Purchased a running 68 350 six months ago and between doing a lot of refinishing and replacing on all aspects, I am now attempting to tune the car. The other day I replaced all plugs (AC Delco 45S gap .035), plug wires, fuel filter, dist cap, and points. I set the dwell (before anyone asks yes...with a dwell meter) @ 30 deg, and timing at 9 deg BTDC and vac advance disconnected. I had the car running for about 15 minutes while tuning it and dialed it in to 800 RPM. Engine was running smooth and went ahead and set the choke wide open. Was running great! Let the car sit for about 5 minutes and fired it back up and the idle is horrible! The car does not seem to want to hold an idle. Timing and dwell are still the same and timing is not jumping around. Replaced Vac lines and didn't seem to make a difference. I have the choke wide open and if I put my hand over the choke the idle steps up and the car runs lean. Temp was normal and no odd issues or noises. Double checked intake bolts, carb hold down bolts, plug wire routing, etc
I have a stock 350 WC code engine and a 4 speed. I purchased the car thru an estate sale and have some documentation on a complete engine rebuild, but the car had a 73 4 barrel carb (q-jet) and a 74 intake(EGR blocked off) I pulled the intake and replaced it with a Edelbrock performer (non-EGR) I don't have any vac ports on the intake (all plugged with exception of PVC) as its a manual-non power brake car and I have the Vac advance on distributor going to back of the carb.
I went thru the carb to make sure everything is good and jets-needle are fine. Accelerator pump works fine, float is where it needs to be, no clogs, gunk, or bad gaskets. I did find out my Jets are 72's and Metering rod 41.
Going to bolt the carb back on and put a vac port on the intake an get vac readings on everything tonight... Any suggestions or something I am missing?
