Engine won't run with choke flap fully closed
Specs
- 350 2 bolt main
- I believe .480" lift COMP cam
- "Z28" valve springs
- Holley 600 cfm four barrel (Model 4160)
Background
Hello everybody, was hoping I could pick your brains about a problem I've been having. I'll start off by saying I rebuilt the engine about 3 years ago, but foolishly used an old Holley carb without rebuilding it. The carb came with a project I bought and was supposedly very lightly used. Then it sat for about 5 years before getting thrown on the 350.
I've always had trouble starting the engine on cold mornings, the method I have adopted is pull the choke cable about 1.5" out (full extension is maybe 4 inches) and keep it at around 1500 rpms with the gas pedal, doing this for maybe 30-45 seconds. Then I let it idle (~900 rpm) for a minute, and finally I take the choke off and drive away.
Problem
My problem is that if I try to close the choke flap all the way (choke fully engaged), the engine bogs down and dies, whether it's cold or warm. I apologize for my naivete, however I was wondering if this was normal? I tried googling the issue and all the results were people with the exact opposite problem, their engine would run with the choke on, but would die when they took it off. My instincts tell me that this isn't normal and is probably related to the state of the carb, however I wanted to run this by the pro's first. I should also note that I have ordered a rebuild kit for the carb regardless. Thanks for taking the time to read this and any help is greatly appreciated.