My 3.5 V8 has been running great around the neighborhood, but is dramatically losing power on decent-sized hills, especially at cruising speed. It doesn’t sputter or feel like it’s going to stall, just pedal to the floor and no pull … downshifting helps for a second but still runs out of juice. Going to mess with it a bit today … fuel filter? Fuel pump? Carbs gross? Plugs? Cap? Vacuum advance? Anything else I should be looking for? Exhaust system is new. Thanks, guys.
Did it ever perform well on hills? My experience with a 3.5 is it's just a 3.5 and rather anemic. Hell, even my '99 DI 4.0 is lackluster in the mountain passes of VA.
I was thinking much the same; are we sure that it isn't just hampered by...gravity?
My 4.0 GEMs requires downshifting in the mountains of VA to maintain a relative speed too!
There were two versions of the 3.5 a low compression of around 8.3 to one that made no power and the higher compression one that made around 130 or so. Either way, not enough displacement for torque and not enough compression for hp.
It used to maintain relative speed with a downshift to third. Sorta kinda Now it seems that without a running start, or crawling in a lower gear, I'm going to start rolling backward.
Points, plugs etc. for sure. I would do a complete tune-up including changing the fuel filter. If you are still running dual carbs make sure they are balanced and not one doing all the work.
It would help to know what kind of CARB you are running.
If it is the dual carb - make sure that the connecting rod between both is in good condition. Early on, mine broke and I did not know it. The result was when I pushed the gas pedal - I was only opening one carb. The truck ran OK but really lacked any power.
If you are running an Edlebrock - make sure your float levels and and needle valve adjustments are OK.
I will definitely add the connecting rod to the checklist. I am running stock dual carb and I haven't messed with them at all yet.
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