[rexasaurus]

Got a great barn find, a 69 Cutlass, really a fun thing to come across. It has a 350 motor with an edelbrock high-rise and a holley 750 carb. Son and I have been driving it, paid almost no attention to the drivetrain while we do some much needed work to the body and interior.

So, the car sits for a day without being run (It has a performance cam - don't know specifics) and idles fairly rough. We have begun looking for a carb-genius mechanic to set the motor up for our needs. Anyway, son goes out this morning, starts the car, it runs a bit rough, kind of coughs a couple times then dies.

Now it will crank and crank but not fire. We have spark (as demonstrated by removing a spark plug and cranking the engine while holding the spark near metal - it sparks. the spark cable even 'bit' my hand). We believe we have fuel to the cylinder because the plugs are/were wet when removed. However, when we cranked it last, we heard a funny sound like some type of liquid under pressure - hhhsssssssss. We cranked it again and I jumped on top of the motor and the carb was full of fuel! When we stopped cranking the fuel made the hhhhssssss sound aagain and was drawn down.

Anyone ever see anything like this? I would love to say this is a timing issue, as it sounds almost classic, but no adjustments of any kind have been made to cause the change. More likely, I wonder if the carb is gummy and finally, even though we've been driving it, finally bogged down under its own muck and gunk.

I'd appreciate any thoughts, ideas or suggestions as to how to remedy this and get the motor to start. BTW, it makes absolutely no sound that indicates it is firing at all, just cranks cold over and over.

[Overdriv]

I would guess that your needle and seat is stuck open with junk in it or/and one of your bowl floats might be sunk. Carb needs a thorough cleaning and new needle & seat and gaskets, ec.

Might want to check your oil as I'm betting your have gas in the pan, maybe a lot of it.