. If you find your timing mark is no longer accurate, it is a good idea to get a replacement damper since your damper may actually be near to failing and complete separation of the two sections.

(3) verify base timing

(4) verify the operation of the vacuum advance and mechanical advance systems on the distributor

Report back your findings.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Do what Reed has suggested 1st, then, we can move on to running fuel
pressure and such. Have You or anyone else dropped the cat off to see
if it runs any better? Since this has been going on, what number of attempts have been made to find/correct this issue? How long have You had her?
Please list any & all steps by what,whom,when, & how............I have
found a multitude of crazy things over 32 yrs. of fixing cars that aren't
right or defective with cars from the day they left the factory. Some are
Duoh!!! obvious, some can really make My job a PITA until I find them.

I've had her for 3 years now and I'm the third owner. So far today, I rebuilt the distributor and found it to be gummed up and a tooth off. Reinstalled it and set timing to 10* BTDC. coupled with the 11L slot in the dizzy, should givee 32* total timing. I did pull the #1 plug and stuck a screwdriver down the hole to verify TDC and my balancer is correct. Since I don't have a vacuum gauge handy, I plugged the vacuum line for vacuum advance temporarily into manifold vacuum to test it, and it does work and doesn't leak. It is plugged inot ported vacuum as of right now.

Last year I removed the cat. No change in how she runs at all. I have the egr disconnected as well. Replaced intake gasket 2 years ago due to leaks. Plugs and wires new as of 3 years ago as well.

The heat riser in the exhaust is free and DOES move when you blip the throttle.

The fuel pump is new too. Replaced it last year because the old one sprung a leak from a ruptured diaphragm.

After what I did today, she does run better! Going to check the accelerator pump now to see how it is set up.

That means the vacum advance system isn't stuck, but you might have a ruptured diaphragm in the vacuum advance pod that has a vacuum leak. You still need to check if the pod itself holds a vacuum.

But good work, though. You are getting closer to tracking down the problem.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.