I'm definitely a novice, but just put a new cam in my 66 coupe and everything went well.The engine runs okay, but when I try to lower the idle speed it struggles a little which is tough to do without a tach. Here's the problem, whenever I try to put the car in gear the engine dies. It seems like the added resistance is just to much to handle....I would time it with a timing light but I don't know how, and i thought if I marked the distributor I wouldn't need to. anything that would help me out would be greatly appreciated!!!!!

 

Well, you definately need to set the timing. If you have a light, it should have connectors to hook to the battery and a lead to clamp on the #1 plug wire. At idle, set it to 10 BTC. May also want to unplug the vacuum advance when you do it. Make sure advance is hooked to "ported" vacuum source.(should not be one of the lower connnections)

 

well how big was the cam u installed??? and if its a automatic, you might need a stall converter now