[70nova327]

looks ill be changing the intake gasket, i did another dist vacuum test and it was just below 3 still, when i bumped the throttle a bit the it still wanted to die but i saw the vacuum on the gauge drop and bottom out as well, its like its sucking in air. heres the back story on the car. bought about a month ago running but not great. it always had a slight back fire at high rpm's i could never really stand on it with an issue, but it was driveable as long as i was gentle with it. it started running worse and it would barely drive and thats when i pulled the plugs and now im at where im at. at first i thought the balancer might be seperating cuz the readings were all over the place but now after these tests it seems that it could all be vacuum related?

thanks for all your help and advice, if you see a (909) area code calling it will be me!

thanks Bruce

[70nova327]

i thought it was a cast intake, it been painted black but after looking at it it's an edelbrock performer intake.

[cdminter59]

Originally Posted by 70nova327

i thought it was a cast intake, it been painted black but after looking at it it's an edelbrock performer intake.

Bruce, Does the Performer intake have the heat passages, a port in the center running under the carburetor? If it does use the Felpro Q1204 intake gaskets they have the metal shims that block the ports. You don't need to be heating the intake when you have an electric choke on the Edelbrock Carburetor. Another thing run 5lbs of fuel pressure to your carburetor even if you have to install a regulator.

[70nova327]

its the edelbrock 2101, yeah it looked like it did those openings, my local parts houses didnt have that fel-pro gasket you suggested, just the one with the center holes open which is what i think your referring to that i dont need to be open on mine. they both said that was a special order item. so i used the one they had which was a huge improvement and it ran much better but still not perfect. is that going to be a big issue? at the time it was worth it to me just for the piece of mind to see if there was a difference at there for sure was. but from youve told me i dont think with my old school timing gun ill be able to dial in the timing still? i didnt have time to get to the valves at all but it seems to be getting better, that old gasket was soggy and crumbling apart and the front and back of the intake didnt have the rubber the gaskets at all, it looked to be half-a**ed with mounds of white permatex.

[70nova327]

ill check the fuel pressure this evening.

[70nova327]

the dist gear looked brand new with zero wear, it was hard to see down the shaft even with a flash light but i didnt see anything bad, and the gear on the dist didnt have any shavings or anything on it either. i read that link about tuning with a vacuum gauge, great link by the way! ill give that a shot tonight. and ill use the large port for the pcv valve for the gauge, i was using the smaller port which that link said not to do.

[cdminter59]

Bruce, If you didn't get the gasket that blocks off the heat passage you will have to get one of these. http://www.jegs.com/i/Edelbrock/350/...oductId=743639
You have to use one of these to keep the fuel from getting too hot. It will boil. If you are running it now after you shut it off and feel the carburetor base plate and that part of the intake. You will probably have to buy it online. So after you changed intake gaskets how does it run? How much vacuum does the engine have? Oh BTW on the front and back of the intake (most call them the china walls) you use a high grade of RTV. The rubber gaskets supplied will eventually push out. It always happens. http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc...er=554295_0_0_ This is what to use.

[70nova327]

it fired right up, still need to dial the timing in but at one point i was able to rev it to about 5k rpm's with no hesitation or backfire, that was by ear since my timing gun sucks, that vacuum gauge link showed a great way to time by the vacuum gauge so i'll try that, i still need to pull the valve covers and check the valve adjustments, from my understanding if one is to tight that could also be contributing to my low vacuum/backfiring/hesitation on acceleration. and i'll be checking the vacuum tonight the proper way.

[70nova327]

the old gasket was just like the one i replaced it with, so that was making my fuel boil as well id assume, what affect is that making?

[70nova327]

currently its intake, gasket, spacer, gasket and then carb.

[cdminter59]

Originally Posted by 70nova327

currently its intake, gasket, spacer, gasket and then carb.

If it were me I would do it like this, intake gasket, spacer, intake gasket, Edelbrock heat shield, intake gasket, carburetor. You might have to buy longer studs but you wouldn't have to worry about heat! Here the Edelbrock manual so you can tune your carburetor. http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive_...ers_manual.pdf I am glad you got it straighten out. Oh , here an article on adjusting valve lash. http://www.centuryperformance.com/fo...ing-Valve-Lash

[70nova327]

well were not quite out of the woods yet but im seeing the light!! thank you for all your help!!

[70nova327]

yeah ill be doing the messy engine running adjustment, ive done that before, although messy it for me it seems so much faster, i have camel humps heads if that makes a difference.

[cdminter59]

There is another way to adjust them too. Start with #1 cylinder watch as the exhaust valve goes all the way down, adjust intake valve, turn it over until the intake valve goes all the way down, adjust exhaust valve. When tightening the nut take two fingers and wiggle the pushrod up and down until you get all the slack out. This is zero lash. Turn it 1/2 turn more and lock it down. Do each cylinder the same. This is the EIOC adjustment. Exhaust-intake-open-close. I believe this is the easiest way. My machinist told me this one.

[70nova327]

checked vacuum its great, between 10 and 16 at idle, checked fuel pressure and it was at 8.5 so im off to get a regulator, started to advance the time and the engine the engine sounded beautiful but then started to rock, i noticed that my glass fuel filter was only a 1/4 of the way full, vapor lock because of the intake air bypass? but then i randomely unplugged the dist advance at the carb and the rpms shot up and it leveled out the rock and ran amazing! why would this occur? did i just find the problem?