engine has no power/torqe

i did buy a chevy 57 with a 307 instaled by a previous owner. it has a 3 speed manual with overdrive. the engine seams to have no torqe/power


everything on the ignition side is new, i did replace the carb with a 650 holley, new fuelpump ,new fuel line and the pickup line in the tank.(it seamd like it did not get enough gas to me) the compession seams ok ,(150 high, 135 low)i have checked timingchain and markings, verified tdc it runs great on idle, and revs up fine but as soon as you put it in gear and tryes to drive it stops unless you rev it up really high and as soon as you let go of the gas it hesitates and stops . im running out of things to do

Welcome to CHR!! Glad to have you here, and hope we can help get the 307 pulling a little better. What is your ignition system? Unfortunately, "new" doesn't guarantee "good" in today's world market, especially in the arena of spark plugs. Run through the ignition components that you have in place and let's see if anything jumps out.

Is the 650 NEW? It dose sound like fuel problem, did you check fuel pressure? 5/6 #

thanks for your reply

the distriputor is what came with the engine .seams fine. i cleand it made sure the counter weights moves.
new points.capacitor.rotot.cap.spark plugwires .sparkplugs. the ignition coil is a uesd one that worked fine on anather car, most parts bought at napa. i did use a vacum gage to check the enginge and is is in the green.

If you're confident about the dwell on the points and quality of the other components I'd probably verify the fuel system like Charlie says. You say you put in a new fuel line and pickup line in the tank. Had the car been running OK before, or had it been idle for a time? I'm thinking crud in the tank could be plugging the "sock" filter, or that either an in-line fuel filter or even the screen at the carb inlet could be partially plugged, blocking flow?

Are you CERTAIN the coil is installed correctly? It will run with it installed backwards and act like your symptoms suggest.

The "+" side should be from the key switch, the "-" side goes to the coil. And for testing purposes, if a condenser is on the coil connections, leave it off.

And welcome to the "Club"! Maybe once you've settled in you'll share a pic or two??

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Originally Posted by 34_40

Are you CERTAIN the coil is installed correctly? It will run with it installed backwards and act like your symptoms suggest.

The "+" side should be from the key switch, the "-" side goes to the coil. And for testing purposes, if a condenser is on the coil connections, leave it off.

And welcome to the "Club"! Maybe once you've settled in you'll share a pic or two??

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I think Mike meant to say, "...the "-" side goes from the coil to the distributor" just to clarify. Please report back what works for you.

YES! Thanks!..

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Originally Posted by rspears

I think Mike meant to say, "...the "-" side goes from the coil to the distributor" just to clarify. Please report back what works for you.

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Now I'm really concerned---I understood what Mike meant!!!!!!:eek::eek::eek:

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Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Now I'm really concerned---I understood what Mike meant!!!!!!:eek::eek::eek:

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:LOL::LOL:Now wait a minute, he was talking about maybe having the coil wired backwards, and said the "+" comes from the key, and the "-" goes to the distributor:LOL: They BOTH go to the distributor!! One to + and one to - !! :LOL: The question is "Where is the orher one FROM!!:LOL::LOL:

Leave it to Roger to complicate matters!:eek::eek::LOL::LOL::LOL::LOL:
Let's try it this way.

Have you set the floats in the carb????

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Originally Posted by rspears

:LOL::LOL:Now wait a minute, he was talking about maybe having the coil wired backwards, and said the "+" comes from the key, and the "-" goes to the distributor:LOL: They BOTH go to the distributor!! One to + and one to - !! :LOL: The question is "Where is the orher one FROM!!:LOL::LOL:

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Correct!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

when i got the car it had a rochester 2 barell on it and it what defenitly starved on fuel at that time the inlet filter whas pluged .so i cleand that, and the hole carp for that matter. dident help, changed the fuel pump, dident help. replaced the carp with a used holley 650, witch i did rebuild . still no good so i replaced all the fuel lines, this made a huge inprovment on the fuel delivery. so i thought i hade fixed it, now the fuel filter is copmletly full(you could noly see a small amount of fuel going through it before)it idels great so i checked the float levels needed some adjustment used a vacum guage to adjust the mixer screws

the last thing i did whas to take a coil from anather car wierd it strait from the bat via a toggle switch to the + on the coil , the other side to the distributor it still whas acting the same but i need to try it a bit more

You have a polluted fuel tank, either sediment or rust or both. Until you either 1) drop the tank and thoroughly clean it or 2) replace the tank with a new one you will continue to have problems. The original fuel lines were plugged, you replaced them and now you're plugging the filter. Clean out your tank, or easier, buy a new one.

when i did replace the pickup line(witch whas totally deteriated, half of it whas gone) i did remove the tank and cleand it. as far as i can tell i have plenty of gas going to the carb right now. when i said the filter is full i meant its full of clear gasolin the rubber fuel line is bulging a tiny bit from presure but i will but a guage on it to veryfie the presure this is why i dont get whats up with this car i have tryed a lot of things finding things and corecting it but it still akts weak like im starting on high gear where my shop is ther is a bit of a clim uo to the road when i get going on flat ground its ok but when i start to climb i need to add more gas thats when it chokes up and dies unless i really give it some gas i might make it up but there is no midrange power
i have messed around with cars for many years but this is something ells

I had this exact problem once upon a time, it just can't remember what it was. I can only vaguely recall something to do with the timing.

Do you have a timing light? Can you verify the setting at idle (vacuum chamber disconnected)? And then verify the setting at 3000 RPM (vacuum chamber disconnected)? Let us know what you've found. Leave the vacuum chamber disconnected and take it around the block. Does it drive better or worse?

damper mark move outer ring can slip . timing tab on front cover could be wrong ? there more then one .new timing set put in engine never degreed ? check that the ex choke is open mufllers pluged up rust. you did say the weight s did move under the dist cap for advance curves . but what about the springs? there is heavy med light. check that. there nothing holding the curve up this can be check by seeing if the cap will advance some by hand spring should snap back . check timing for total timing . spark plugs are gapped at .035 . points can not take 12 volts for any amount of time they will burn out then throw dwell off. when all checks out the timing marks can be off find TDC. remark TDC set timing. or set timing to ear then pull a couple of degrees out

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Originally Posted by hanseriksson

when i said the filter is full i meant its full of clear gasoline...

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Hans, sorry for my mis-understanding. Pat mentioned the possibility of the outer ring on the dampner slipping, or the pointer being off from true TDC. There's a slick method of verifying TDC that's been posted a few times, but either I don't understand our search engine or the search engine is really, really bad here. This is the most accurate, non-invasive (nothing poked into the cylinder to get jammed) method I've seen:
1. Make an indicator from some clear plastic tubing, a jar of light oil, and an old spark plug.
2. Break up an old spark plug and attach a length of clear plastic tubing to it make it airtight. Silicone will work, but so will hot glue and it's quicker.
3. Remove all the spark plugs.
4. Stick your thumb OVER the #1 cylinder spark plug hole. Rotate the engine with a socket on the dampner bolt until you feel pressure on your thumb. That's the compression stroke.
5. Screw in the spark plug with plastic tubing attached and insert the other end of the tube into a jar of light oil. Continue rotating the engine. Bubbles will appear until the piston reaches the top of its travel. When it starts down on the next stroke, the bubbles will stop and oil will begin traveling up the tube. Stop at a convenient point and mark the tube. Then mark the crank pulley and the engine body at a convenient spot.
6. Rotate the engine backwards and watch the oil recede into the jar. Continue rotating. As the piston continues past TDC and downward it will again suck oil into the tube. Rotate the engine till the oil again reaches the mark. STOP! Mark the crankshaft pulley where it lines up with the mark you made previously on the engine. You should now have two marks on the crankshaft pulley. The midpoint of these two marks lined up with the mark on the engine is TDC.

If your dampner is good the "new" TDC you mark should align perfectly with the line cut in the dampner ring, and the pointer should be aligned.

i did check the tdc with a special tool as i have heard that the outer damper ring can slip it did check out ok

i will do the other checks and get back with the result

thanks for all the respons

With all the checking you have done are you sure the floats are right on the holly?

Another item is that your cam gear could be cracked and flexing/splitting under load, thus changing your timing. This happened to me on a SB327 years ago.

Since you have a lot of suggestions, here's one more. I think I'd run the valves.

i did some of the checks suggested checked the float level on the carb ,gas is trickeling out of the insbpektion hole so it shold be fine. i do not have a rpm meter but i did try to do the timing check.(i do have a timing lite)
at idle (700 rpm guestamete) it is at 4deg bef tdc reving up it moves a way out side of the timing marks .

here is when is becomes intersting im only able to rev up to about 1500 rpm after that the engine dies it comes back to life if a let up on the gas( lowering the rpm) now i did have the same problem before i did replace the fuleline and carb thought it hade to do with it not getting enough gas. its getting plenty of gas now
so i dont know what to think about this (.its like a over rev switch is cutting in at 1500rpm klilling the ignition when the rpm gets lowerd it fires up again) it happend every time dident have enough time to test this out good today

After reading you're response above.. I think I'd try a new coil and a different condenser.. to me it "feels" like the ignition is breaking down. I'd also bump up the timing to 8 or 10 degrees BTDC, also- have you cleaned the timing marks? can you see where the scale ends? What's the last number on both sides of TDC? If you don't have a dial back timing light, maybe you can add a piece of timing tape to the damper? so you can be more precise with the timing.

Lots of really good suggestions in this Thread! Looks like it's not the usual suspects-the best Technician I ever knew said that people usually look too deep at a problem (I resemble this remark)-

You mentioned that you were going to put on a fuel pressure gauge-did you do this? If you haven't yet, I would put one on and check the pressures not just at idle, but through the RPM range (to make certain that pressures don't fall off)-

The fact that you have cleaned out the Fuel Tank is good-this reminds me that we recently had a unit in here at work (specifically, a brand new Skid Steer)where it exhibited exactly the same symptoms (would idle, but not pick up RPM's)-we pulled our collective hair out (we even stumped John Deere Tech Support), and, we finally found that when they cut the hole in the Tank for the Fuel supply that they missed the "plug" that was left when they cut it-that plug would suck up against the outlet and starve fuel :( -

Do we know for sure that the Distributor is good (do you have a spare, or one you could borrrow)?

fuel cap not vented . if you have a tach could be bad un hook it

Whats the dwell setting on the points????????????/Dwell is important because it creats a TIME factor for coil saturation and if the points are too wide(less dwell) the saturation time won't be enough for higher speeds------thats a reason fo dual points!!!!!!!!!!also point type and electronic coils are different------------so if mixed ?????????????

30 deg dwell but i will check it again as it whas some time sence i did that
i do apreciate all the info im getting

i did buy a new distributoe a HEI waiting for it to show up in the mail
i did check the float level there is gas trikling out the inspection hole at idle

i did play around a bit with the timing and got it to run somewhat better now the timing is so early i can not see the mark as its behind the waterpump
i got it out on the road it run ok to a point then it sputters and dies unless you accelarate so too keep it runing its step on the gas then let go and so on
it dose not seam to like light load/cruse condition that where it akts up
i did run it with the gas cap of it did not make a diffrens

will check fuel pressure and check the number on the scale

Bet the damper is not for that engine or the timing cover. If you have the LONG water pump you may be able to time it by looking behind the water pump. Or change the damper to one with the slot in the place for that timing tab. Somewhere in the early 90s (I think) They used to time them with a sencor behind the water pump. Which means you have the wrong timing chain cover on the engine.

OR, the damper has seperated and the outer ring has moved!

I worked on a 305 from around 90 the timing tab was on the cover but it was the wrong cover. the tab should have been on top dead center. He had a short water pump on the engine and I had no idea what was going on. The damper wanted to be almost top before it would run right. Did research and found the right cover and put on a long water pump THEN we could time it by looking down between pump and cover. If nothing else he could time it with a vac. gauge.

I remember now that I worked on a chubby van and you had to time it by looking down behind the water pump. What a B _ tch to get the tab clean and marked!

fuel presuare 6 to 9 stays that way up till it dies

put a vacum guage on it 18 on idle goes up to 20 and steady when i rev up stay that way till it hits the spot wher it starts dying goes down to zero and dies chocked mufflers??? thats what the manual for the guage says i will remove the exsaust and see what happends.