Runs like crap now

I failed to follow my own advice last fall and only change one thing at a time, so now I have a problem I can’t decide how to begin to diagnose. 1977, base model. Not the original engine.

Last summer I switched from an Edelbrock 1406 back to the original QJet. That went fine. It drove great with my only complaint being the choke. Once it started and warmed up it ran terrific. The choke had issues (missing & mismatched parts) that I didn’t want to mess with. So, I swapped it out for my “spare” QJet. Same model number, same jets and rods but all the choke parts were correct and functional. (Before you ask, that spare wasn’t complete when the first one went on the car.)

So far, so good. Car started easily, idled great and correctly stepped down from fast idle to regular idle when warmed up. Here’s where I messed up. Since the car started and seemed fine, I went ahead and swapped out plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor and then recurved the timing. I had it on my list to do and kept putting it off until the carb situation was solved, which I thought it was. Nope.

When I took it out for the first test drive, it chugs and misses badly. It’ll idle at stoplights just fine but pulling away it’s like it’s running on 6 cylinders. No pinging, just “coughing” for lack of a better word. I wouldn’t call it a surge or a stumble either.

Thinking maybe it’s a bad cap, I swapped the old parts back on (cap, attached coil and the rotor). Same deal. 

So I ask: where would you start? Fuel or spark? Undo all the ignition changes or undo the carb changes? Either way it’s a PITA. I’m kinda stuck trying to decide what way to go.  Any brilliant ideas would be appreciated. 

Steve 

Do you have a cross fire cap, and are the wires in the correct position?

Not sure I know what you mean by a cross fire cap. It has HEI, and I'm 99% sure the wires are in the right positions. But it's a good question, I will check tomorrow. If that's what's wrong I'll really be embarrassed lol.

Well, here's a possibility, had it happen to me. Same deal car would start fine and idle fine up to around 1500 rpm. Past that point it would cough, stumble and seem to miss. After tons of trouble shooting and finally replacing the HEI with a friend's HEI it ran fine. I changed everything I thought I could in the HEI but overlooked the tiny little unit fastened to the base plate that I assume is the equivalent of a condenser on a standard points distributor. that solved my problem!

That's a thought. I hadn't considered that, thanks.

I did double check the wires today. They're all in the right place on the cap and headed to the correct cylinder. So at least that's eliminated.

I had decided today that I'd try swapping back the other QJet (with the choke problem) to see if the rough running goes away. But I'll try swapping a different capacitor on there and see if it makes a difference first. Easier than swapping the carb :-).

Steve

Ignition Control module.

https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/chevrolet,1977,corvette,5.7l+350cid+v8,1041062,ignition,ignition+control+module+(icm),7172

I have a spare ignition control module. I didn’t think they failed slowly- I thought either it works or it’s dead. Have you seen them cause this?

I had a chance to swap the capacitor Sunday and test drive. No change , so I’ll try my spare ignition module next. 

To be clear, all the ignition parts I’m trying have run fine on the car previously. I checked them out and put them away specifically so I’d know they were good in case I needed to replace a component. 

I think there is a special grease you have to put under that module.

Any possibility that a plug got bumped and closed the gap?

You recurved the timing.  Was that at the exact time of the cap/rotor swap or a completely different procedure after the fact?