302 quits, then immediately will restart

[BRADVAN 10]

I have a 69 coupe that started as a basket case. The 302 is not original to the car (block numbers E0AE D3c 3G13) making it from 1983. Car has a C4 automatic. Other things I know about the engine; standard heads, unknown cam (but seems pretty mild if any upgrade), Offenhauser 360 intake (was on the engine when I got it), HEI distributor, standard exhaust manifolds, 2 inch exhaust with H-pipe and "turbo" mufflers.

 

A while back I put a new Edelbrock 650 on the car. Afterwards, the car would run fine around town for several days and then just die. Once it had died it would not start, tuned over fine, but would not start. Tow it home and let it set for a few days and it would start and run again. Mechanic finally decided it was a bad fuel pressure regulator I had installed with the new carb. He removed it and all seemed OK. Ran $80 of gas through it and no problems.

 

For various non-car reasons, I did not drive it for a few months and then just this past weekend I decided to drive to a meeting about 20 miles away. 90% highway miles, 60 mph. About 4 miles from my destination the car started to surge, backfired, and I started to lose power. The car continued to lose power, back fire occasionally, slowed to 30 mph for a mile or so, then just died. I tried to make a phone call or so, and then on a whim decided to try and restart the car. It fired right up, dropped it into D, and drove the rest of the way into town.

 

When I made the return trip home the next day the same thing happened again. The only difference is I was about 1 mile from home when it all started and the car died 75 yards from my driveway. Once again I tried to restart the car, it fired right up and I was home.

 

Any ideas?

[bomccorkle 12]

Backfire is typically a lean condition. Do you know what the pressure reg is set to?? Sounds as If maybe The float bowls dried out due to the prolonged rpms.... But then again I know about diddley when it comes to edelbrocks...

[Brian Conway 264]

Could be as simple as a bad/loose coil connection. Brian

[BRADVAN 10]

Back when we removed the bad fuel pressure regulator we did not put another one on. The fuel pump is less that two years old.

 

I just did a quick look under the hood and I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. All plug wires and the coil wires are tightly attached. No fluid drips under the car other than those from the C4, which is usual for this car.

[Flanders 46]

the "would start after sitting for a few days" problem sounds just like when I had a pertronix ignition module (inside distributor) fed by the pink resistor wire. When 'cold', the pertronix would get around 12V and run just fine. But after things warmed up and the pertronix was getting less than 12V, I had all sorts of intermittent behavior (including not wanting to start again, until it was cold). I now feed my pertronix ignitor with a 12V source and it behaves just fine!