Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines '79 Nova stalls when drive is engaged

There is a '79 Nova (with a 250 inline) I'm planning on picking up here shortly to be a donor car for my '50 Chev. The guy who's selling this says it's been sitting for a long time (He's selling it for a friend). He recently went to start it up (it hadn't been started in quite some time), and it puffed a little smoke, cleared up and ran great. He said the problem is when he goes to engage it into gear the engine dies. Any thoughts on what I can check to diagnose this problem? Much Thanks!

I would run some Seafoam through it.

What's Sea Foam? Never heard of the stuff?

Never mind, just looked it up.. looks like I can get some of this at NAPA Auto.

Thanks.

73 Super,
I had a v-8 thing that sat for a while, would start up and idle fine, but when I put it in gear would stall. Turned out to be a bad power pump in the carb. Sea foam is great stuff, will clean the varnish out of the carb that forms with old gasoline.