yeah, i made a deal with the wife that when i got the car im not supposed to be putting much money into it until i put a pool in for her(im ordering it monday). Once the pools in i can go get the rest of the exhaust on and then drive the beast!!

Todd, You showed a lot of Maracas in opening up that Holley!

The 700R4 is a good improvement in fuel economy BUT most guys I know who have done it have shifting problems. Your column was originally made for three shift points (two if there is a PG in there) and now you are asking it to catch 4 and it doesn't always work perfectly. Slinky may have the answer for you.

I bought a four speed shift kit for my console.( shiftworks sells conversion kits 1964-81 GM factory automatic console,column shifters,gauges and in dash tachometers)(www.shiftworks.com/) The people their where good to work with

Things went from bad to worse tonight. I re-adjusted the fuel level and then adjusted the fuel mixture going "by the book" and using a vacuum gauge. I took the car out and it felt good until I got on the highway. When I kicked it down it responded for about 4 seconds then bogged down as if it was leaning out. I pulled over and turned the mixture out about 1/2 turn. It was worse. Am I right in assuming turning the mixture screws left (loose) increases fuel flow or is it the other way around? I got the car home and attempted to start over by turning the screws all the way in and turning them both out 3 turns. The car ran, then stalled and wouldn't restart. I pulled a plug and it was soaked! I let them dry, got the car to barely run enough to get it in the garage and at this point I can't get it started. I think something is wrong inside the carb. I had enough for tonight and likely won't get back to it for a few days. This sucks as I wanted to take the car to the Dorchester car show Sunday. I think I'll save my pennies and buy an Edelbrock carb.

69Laurentian wrote:

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I'll save my pennies and buy an Edelbrock carb.

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I bought a 600cfm Performer. Our Performance ImProvement Guru, Bruce Beattie convinced me to ditch my leaky Q-jet. He set me up with everything I needed, filter, studs, gasket, brackets. He said it was set up for a 350 sbc from the factory running a 14" X 3" tall open element air cleaner. We bolted it all up, put on the spec'd air cleaner, turned the key and it ran, and ran good, never touched an idle mixture or idle speed screw for two years. I was so happy I wrote Vic a letter.

Tonight I got the last piece of my tune up installed, new wires, and I knocked another eight of a turn off the idle mixture and had to reset the idle speed. I am running lean and with power. On the Highway when I drop the hammer the Edelbrock sounds like it is going to suck my NASA hood right into the engine compartment. It really shines at highway speed. Vic makes good stuff.
 
My advice no matter what you get is not to get too much carb.

I found an Edelbrock 600 manual choke last night. The owner lives in Kitchener and visits his girlfriend in Woodstock every weekend (thats 15 minutes from me) He bought it new and had it on his F*rd truck for about 3 months. The truck is being parted. He said it runs great. Only wants $120 for it so it's not a huge gamble. I might give that a go.

I snoozed and loozed. Someone already snatched it up. So...if anyone has a decent 600cfm Edelbrock for sale, let me know..

I took the carb of the engine. I attempted to remove the top to have a look at the floats. It's a Holley 4010 which uses 10 torx screws to remove the complete top cover. I removed the screws and no matter what I tried, the cover would not budge. I rechecked my instructions and online and it should have lifted right off. Fearing I'd damage it trying, I put the screws back in, plopped it back on my engine, reset the float, turned the mixture screws in all the way and then out only 2 turns and hooked the linkage etc back up. I turned it over and...battery dead! What? Not sure how that happened. So.. I hook up my booster pack and turn it over.. the car fires right up but barely idles. I hook up my vacuum gauge and turn the screws out a half turn. Still hot much difference in idle but now my smoke alarm goes off. I throw alarm onto the lawn. By this time the back of my garage is uninhabitable due to the rich exhaust. I turn the screws in till I start to feel resistance. The idles clears up and vacuum increases! Figuring I had nothing to lose, I grab my cell phone and CAA card and go for a drive. The damn thing runs flawless! Not a bog, nothing! I figured now was a good chance to really drive her and that's what I did. She pulled strong up to 70mph (I ran out of road). I turned around and hit 50 and manually geared down and tromped it. She didn't miss a beat. I'll leave it as is for now and see how it continues to run. I need to change the diluted oil.
My next concern is how hot it runs (now that I have gauges I'm paranoid!) It runs at a steady 225. That's 3/4 of my temp gauge. My t-stat is new however I don't know what temp it's rated at.

So, I don't know what I did different. Perhaps the float was stuck and pulling it off and moving it around caused it to free up.

I once had a carb that was sputtering and frustrating me to the point that I gave it three sharp wacks with the handle end of a big Craftsmans screwdriver. It never gave me any trouble again !

Todd you are a "Carb Master".

We'll see what kind of Carb Master I am tomorrow when I cold start it. Knowing how things have been going for me, the battery will be dead and I'll some sort of draw that cropped up since swapping that cluster!
Never a dull moment!