[redneckhotrods]

It's a 304 amc with edelbrock carb.Right side header heats up and the left one stays warm,you can touch with your hand,what would cause this ?
Thanks for reading

[carsavvycook]

Originally Posted by redneckhotrods

It's a 304 amc with edelbrock carb.Right side header heats up and the left one stays warm,you can touch with your hand,what would cause this ?
Thanks for reading

Is this just at idle, or after driving it?

Either way, the left side is running too rich, from your carb adjustments, or you have a mechanical problem causing it to not build enough compression, and have a short 'burn' time in that bank.

This could be the valve "adjustment", or push rod length.

[Jmark]

Possibly could be a plugged exhaust pipe or bad muffler (broken baffle) blocking one side and sending the exhaust through the exhaust cross over in the intake and out the other side?

[redneckhotrods]

The headers connect to sidepipe mufflers, left side mixture screw is turned all the way clockwise and no change.

[DoubleVision]

Then you have a carb problem. If the mixture screws don`t change the idle then there is a issue elsewhere. With the engine at idle and air cleaner removed, shine a light in the carbs throat and see if any fuel is dripping out of the boosters. If not, next shut the engine down and see if white smoke begins to rise out of the carb. You have fuel coming in where it shouldn`t or a rather healthy vacuum leak on that bank if the idle screw don`t respond or even possibly a plugged idle circuit. If there is no vacuum leak then check the fuel pressure first, it shouldn`t be over 5 pounds, if you have no fuel pressure gauge get one. Or, the needle could be sticking open on the seat, and lastly, the float setting is too high.

[carsavvycook]

Originally Posted by redneckhotrods

The headers connect to sidepipe mufflers, left side mixture screw is turned all the way clockwise and no change.

Do a compression test of all 8 cylinders, closed throttle, and with an open throttle test. I'll bet the left bank is lower in both tests.

You could have a 'vacuum' leak at the carb base gasket, or intake gasket. The A/F ratio will also cause a 'miss-fire', but I do not 'suspect' this.

Now that it has wound down here, I can give my reasoning for my thoughts.

In any machining processes, block or head surfacing, if one head, or the left side of the block, or a combination there of, was surfaced more than the other side to a total of .030 difference, and the total pre-load of the lifter is too much.

[amcramblermarlin]

May sound dumb, but my first thought was stuck exhaust manifold heat valve -passenger side manifold. But since has headers... maybe someone pushed a potato in the right side exhaust pipe, or some other prank to clog it.

I've had this happen to me and I was trying everything else to fix it, only to discover a clogged exhaust pipe. -sure made a fool out of me!

-mean prank, not funny...

[Jmark]

Originally Posted by amcramblermarlin

May sound dumb, but my first thought was stuck exhaust manifold heat valve -passenger side manifold. But since has headers... maybe someone pushed a potato in the right side exhaust pipe, or some other prank to clog it.

I've had this happen to me and I was trying everything else to fix it, only to discover a clogged exhaust pipe. -sure made a fool out of me!

-mean prank, not funny...

I was thinking the same thing last night! LOL Reminds me of Eddie Murphy in one of his Beverly Hills Cop shows.