Help with 54 chevy 235 straight six.

My dads 54 chevy has not been able to start at all this year. It is burning plugs very badly. Running extremely rich, it will not idle at all. We have done everything from changing the condenser, the coil, plugs. His friend while helping him time it dropped a clip from the air cleaner that ended up on piston 4. We got that out and the piston and everything is fine. retorqued the head.

When the engine does start it is idling very violent. Smoking extremely bad, and when you go to leave it idle it just dies. We are willing to pay for time and expenses if it comes down to having to get someone out to Auburn to look at it.

I will get him on here from work tomorrow to have him help with any questions or explain better.

Thanks in advanced.
Sp3No

Sounds like a stuck float. Have you looked at/taken apart the Carb to check the needle/seat?

Sounds like you suck ass at working on stuff! J/k haha whats up bro? It does sound like the carb but i’m not sure what setup is on it…

Now that im at our music store ill have my dad explain more in more detail what was going on. we timed the engine by the ball on the flywheel…adjusted the distributor but could not secure the distributor.it rotates more than it should. the vacuum advance seems to work,but what locks down the distributor,thanks,mike

http://www.speedprint.com/deves50/doc/enginetiming.pdf

Also, did you check the carb float? If it’s been sitting for any period of time (winter only included) without a fuel stabilizer it can varnish up the needle and seat.

Yeah I would start with the carb as well. The nice thing about older setups is there is less shit to go wrong. Start with the carb and fuel setup as it seems to be running entirely to rich and then if everything check out there start on spark.

Thanks everyone the car is back on the road running strong. The problem did lie at the carb, i guess a jet fell off. Anyways thanks for all the help, it is greatly appreciated.