Thread: bbc help badly needed

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I dont know about your carb, but Im still worried about your new cam, if that's what it is, after all this cranking.

i think it is okay. all in all, i havent done too much dry cranking. even though i know it only takes one to wipe it out. pretty much every crank on the starter has resulted in a run, and other than the few times i mentioned i keep it running for a few minutes just for the sake of hopefully saving it.


paging carb experts again

Dont you have a friend that will let you try a known good carb just to get your engine running? Your new one should of course be good, but it may have a defect. Try swapping a good one even if it's the wrong size. That will tell you if it's the carb or not.

To start with on either side of the carb's front metering block(between the front float bowl and the carb base) are small brass screws. These are the idle mixture screws. Start off by carefully turning them all the way in(cw) until they bottom out.Back them out(ccw) 1 1/2 to 2 turns. Do each side this way engine off. Then locate the idle speed setting on the carb body by the front throttle shaft.(driver side of car) Adjust this back (ccw) until it does not open the throttles.(put your hand on the throttle and you can feel it stop moving) With the throttles(butterflys) fully closed , turn this screw in about 1/2 turn. This should get you started and you can adjust the idle speed as you warm it up. You will want it fairly high at first to break in the cam, usually over 2,000 rpm. Holley makes a great book on their carbs. I would suggest that you get one. I would send you some pictures to help you out but I can't find mine right now. Let me know how you make out.

thanks 409, hopefully sunday ill get to try this out.

okay guys im back. i know its been awhile, but i got busy. i now have one sweet running, bad ass sounding big block. it wasnt a fuel problem, it wasnt a timing problem, it WAS a stupid human problem. you see ive been working on this car here and there for a couple of years. kind of a monetary ebb and flow. well at some point between installing carb studs and actually installing carb, the thin brass washers that come with the stud kit got left on the manifold, gasket got put over them, carb on to gasket and so on. so what i ended up with was the biggest vacuum leak in the history of the world. which pretty much sums up why no amount of trouble shooting yielded any real results. also for those of you interested, that was not my gear drive, it was the vacuum leak. that sound is completely gone now. only problem is that now i wish my gear drive was louder!!!!!!

"now i wish my gear drive was louder!!!!!!"

No you don't.

I dispise those friggin things. Sounds like the timing chain is draggin against the cover. But to each his own I guess. That is the difference between a kid and an old man.
Ed

Take it off and randomly install some odd sized washers behind it.
Also you can cut some off the teeth off with a dremel tool, every other one should be suficient, you don't really need all those teeth anyway do you? besides, might be a good way to shed some extra weight from your engine
Once you reinstall the gear drive with the afore mentioned mods, it should be loud enough to satisfy your need for a loud gear drive, you might even get some of those "what the hell is that!" looks from bystanders

John