First of all who like to say hello to you all! Glad to be here! Hope i can get some help from all you Dakota owners!
So i purchased a 1990 dakota last year (amazing shape). It was certainly well taken care off! I get it home and do a little maintenance to get it on the road! while i was replacing the spark plugs and wires, i noticed there were a few wires not plugged in in places.........now I'm that familiar with carbed engines, but when i looked below the air filter.......I read Holley....which i know they made stock carbs for dodge. List Number 8007! 390cfm 4bbl to be exact!! It also had a mopar 4bbl intake. So a 90 Dakota with a carbed engine! Whatever I thought....it ran pretty well and wasn't burning any oil! I get it inspected and insured! The first day on the road...I drive my women to work about 8km. Driving there, things seemed find until I was almost home. The truck started to slowly stall like I was running out of gas (of course i was on a big hill) I managed to keep it going till I pulled to a side road. then it stalled completely. I pulled it over a few times nothing! I had a full tank of gas so I knew it wasn't empty. Popped the hood and i could smell gas right by the carb! left it alone for about 35 mins....pulled it over and drove home! I spent the whole weekend with a buddy going over the truck completely! So it turned out that the truck had it's original fuel tank with in tank pump but power to the pump was cut and taped. I followed the fuel lines and seen a Carter fuel pump on the rail......then under the hood it had a tiny fuel filter right before going into the carb. The Carter was hooked up to the ignition...so if i turned it a head a little i could hear the pump.....but now it was steady pumping fuel to the carb. When i would start it and leave it going for about 15 mins...it would start to flood again......i looked at the carb and a pile of fuel was flooding the bowl! The engine seemed to be running rich and i could see a pile of smoke coming from the exhaust! I didn"t want to mess with anything else being that i was intimidated in working with fuel issues! I brought it to a good friend (mechanic). He took off the pump on the rail and installed a mechanical fuel pump. Sweet i thought, but now things were worse. He would start it up...exhaust bailing out smoke a lot more (burning super rich) it ran pretty nice, but the bowl would flood with in about 4-5 mins! So this is where i am right now! I just ordered a new holley 390cfm 4 bbl, and i picked up a $50 adjustable fuel pressure regulator. I'm hoping this solves the issue!! Has anyone ever came across problems like this?? If someone could guide me in a positive direction...I would really appreciate it!