[PMDJIM]

Just bought a 79 Formula at an estate auction and I'm having trouble with the car. It starts fine and idles ok. I have trouble while driving the car after warm up. It seems the longer I drive the car wants to cut out / stall. The engine will seem to die then catch the die then catch. It seems to occur at higher rpm. Then after that it will stall completely. After sitting for a couple of minutes it will restart. The last inspection was June of last year. I'm wondering if it might be picking up sedement from the tank and blocking up the fuel filter. Is it possibly the coil pack in the HEI or clogged Cat. converter. I did notice the car is wearing the original plug wires dated 2Q79. By the way It's a 301 Y motor. Any help is appreciated.

[2manyT/A'S]

I'd definately check the fuel filter in the carb first!
It almost sounds like a fuel rather than electrical problem.It couldn't hurt to have a look inside the carb. Sticky needle/seat? Carb kit couldn't hurt.
You didn't mention how many miles were on it.
Any signs of recent work/tune-up?
The plug wires should be OK unless they are burnt or damaged.
Ignition modules on the old HEI's tend to die completely rather than fail intermittantly.
Plugged converter will generally just display power loss.

You could just go down to the parts store & throw 200.00 worth of parts at it,but it's MORE FUN to try & figure out what the actual problem is rather than just replace everything.(sometimes that doesn't work either)

[PMDJIM]

Thanks for the response. But how do you know when a 301 is down on power. Anyway the car has 86,000 miles on it and I don't know about tune up.

[se428bandit]

Jim i had a 75 formula that was doing the same thing and the sock[filter] in the fuel tank had all type of dirt in there.I changed the filter in the tank out and never had the problem again.

[Razorhorn]

Originally Posted by se428bandit

Jim i had a 75 formula that was doing the same thing and the sock[filter] in the fuel tank had all type of dirt in there.I changed the filter in the tank out and never had the problem again.

I agree this sounds a lot like fuel starvation and this is the first place I'd check.

The next place is the in-line fuel filter. I'm not sure about the 301 carb's, but likely the filter is in the base of the carb where the fuel line enters, and is an easy do-it-yourself job even if you're not that handy. I recommend you replace the sock filter first, then if that doesn't fix you up, replace the carb filter. Get back to us and let us know how it turns out. There are other things that could be causing this (as mentioned above internal to the carb) but it would require a carb re-build. Sounds difficult, but it's really not. Try the filters first.

[Grand73Am]

Yes, the fuel sender strainer can clog with rust sediment, shutting you down and then when the sediment settles, the car will run again for a while until the strainer clogs again. If you find your fuel sender strainer is clogged with rust sediment, have a look inside the tank, because the inside of the tank will be rusty too. Sometimes you can just rinse the loose sediment out of it and the problem will go away for quite a while. Or better would be to put in a new tank while you have it out, of course .

[Tin Injun Tom]

Jim,
I had a '78 Grand Am, with 301 Y engine. I had the car in storage roughly five years, and had some symptoms like yours, but strangely, I had been driving the car alot before the symptoms arose. It seemed to act up most on a cold rainy day.
I got away with changing the fuel filter, and it was fine. That's not saying there could very well have been some sediment in the tank though. My car had 130K at the time.
When you pull the filter out of the carb, blow into one end of it. If your cheeks puff out, that's the culprit.