Hi, my truck wont stay running, it cranks and fires up right away then dies. I added gas line antifreeze, tightened the carb, but am stumped. Also it was blowing really black out the tailpipe before it died as the truck sat on a farm for who knows how long before i bought it, could it be the exhaust is plugged up. The engine is a 360ci and it has a new carb on it. Thank you

 

Does it die instantly as you release the key from the start position? If so, this is a classic symptom of a bad coil resistor. What happens is, the ign. switch supplies coil power in start, bypassing the resistor.

If it runs longer, could be a lot of things, including bad, stale gas.

I'd block the choke wide open by whatever means--wire, etc, until you eliminate the choke

Could be the gas in the carb (sitting) gummed up the carb, and it just needs to be cleaned out

Doubt it's the exhaust, but there has been cases of catalytic converters condensing water and then freezing, etc I'd check elsewhere first

One thing that PROBABLY is not causing the problem, but is something to check, make sure the spring loaded exhaust butterfly is not stuck. Will be a big "weight thingie" immediately above the junction of the exhaust pipe and the exhaust manifold. Should rotate back and forth easily.

 

Yes that is exactly what happens, it fires fine when the key is turning and as soon as i let go of the key , it dies. And i tried the screwdriver in the choke already and nothing.

 

I also put a new carb on before this happened, and was running fine.

 

Sounds like a bad ballast (ignition coil) resistor

 

Hey thanks alot you nailed it, i changed the resistor and now it purrs like a kitten again, awesome!!!