New Warlock owner member

[markzilla88]

Hey there, my names Mark and I own an early model 79 Dodge Warlock. It has a 360 with a 4 speed behind it. Shes rough and has seen better days but the truck has spent its life being used like a truck should, getting dirty. I parked it about a year ago after the carb started leaking and I had some other projects going on. Since then I took the carb off the car (which happened to be a ford 4 barrel) and slapped on a rebuilt older model Holley 1850 600 cfm carb. Since I put that on, I cant get the truck to run well at all. To barely keep it idling it needs to be at WOT and as soon as you get off the gas it dies. There is gas spilling out of the vent towers as well which makes me think that the float level needs to be readjusted.

One of my major concerns however with it running like crap is the vacuum lines... The carb only has two nipples where vacuum lines could possibly attach (one on the front and one on the passenger side front metering block), and the truck has about 6 lines that are on it. Does anyone have any expierence handling this problem? From my own expierence, there is always one vacuum line that connects to the front of the carb and goes back to the vacuum advance on the distributor. The only other connection on the carb is going to be found on the front metering block up near the top of the carb. Again I have NO clue which vacuum line should hook to what at this point and think that this is one of my major problems with getting the truck to run at all.

My next question I guess would be if Im not going to use all the vacuum lines that are on the engine, how would I disable them without negatively effecting how the engine will run? Is it as simple as putting caps on them?

Thanks in advanced for any help you all can give me in getting my truck running consistenly again!

- Mark

 

[bear]

First off , Welcome to the site Mark . And by the way there is a rule here that you have to include picture's of your Warlock .:biggrin1: ... Now for your issue's . First I gotta tell yah that I hate Holleys to begin with but It sounds like you have either a stuck or sunk float or it's adjusted to high . If this carb came off of a running vehicle then what I would try first is to tap the top of the bowl with the handle of a screw driver or something ( "not" a hammer ) and if it's just a stuck float then that normally will free it up . If that doesn't work then pull the site screw on the side of the carb and try adjusting the float down . The fuel level should be just at the bottom of the site whole when adjusted properly . ....... Vacuum lines . If you have any open vacuum ports then the truck is more then likely going to run like crap . The most important one is the one for your vacuum advance . Also you should have the big one on the back that go's to your PCV . In back of your carb on your intake you should have a port that supplies your power brake booster . A lot of time that has a multi port that you can plug other vacuum lines on to ( If needed ) . If you start eliminating any of the vacuum lines then those would be the one's your going to want to keep . Unless you have an A/C truck then there's another one that go's to your heater controls . What I would recommend is to find out what vacuum lines are what before I start pulling them out or plugging them . I hope this helped and I explained it OK .

 

[bikinkawboy]

As bear mentioned, a vacuum leak can cause the symptoms you described. I'd give the insulator block between the manifold and carb base a good looking over. Something else you can do is if you can keep the engine running at all, use an unlit propane torch to check for leaks. Turn the gas on full tilt and hold the tip against the mating surfaces of the carb and go all the way around. If the engine speeds up or runs better, you've found the leak. It's much cleaner than squirting WD40 on the seams, which usually causes the engine to die since it's not particularly flammable. It's not necessary to have any of the vacuum lines connected for the truck to run, even the line to the distributor. Not being connected may or may not affect the way the engine idles and in fact, on many engines you are supposed to disconnect the vacuum advance when setting the timing. That way the strobe is unaltered by idle speed and variations in vacuum. As for plugging the lines, sticking a nail or bolt into the end of the hose is an effective way to plug them.


Unless there's something seriously wrong with a carb, I prefer to overhaul the old one rather than stick on a different one and hope for the best. Sometimes it's necessary to swap them out, like the Carter Ball and Ball on my '77 D150. It got to where it would idle only on the cylinders from one barrel but not the other. Off idle it ran on all eight cylinders but would idle on every other cylinder. No amount of cleaning, probing, inspection and praying would correct it, so replacement was a necessity.

 

[markzilla88]

Ill give everything you guys suggested a try. I had to switch to another carb anyways so I didnt have much choice. The carb that was on it was a ford carb thats secondaries were frozen shut, even after Ive taken it off and lubed them up they are still hard to move so I dont think Ill be putting it back on. Side by side however the two carbs look very similar. Im not a huge holley fan but its what I had :/

I think I may try taking covers and putting them on the hoses or like you said putting a nail in the tips of the lines just to see how it runs with just the vacuum advance, brake booster and PCV hooked up.

I will also try to see what I can do to get some pictures posted up here soon

Thanks again guys

 

[markzilla88]

This is a profile shot of it. It has rust, probably every panel on it has something wrong with it, the engine hardly runs as of now and theres a power drain somewhere in it. I dont think we'll ever restore it due to it being to far gone, but were going to get it back to running and in decent shape so we can still enjoy it!

 

[kork340]

Welcome. Nice Warlock. Plug the vac adv into the metering block port (port vacuum), the PCV goes in the bottom one(manifold vacuum), and as Bear mentioned brake booster should go to manifold. Holley's are fine. Easy to work on. Do as Bear said and you should be fine.

 

[bikinkawboy]

Hey, your truck looks like a real jewel compared to the old D150 I'm working on. After I get farther along with it, I'll have to post before and after photos. The body was in pretty bad shape when I quit driving it and unlike wine or whiskey, letting it age behind the shop for 16 years didn't improve it any. The lower rear corners of the dorrs were totally gone, both the inside and outside panels. Rocker panels, lower fender behind the front wheels, radiator/grill support, floor on the left side, holes under the lower rear window gasket, between the top of the windshield and roof gutter and I could go on and on. It's amazing what a person will do for sentimental reasons. Fortunately my boy got me a parts truck that had rotted, but better doors and some other parts in better shape.

As for the sticking carb issue you have, in the 1970s some carbs that Chrysler used were notorious for that. I believe they were Holleys, but I could be wrong. We had a '74 Newport with a 400 and 2 barrel carb. Part of the carb body was made of a phenolic resin, which was supposed to provide some insulation from engine heat and thus keep the fuel cooler. The problem was that sometimes (actually often times) the base would warp out of shape, which usually caused the choke butterfly shaft to bind on 2 barrels. I know we had to pull the carb and ream the shaft holes out a bit until the shaft operated freely. I know Ford used Holleys, so that could be where the problem is.

 

[bear]

I think it's a keeper ! I like it ! As far as the power drain . Check to make sure your not leaving something on . One of the things you can check is to see if your brake light switch is sticking from sitting for so long . I had a Ramcharger do that to me one time . It drove me nut's because it wouldn't stick all the time .

View attachment 2637

This is a profile shot of it. It has rust, probably every panel on it has something wrong with it, the engine hardly runs as of now and theres a power drain somewhere in it. I dont think we'll ever restore it due to it being to far gone, but were going to get it back to running and in decent shape so we can still enjoy it!

 

[bikinkawboy]

You say power drain, how seriously? If it drains the battery in less than a day, then most likely it's a bad diode in the alternator. Remove thelargest wire from the alternator and see if the battery stays up. If so, then that's the problem. Remember that the largest wire goes directly to the battery and is hot all of the time, so make sure it doesn't touch any metal part of the truck. If the drain is slower, the first thing to do is disconnect the battery and if it still goes dead, then it's new battery time. Remember that many accessories have a continual current draw, such as newer radios. That's what keeps the preset stations memorized by the radio.

 

[Aussie Challenger]

Welcome to the site, that is definitely a keeper, at least you will be enjoying driving it. Keep checking around to see what is being parted out and you will pick up a few bits and pieces to keep the old girl on the road.

 

[markzilla88]

The Holley is a late 90's early 2000's im assuming. It came of my 73 Charger I bought but had a leak in it coming from the front bowl gasket so I took it off to rebuild it, ended up getting an edelbrock for the Charger as it was my daily driver and wanted something reliable with gaskets on the top of the bowls so it didnt get eaten away as quickly as holleys. I just rebuilt the holley but didnt pay close attention to the float level so that is definitly an issue. Im going to adjust the level as soon as I can get the truck up onto flat ground off the slight hill its on.
As for the power drain, we tried keeping the battery hooked up in the truck once two years ago and it almost fully drained over night. The previous owner, who is a friend, never recalled it doing that so we tried a new battery and it still did the same thing. Im glad you said you had an issue with the brake lights though! Because that is one of the problems we have on our list is that the brake lights continue to stay on most of the time no matter what. So now youve said that, Im gonna be looking into a switch for it.

I had plans to work on it this week but it just so happened to snow... and its supposed to snow again tonight and tomorrow... so Ill have to wait a little bit to get an opportunity to get out to it to try these things.

Thank you again to everyone for all the advice, I really appreciate it