CHRYSLER 318L CARBURETOR

I just rebuilt the 318L in my

I just rebuilt the 318L in my boat. I seems like it is running well but it used to get up to 3400 RPM & now it only gets up to 3000 RPM. Could this just be a carburetor adjustment & if so what should I do?

"Hi Joe,

I went through a s

"Hi Joe,

I went through a similar experience last season. when I re-powered with a factory remanufactured LM318 long block. I swapped a lot of components, particularly the distributor & carburetor from the old engine to the reman- block. It turned out I carried two issues from the old engine to the replacement. The springs in the distributor that control the spark advance curve were badly corroded so the spark wasn't advancing with the rpm under load. I was getting a backfire around 2600-2800 rpm until I had the distributor rebuilt by an ignition shop (~$60), which solved that problem. You can verify the spark is advancing by reving the engine with a timing light on her. You should see the spark advance about 24 degrees from idle up to 2500 rpm in neutral. My second problem was a dirty 10 year old carburetor with the choke not properly adjusted. I sent the carb out for a re-build. I know you can do it yourself, but I'm far from a carb expert and I wanted someone with experience to deal with it. CarburetorUSA.com did a nice job for me. After that I can get up to 4,000 rpm. I did buy a book called Super tuning & Modifying Carter Carburetors by Dave Emanuel. After reading it I have a little better understanding of how the carburetor works, but I still wouldn't feel comfortable re-building it myself. I did some idle mixture screw adjustments that smoothed out the idle, but that won't help you at the top end.
Good Luck,
Chuck"

Triple check your timing. At l

Triple check your timing. At low rpm and at higher. then figure in your head which way it should move to advance. I had a rebuilt engine put in my boat that the timing tab was for the other rotation. though the tab said I was running 5 degrees BTDC I was actually 5 Deg ATDC! and when I reved it got worse! two years it took me to find that problem.