Thread: 383 Mopar problems

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Finally got my marathon cuda project fired up. Got a Mallory uni-lite, holley SA carb, MSD coil, 8.5mm wires, edelbrock torker intake, all new. She fired right up from the initial attempt, ran smooth as can be with the initial timinmg set @ 8 degres advanced. Ran a little rich but that was ok it was a fresh motor. As I took care other gremlins with this resto job, I always fired up the motor and made sure everything was OK.. I even took her around the block and ran thru the gears. She ran great!! A few days later, I tried to start her up and everything went to crap. Now, she is sputterin, I got a miss and basically runs like crap. I swapped out plugs, wires, coil, checked the carb float level, replaced the cap and rotor. Still feels like she's only running on 6 cylinders. I also swapped out the fuel filter. I made sure the timimg was still correct # 1 is TDC and the rotor is point to #1 on the cap. This is driving me nuts. I'm looking hard at this mallory dist, bad uni-lite module? a vaccume leak at the carb, or the holley is internally snafu, and it's not my valve springs. Anyone have some thoughts as to what this can be? It ran soo good and that's what has me stumped. .................................MC

Are you sure the valve spring's are o.k. it sound's like a valvetrain problem? Lifter's, pushrod's , rocker arm,s valve spring's. Have you checked all these out? I was going to say it sounded just like a broken or weak valve-spring. But you said you allready checked them.My friend's Cuda did the same thing and we found 3 broken spring's. Supposedly the spring's were new , but the guy we bought the head's off of just shimmed them.Good luck.

After swapping out the uni*lite with my spare mp set up, cleaned up the plugs, re-checked all connections, carb settings etc. She fired right up but with the same results. It had to be valve springs. Nuthin' else left to check. Son-of-a gun, right off I found one broke spring on #4, there may be others. These were brand new @#$#@! mp double springs too! Man, am I ever torked. Paid good bucks for brand freakin' new mopar parts. Luckily, I have a spare cam accessory kit layin around and am going to swap out all springs this week, inspect the lifters, pushrods and rocker arms. They were all new from muther mopar too. I'll be checking these new springs verry carefully. Thanks 327 Jet for the advice. .......................170bcuda