The last time I drove my Pantera, it stumbled a bit a few times. When I started it up today, it took many cranks to start (a long time) when it usually fires right up. When it did finally start, it idled fine for a minute or so in the garage and the gas pedal was responsive, then it abruptly shut off. Subsequent cranks resulted in an immediate VROOOOOM then it would shut right off (the gas pedal would be unresponsive).
Spark is present. When I squirted the carb manually (engine off), a puff of black smoke came out of the secondaries. A peek down the barrels showed everything black with carbon build up, hence the black smoke. I sprayed down the inside of the carb with carb cleaner until it was shiny again. It was a little rough starting the engine back up because of the excess cleaner, but it eventually smoothed out and ran fine... for about another minute then the abrupt shut off again. Trying to start it up again gave me the same results as before: VROOOOOM, then off (with a dead pedal throughout the vroooom).
I had to leave, so I couldn't play with it anymore. It's a silver Holley street carb sitiing on a stock '86 5-S Cleveland. Any suggestions?
Michael
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