DeTomaso Mailing List: February 00, Message #25

Help! Help! Help! (more where those came from)

I've recently purchased '72 pre-L that has a perplexing problem. The car 
starts, idles, and runs fine at low rpm but after accelerating through the 
gears a couple of times it will falter and sometimes completely stall out. 
 While coasting down after it stalls I can usually keep the engine running 
by gently feathering the throttle.  Eventually, it will settle back down to 
an idle and be back to where it was before the acceleration run.  Fuel 
pressure appears to be good through the whole episode (9 pounds via fuel 
line gauge) and the glass fuel filter is clean and full - even though the 
car feels like it has just run out of gas.  Mechanically, the engine seems 
to be in very good shape with excellent manifold vacuum and compression. 
 The sparkplugs are darker than coffee colored but not black and seem to be 
burning OK.   The electric choke is working properly and John Taphorn and 
Kirby Schrader both seem to think the jets are sized OK.  Both accelerator 
pumps appear to work fine and fuel is not dribbling into the motor from 
stuck float bowls (float level at the sight plugs).  John and I separated 
the plug wires to check for crossfire and that didn't help.  No smoke, 
either black or white, is ever visible.  There is some sporadic backfiring 
when trying to recover from the stall but none otherwise.

The engine is set up with 750 Holley and complete MSD ignition system (with 
soft rev limiter), including fairly new MSD blue wires and a MSD billet 
distributor.  Yesterday I yanked the distributor cap and cleaned it 
thoroughly inside and out with alcohol and gooped the plug wires on both 
ends with dielectric lub.  Didn't help.  I've switched out rev limit plugs 
with no change.  Also 2 days ago John Taphorn retorqued the intake manifold 
- just in case. Yep, didn't help.  I regapped the plugs from 0.050 to 0.035 
to drop the air gap resistance but no good on that either.  Nothing I've 
done so far seem to have any effect.

Tomorrows project is to pull the carb and disassemble it to look for 
fur-balls or gunk or whatever.  Also, I have new MSD wires, cap and rotor 
ordered and on the way - but at this point I don't really think that is the 
problem.  Has anyone had any problems with MSD rev limiters cutting in when 
they aren't supposed to?  Can I disconnect the soft rev easily without 
impacting the ignition system?

I'm trying to get the car running well enough to drive to TWS this weekend 
but as it is I don't think it will make it.  I may have to take the T-Bird 
- ugh!

Any ideas anyone.  Please.

Dave Bell