Just wanted to pass this along for no other reason is it took me a while to figure this out and nobody outside this forum would pay much attention.

I have a ’69 with a CE 350 motor that I know was rebuilt but hadn’t been running properly and had been in storage a long time. It ran and drove well enough for a test drive when I bought it last year but was no great shakes. I made an earlier post about ‘rolling bomb’ because I finally got it running decently, went for state inspection and on the way it started puking fuel. Turned out to be a simple fix – needle & seat for the secondary. Very sudden and definitely a little nerve wracking when it happened. Turned out I had more tweaking to do.

This thing has a Holley 750 4160 3310-4 750cfm dual feed vacuum secondary carb. Compression is a consistent 215psi per cylinder, it has double hump heads (no idea which valves), an Edelbrock intake and a mild cam. Other than that no specifics but I didn’t think it was too far off from the 350/350 the console plate claims it is. I spoke to a PO from ’78 and he agrees that’s what is was supposed to be back then. Same motor/drivetrain but the '78-2016 owner probably did the rebuild, carb, intake, cam etc. The carburetor seemed a bit much for this application but I figured why not see if I can get it to work? I bought this to work on as a hobby and it’s there in my garage. I had someone locally (literally) yell at me to “pull that p.o.s off and go with …” another brand. Thanks for the enlightenment. I may do that one day but not because of the high volume advice. I don’t see him bringing potato salad to the Mensa picnic anytime soon anyway….

I took the strange path of actually reading what Holley has to say about that model and then watching the videos they make available. Go figure. I bought a few accelerator pump nozzles and a pack of pump cams. I use a credit card for everything (and clear it monthly) and have its reward points linked to my Amazon Prime account. For those of us who watch shipping, prices, and sellers closely this sometimes works out. Sometimes not but worth a look. When I used my linked credit card points I had a pack of cams & 3 shooters in my hand for about ten bucks.

I double checked the float levels and used a vacuum gauge to dial in the mixture screws for maximum vacuum – which in about 10Hg at idle @ 1/2 turn out. Without opening a can of worms on this one – I used the ported vacuum as Holley recommended and its working fine. The electric choke and fast idle cam was a real p.i.t.a but is working as well as it ever will.

Running traditional points & condenser. Set dwell @ 30* and after a LOT of experimenting set initial timing @ 6*. No backfires, farts, pops or the like and the plugs have an even tan color. So far anyway. Using 93 octane gas with (unfortunately) 10% ethanol. No choice. No additives other than a few cans of Seafoam initially to clean out the crapola. Great stuff. The carb will probably need the ‘refresh kit’ with the green rubber soon enough. For now I wanted it to work without having to take it apart and potentially create other problems. It was behaving consistently enough at least so I knew it was a matter of adjustment, not some internal failure.

After cycling through several I replaced the green cam with the ‘least fuel’ white one and a .031 shooter and solved my nasty off idle bog problem. It ain’t perfect but it now drives very nicely in traffic and at all speeds. No overheating. Apparently the PO had some different ideas about what this car is and how it should run. It did go OK @ w.o.t but that was about it. Made sure to change the oil & filter twice since it had been puking itself with fuel.

So there you go. Took me a while to figure all this out – answers always seem simple once you have them. Maybe someone who is having similar problems will find this useful.

 

I would set your timing at 36* at 3000 RPM. Vacuum plugged. 6* static is low.

 

Nice post

 

Good job. I need to install a O2 sensor at somepoint so I can do a better job at dialing in my settings.

 

Do it the old fashioned way keep advancing timing till you get slight spark knock at 30 mph top gear wot then back off just a bit timing.

 

O2 sensors are for setting the air fuel ratio.

Mike

 

My timing light, vacuum gauge and Sears meter are almost as old as the car and still work just fine. Systems like these be a giant pain in the shorts but are also very forgiving and half the fun for me is figuring out the puzzle for myself. I know someone who claims to 'tune by ear' and loves to twist the distributor fiddle with any screws he finds on a carb. This is why his cars run like crap half the time. That's just guesswork.

I have a 2004 Wide Glide with a Stage 2 kit in it. Its fuel injected and has a Dyno Power Commander in it. You need a laptop to talk to it and can select different EFI maps. Now with that thing I wouldn’t even attempt to fool with it (and have no reason to). Doesn’t actually look that hard but I know when to use my other extremely important piece of test gear – my pockets. Sometimes you just have to put your hands in them and step back!

So, under different circumstances I can definitely see a different toolkit and maybe even O2 sensors to give me a clearer idea of what’s going on. The Spock in me loves the details and who needs an excuse to buy more tools anyway? I just figured that the answer to the problem – minus a few parts from Holley – were already in my garage.

 

I agree it's fun to figure out problems, but for me, running down the road at WOT then stopping to pull plugs and read them won't fly with the local constabulary, and the price of speeding tickets and insurance increases now a days is insane.

 

Funny you should mention that. I snapped this on one of the many test runs necessary. Someone rear-ended a trooper. Oops. Bad day. Wrinkled fenders and nobody hurt fortunately.
As I rolled around the corner virtually all the responders looked and gave me a wave or a thumbs up! As long as I’m not doing anything really foolish I am not expecting any problems ……

 

The foolish part sometimes is hard to resist. Those voices in my head keep telling me it's a good idea to see if the torque and horsepower are still under the hood and hadn't escaped. I'ld hate to be the guy that rear ended that trooper. I bet it's cell phone related

 

Looks like a NY State Trooper.....

 

Yup. We live not too far from the local barracks and are very glad to have professionals like that cruising around the neighborhood.

 

Most cops are great guys like anyone else....just yesterday I witnessed a high speed chase in my town with the moron trying to flee the cops at 80 mph on roads posted 40 mph...I hope they beat the crap out of the idiot when they nailed him which they did.....Mercedes C class chased in high pursuit by 2 Dodge Charger V8's....

 

When I took my car to the muffler shop to have the headers connected to the exhaust, a cop rolled up next to me at a stop light and I thought well.......sht but he rolled down his window and shouted "Wanna run 'em?" I blipped the gas and hollered back "Yeah, let's line 'em up"