Hello all,

I have a 69 Camaro that has been sitting for a while since I had joined the military about 20 years ago. The car was a high school project that was left undone and parked at my parents home in California until the moved to Florida 2 years ago.

Anyway the car received a paint job, reupuloster interior, a rebuilt 396 bored 30 over with rear end gearsof 4:57 anda muncie 4 speed.

Well the engine fired right upa few weeks ago afterfilling the tank up with fresh gas and changing the oil andlubricating the cylinder walls. Even drove it down the road.

When I built the car I was influence by a lot of people who told me that bigger was better so I may have over did it on the engineand the combination of internal parts did not seem to work well together.

The engine is 396 bored 30 over,hydraulic erson cam with 575 lift, torkerII intake manifold with a holley 650, mallory unilite distributorwith mallary wires and a holley mechanical fuel pump.

The car seems to be rich at idle and chokes and back fires going down the road. I have already turned down the mixture screews and played with the timing but no luck.What can I do to remedy the problem?

Thank You

 

I would first check the fuel pressure to the carb being that you installed the holly pump beyond that it could be a float adjustment or if it is an older carb the power valve.

 

Check your floats, after sitting for a long time they will stick and not work.

 

Take this with a grain of salt as I have been in your shoes without the help of the internet.

This is one (of many that I can think of) situations where the internet can be more harmful than helpful. I can say this a million times till I'm blue in the face, but you can't tell someone over the internet how to tune a carb. You have to learn by trial and error doing it yourself. We don't have the benefit that the ASE guys do and let the computer tell us what's wrong.

Here's my other 2 cents. Dave Emanuel has written 2 books that I used as my bibles while I was learning about cars. "Super tuning and Modifying Holley Carburetors" and "Big Block Chevy Performance". These two books aren't nessecerily the "gospel" but Dave has written these books for the laymen in mind.

Absolutley get the carb book. Read it, refer to it often and you will never be without the knowledge of where to start looking for tuning problems. I can guarantee that.

RM

 

Thanks Fellas! I will look into the floats and also buying a book on how to turn the carb! At least no said that I have the wrong combination of parts!