My '71 slant has a Holley 1920 carb on top and a TF904 behind it.

The carb's been rebuilt recently, but not finely-tuned.
Engine has new water pump, fuel filter, pertronix ignition, wires, plugs, oil, radiator, rad hoses, and coolant. I have not had a chance to check timing or compression yet.

My first problem: I start the car up, it idles very low. I haven't put on a tach yet, but I am thinking somewhere between 500-600rpm (based on the sound vs. my Jeep's rpm). It stays running, but idles ridiculously low. I put it into gear (either reverse or drive) and it feels like it wants to die. But I can simply rest my foot on the skinny, and it gives it enough throttle to keep it alive. If I take my foot off the gas, it will sometimes stay running, but oftentimes dies.

Second problem: The car smells like it's running really rich. I can smell it in the cabin, too?

Third problem: This is the one that stumps me really good. Upon accelerating from a stoplight (at a normal pace), I give it quarter to half throttle, never changing how far down my foot is going. Maybe two seconds after the restart, it sounds like my RPMs skyrocket. It's a loud whirring. I don't know if it's the secondary opening up on it (if there is a secondary?), or if it's the engine, but it doesn't change the acceleration at all, it just makes a loud sound. To stop it, I have to back off on the throttle significantly.



The graph illustrates this problem. At the endpoint of the RPM(?) line, I either back off the throttle or the RPMs stay at their high level.

Similar to this problem, I'll just be driving down the road, quarter to half-throttle again, and the RPMs(i think?) will surge up and down. I'll feel it instead of just skyrocketing, going up and down in sort of a sine curve.

Finally, maybe unrelated, it seems the 904 doesn't want to shift cleanly. I know this is a trans issue, but I thought I'd add it here in case it might be related to the other problems.

Anyone have any insight to the problems I'm having? Thanks.

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-Brian

1971 Dodge Demon /6
1998 Jeep Cherokee 4.0L

if the ehaust smells rich at idle it is, you have to find the problem/flooding , floats to high or inlet seat opened / to rich a mixture at idle, screws setting/ choke not coming off fully.on the high rpm`s and no go, check the kick down linkage at carb and trans for smooth movement, and also trans fluid level both can cause trans flare-up.

Brian
Welcome to the forum. Use the search function for 1920 and Surge or something like that. I remember a poster had a real simular problem.
Good luck,
Frank

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Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

So a buddy helped me out tonight. We got the idle up a bit more, and the mixture's feeling pretty good. But I did discover some bad news. We tried to time it, got it timed, the distributor locked down, then we put the light backon it and it jumped timing to, or maybe more than, where it was before. We shut it off and took off the cap and rotor, and there's about 1/8" play in the distributor shaft side to side. Any idea if it's just the drive gear, or am I looking at getting a new distributor?

Also, we started it again and started pulling plug wires one at a time. It turns out plug 3 and 4 are acting up. Plug 3 looks lean, it doesn't look like it's burning as much as the others. Plug 4 looks much worse, it's got a bit of oil on it. Bad rings, my buddy told me. What am I looking at here to fix this?


Thanks in advance, all.

_________________
-Brian

1971 Dodge Demon /6
1998 Jeep Cherokee 4.0L

the rotational play in the dist is the mech advance, make sure it springs back... the 1920 is a single barrel taht opens, so there is no secondary. a good start on idle air mixture is screwin the idle screw all the way in and goin out 1-1/2 to 2 turns out
as for your noise i dont know, kinda vague. but people riding in my car say it sounds faster than it is... ha

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'72 Valiant DD for over a decade-225-Disc brakes, big T-bars, big Sway bars f/r, carter bbd/super six, GM HEI, 2- 12" subs in trunk, 1000w amp...
'77 cherokee cheif widetrack-360-33x12.5 tires-no lift. keeps driveway dry-project/backup DD/mudder