HI,i have some questions,= I have transplanted a 350 5.7 olds gas/petrol engine into my 82 5.7 diesel cadillac seville,it appears to be running ok,but when i put a timing strobe on it the reading is nowhere near the scale that bolted to the timing cover, if i try to adjust the dizzy to get the timing marks to line up it stalls, the other thing is with a vacumm gauge i get a steady 10/11 reading not the 15/20 i should, now is it because its a v8? and the reading is correct for that engine? as my book is really for older english cars from about the 50/60s,or should i chuck the vacuum gauge away? any help would be really apreciated as i,m pretty well on my own in this country

 

1. What year is the engine? 2. Are you running an HEI or points distributor?

If you have an HEI then you need to disconnect and plug the line to the distributor vacuum advance at the carb. Then set the timing to 20° @ 1100RPM.
Make sure you have the firing order correct 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 counter clockwise.
Start there and see what happens.

 

I think the engine is mid 70s, i found an american car dealer who had several of these on the shelf,there is about 2/3 thou wear in the bores, but oh boy was it in a sludged up state!, i fitted the tappet bridges ect from the diesel as they were new,the dizzy is a points system,but nowhere in the book can i find points gap,plug gaps,i have the firing order correct and it has an early holly carb [2300]

 

The service manual doesn't even list the point gap, just the dwell. 30° +/- 2°.
Set the initial at 8° and go from there. Those diesel rocker bridges MAY be an issue, but I'm not sure about that. Check with your locak parts place and compare them with a set from a gas block. They might look the same, but the stand offs might be shorter by enough to not allow you to build enough compression for it to run correctly.

Check for vacuum leaks around the carb base, intake and heads and all of the vacuum lines to be sure all is tight.

 

the timing appears to be ok at some 30btdc according to the mark on the pully,the rocker bridges micrometer up the same I have replaced the carb gasket and i cannot detect ant sighn of a vacuum leak and still it registers 10/11 on the gauge,to me its running good but I aint familar with v 8 s, i can floor the throttle and it picks up the revs ok.I think I will check the guage against a motor i know is correct

 

30° BTDC at idle is WAY too much. That would put your total at about 54° and that's not good. You need to set it at 8° BTDC. If it won't idle there my guess is the timing chain. That would also explain the low vacuum numbers.

 

Hmmm,the gas engine when i got it was pretty well in gunge state so I would predict that it had not been got at during its life but that is an unknown,your idea that the timing is out via the timing chain makes sense but that would mean that its been wrong since it was built,I think I will try a compresion test tomorow on all the cyl to see if that throws anything up

 

If you get low numbers across the board try a few drops of oil in a couple of cylinders and see what happens.

 

I reset the dizy to the chiltern book instructions ie 1 and 8 position should be facing the firewall,I had it set facing the passenger side fender,I cant see it making any difference as the firing order is still the same,but it did!at about 8 to 10 degrees it runs, it runs better if I increase to say 15/20 btdc but it will run at 8/10, so thats an improvement, vacuum is still low,compresion test show all steady at 150 lbs sq inch.i am replacing carb mating gaskets now,but the really bad news is the digital dash has gone and packed in, i was fiddling with the wiring behind the dash so it looks like its self inflicted,the info that this holly 2300 carb is not right for this car is interesting reading,I have had IP for the diesel engine sent from the states so if the are empty and dry it should be ok to ship we used UPS.and if invoiced via paypal I can pay ok