302 won't stay running

[66stang351w]

I need your guys help! I've got a 66 coupe with a 302 in it that won't stay running. It had sat for a day due to a big snow storm and when I went to start it, nothing. It took a while and drained the battery but I thought it was normal because it was cold and had happened before. When I finally did get it started it ran perfectly normal for about a minute then shut off on its own. I restarted it but the idle was now so low that I had to bump it up on the carburetor to keep it running but it would still shut off randomly. I got it to run long enough to get to the store but on the return trip it would sputter and backfire at any speed and eventually shut off all together. it was towed back to the house and I have replaced the points (which were bad) and the fuel filter (also bad). But it is still doing the same thing. The dwell is dead on and I recently set the timing but it was running great before that storm.
Any Idea what is going on.

 

[jlangholzj]

sounds like a fuel filter is clogged

 

[Noobz347]

What's the current outside temp? You may have water/ice in your tank and fuel system. Poor a bottle of HEAT into the tank before you spend a ton of money throwing parts at it.

 

[Hack]

What's the current outside temp? You may have water/ice in your tank and fuel system. Poor a bottle of HEAT into the tank before you spend a ton of money throwing parts at it.

That's possible in some areas of the country. Around here the government has taken kickbacks from ADM and now they mandate that ethanol be added to our fuel. The ethanol is the active ingredient in HEAT. It doesn't do what the government says it does, but it reduces/prevents gas line freeze ups.

It sounds to me like it could be the carb - junk got in it. You say you replaced the filter, but some carbs have a screen at the inlet. You might want to check that. If you have a known-good carb you could swap to check whether it's the carb or something else.

 

[66stang351w]

Thanks for the suggestions guys but it turns out that it was the condenser that was craping out on me. I'm just glad that it was something small and inexpensive and not something big.

 

[rsweld]

I would get rid of the points and condenser and put a Pertronix Igniter electronic module under the dist.cap

 

[Hack]

I would get rid of the points and condenser and put a Pertronix Igniter electronic module under the dist.cap

+1. Pertronix is much better than points for a small investment in time and money. I noticed both a fuel economy and power increase with the swap.

 

[jikelly]

+1 The electronic ignition will give you more power and a bump in fuel economy. I went with a weird laser system from Crane Cams and it is the bomb. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CIRZLM/?tag=stangnet-20