Well I said "plugs" because I couldnt think of a correct word at the time. But basically u already said it. Theres a place on the air cleaner for a hose to attach to. Im not sure what it does as far as function. So u already corrected me. The stock air cleaner has no place to hook such a hose. And no Im running the stock valve cover. Which has 2 baffles, one on each side. But from what ive seen of completly stock 66 engines theres really only 2 places for vacuum on the intake. 1 for the hose to the vac gauge in the dash and the other for the pcv. However my intake is from a later model engine and has 4 places for vacuum. The way this is setup on my engine is like this. Theres a hose coming from the pcv to a large tee fitting. Another going to a large vacuum port on the intake, then another hose going to the base of the carb. Does this sound like a normal setup to anyone?

No, stock '66 intakes have a vacuum tap at the rearmost runner, usually capped off with a screw-in plug, but could be fitted with a hose nipple and used for a vacuum gauge if you had one, or more commonly used for factory A/C. The PCV vacuum nipple is on the carb, not the intake.
What do you mean by "places for vacuum"? Do you mean there's a "vacuum tree" screwed into the rearmost manifold runner, and it has four hose nipples on it? Or something else?
Nope. The hose should run directly from the PCV valve to the base of the carburetor, with no tee and no branch hoses going anywhere else. The setup you describe will certainly cause rough idle.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Yes Dan its a vacuum tree on the rear intake runner. It has 4 vac ports.
So what should I do to make it work like it should? Just take the hose from the pcv and go directly to the carb and cap off the large port on top of the tree that it tees to?

Yes that is what you need to do, you dont want the PCV pulling from the intake runner it will lean down the mixture on that cylinder & cause it not to make power on idle & could even burn a valve after some time. So just run one hose from PCV to Carb base.


If you have no vacume leaks this sounds to me like there may be some dirt or pieces of fuel line that have goten in the carb.

The carb is also bad about getting loose in the center where the two halfs meet, you can grab the top of the carb and twist it and see the carb move where the two carb halfs meet. If this is so remove the carb & tighten bolts that go up from bottom of carb.


If carb is not having this problem there is something you can try if it is dirt in the carb. Take the air cleaner off, rev the engine to 3000 rpm ( or somewhere close) wail still holding the throttle open smack your hand on top of the carb to choke it out. The engine will start dieing, still hold your hand on top of the carb until it is almost dead & then remove your hand to let the engine pick back up & clear out the raw gas. And keep the throttle open so that when you remove your hand the engine will start reving again. Repeat this two or three time, each time reving the engine higher than before & if there is loose dirt that is stoping up the carb the engine will suck it threw the carb & it will start idling right again. Sounds strange I know but I have fixed so many this way before.


Also does the car have power brakes, if so it could be the brake booster leaking after it gets heated up.


Jess

Correct. One hose, from the PCV valve to the fitting at the base of the carb. Unused vacuum tree fittings capped off.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Ok I put all the pcv stuff back like its supposed to be and the car is better.
Not in the way I was originally asking but now it idles better. However the leak apparently is still there. I drove the car today and it performs better than it did with the way the pcv system was hooked up. I also took the "gasket" rings off the spark plugs. Im not sure if this helped anything.
I put a vac gauge on it today and used on of the tree ports to hook it up to. I can tell from the gauge that theres a leak somewhere because I used to get between 18 and 20lbs but now its 15 or 16. Also I noticed that the needle went back and forth from 15 to 16. It didnt stay put. It would go back and forth with the engine lope. I believe the evbc site has a diagnosis for vac gauges so im gonna go there and see what it says about that. Thanks guys

Burned valve and/or lash adjusted too tight. It'll cause both the loss of vacuum and the jittery needle.

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Used to own:
'82 Dodge D150
Erson 270 Cam, O/S valves, mild port work, ~9.5:1 compression

Currently fighting with an '85 VW Cabriolet

My other passion

Yes this is true, but if the engine is jumping on the idle it can cause the needle to go up and down. If it is a burnt valve or rocker arm to tight the needle will jump very sharply when it hits the bad cylinder.


Have you ran a compression test, this would get a lot of possible things out of the way so that you know more where to look.


Jess

The needle doesnt seem to move sharply. It just waves back and forth.
I had ran a compression test but its been about a year or so ago. For being cold when we did the test it did rather well according my Haynes book. Minimun compression (hot) is 100lbs. It was doing about that cold.
What keeps bothering me is that when I changed that intake/exhaust gasket, it fixed the leak. But a day or so later it came back. Everything I can think of that would cause the car to act this way get shot down when I remember that the gasket fixed it temporarily. Not to say that maybe after a year or so the compression couldnt be shot cause it definatly could.
It probably doesnt help that my engine doesnt filter oil either. But the sludge in my engine might be sealing the engine off. Ive really given some thought to maybe running some seafoam though the engine and see if that does anything. But ive been told that if indeed the sludge is keeping things from leaking that the seafoam will make it leak all over the place once it takes care of the sludge. I dont know guys. Im at the bottom of my rope with this engine. Im stumped really. I did do a tuneup of sorts. What I mean is checking to see if it was in time and checkin the dwell and points gap. The result was that the dwell and gap were way off. When we fixed that then the timing was almost 20 degrees off. So we fixed that. What I noticed was when the timing was off the car had almost 20lbs of vacuum. But we put the timing back at 2 1/2 btdc and now its back where it was at between 15 and 16 going back and forth.
Hopefully this info will help u guys help me

ERROR!

Go read and follow this thread for the proper books. Then go here for proper use of a Haynes manual.
Gaskets can leak even if they're relatively new, especially if there's a related factor at work (e.g. warped manifold).
Eh? What does this mean, your engine "doesn't filter" oil?
If you don't want to finish off your engine, take a careful approach to flushing/cleaning it out. See mySoup recipe and procedure. If sludge is all that is holding your engine together, then you're just as well to find and figure that out, because an engine held together with only sludge is not long for this world anyhow.
Well, don't lose patience with the engine just yet, if you haven't gone through and done a full and proper tune up (not just an "of sorts" one). Sounds like you didn't change the points, just changed their gap. How old are the points and condenser? Plugs? Plug wires? Carburetor condition and age? PCV valve condition and age?

2½° BTDC is spec but 5° or 7° just about always works a lot better.
Hopefully this info will help u guys help me [/quote]

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Hmm I thought the Haynes manual was alright. Apparently not.
Basically what I mean when I say wont filter the oil is really just that. The engine oil is black no matter what u do. U can put new oil and filter on it and start it and it will be black as coal. No I didnt do an actual tuneup to it.
Its been awhile since its had new points and all that. The rotor had some "rust" on it if u wanna call it that. Thats what it looks like anyway. Like surface rust. But we cleaned it and took that stuff off of it. Everything else is about as old really. Few years at least. Carb as been rebuilt twice since ive owned the car but even thats been a while ago. Ive got electronic ignition for the car. So if I was going to put any money towards the distributor, Id rather put it towards the electronic one. Same thing with the carb. Ive got a super six setup that just needs linkage and thats it. If anyones got em id be interested:) However guys I think I might have fixed the problem. Ill have to drive it first to know for sure.
I was checking the manifold bolts today and noticed that there was no bolt at all on a stud underneath the choke pocket. So I put one on it and adjusted the timing to 5 btdc. The engine is now holding around 18lbs of vacuum. However, the needle is still jumping. Im not sure what to think about that still. I was really just talking when I said the motor is held together by sludge. Im not sure if thats what holding it together or not.
But I thought that maybe using some seafoam would clean some of that sludge out and make the car run a lil better. Well hopefully ill drive it soon and see if its actually fixed. Thanks for the help guys.

Ah ha! I'll bet $1 that the outer ring of the damper has spun and the timing marks are off.

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Joshua

I guess i'm not familiar with an "outer ring" on a damper.
What would cause it to spin? Is it an easy fix or do u have to replace the whole damper? Right now the car seems to be ok. Leak seems to be gone
Everything is timed right. The only thing I might do now is go back and do the valve lash again. It maybe off now that alot of things have changed. One thing that makes me wonder if the lash is off is that sometimes if I rev the motor, the exhaust sometimes cuts out. I don't think its as bad now as it was yesterday but I still think it does it some.
Hopefully Ill get to drive it soon to see if all is well.