I am still having trouble getting the motor to idle- lowest I can get it is around 1200, then in drive with the brake on it goes down to a shaky 500.

today I got a rebuild kit for the 2300 series holley- it is back on now,
but not running as well (poorly) as before. It has two jets in it, I thought they would be different, but they are both marked 69

maybe the lash is part of my problem- when I opened up the cover I found that the exhausts were set to around .017 and the intakes were set to .007 I reset the lash to .01 and .02 for exh. Maybe a little more is in order as per doc's reccomendations

I am currently taking a break from messing with the timing- It is at the most advanced end of adjustment in the hold down slot. It seems like I can't move one tooth over without getting into a completely different range, I just want to try a little more advance to see if it will allow me to idle lower. Perhaps the adjustment won't end up in the middle of the slot like on a stock application... It has about 17degrees of advance at 1300 rpm with the vac. pinched off. I want to get the timing right so that I can move on to carb adjustments. Maybe I should hog out the holddown tab a little?

I plan to adjust the float height, then idle screws on the carb- hopefully the new power valve and cleaned up carb will do its job after that. I am thinking I might have a reverse idle screw carb- I can't kill the engine by turning them in, but turning them out sure works to kill the engine. 1/8 to 1/4 turn out from seated seems to work best, but Im not sure Im even using the idle circuit because I am idling so high!

I have been driving a little, and although car proforms poorly and is not smooth or managable, it is fast in 1st gear and zips up to 4k pretty well. in 2 or D it seems to stumble on itself a little more, and seems real lean at 3000.

Anyway, Im a dumbass for doing this project in the winter in Philly without a garage, but Im having a ball and learning tons. Im gonna have a smoke and go back out to fiddle in a minute!

one more question- should I be using the firewall mounted vacuum delay thing inbetween carb vacuum and the advance pot? right now it is running direct, but I remember that the stock motor didn't like to run direct.

Thanks

Kevin

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madam im adam

so I got cold and frustrated and came back inside, but not before I found the bolt on the underside of the distributor. I read that there was more adjustment on the distributor than in one tooth change, but I didn't realize that you could move the whole hold-down plate around on an axis.

Problem is, I lost my place (mark rubbed off!) and have to start all over bacause I guess I flooded it and I couldn't get it to start no matter where it seemed like it should be... Have to go back to #1 @tdc tomorrow morning before I catch a ride to work

Kevin

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madam im adam

First thing you need to do is to step those jets down quite a bit. I put a 2300 on back in november and ended up using 56's. I was told then that most slants like to have between 53 and 56 size jets, and will be overrich with anything over 56's. Both jets do need to be the same size. I'd start with the smaller jets and then get your idle, mixture and timing set and see how it runs then.

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1974 Dodge Dart Custom, 225, 904, now with a Holley 2300...

If the Slant is a 225, size 61 jets work nicely, ( thats if its a 350cfm unit LIST # 7448) plenty of power, reasonable economy, but anything lower than 59's, and its too lean.

it sounds to me like the power valve is blown out if it does not die down when you turn the adjustment screws in

I doubt it is the power valve, when I blew mine it idled fine but ran increadibly rich. I blackened a new set of plugs in 30 miles. If your power valve is blown it is like having 6 size larger jets in there.
Generally increasing your advance will increase your idle speed until you get to the point where it is over advanced.
I don't know if holley 4bbls use the same jets as the 2bbl but I have found 61's to work really well in the primaries of my 4bbl. Although your jets should have no effect on your idle circuit.
I would start by setting the carb at the settings recomended by the rebuild kit, setting my inital advance at no more than 5*BTDC, and then attempt to get the idle set. It sounds like you are trying to do too many things at once(carb adjustments and idle).
my 2 cents

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I would concur that it may be a mix of problems like the PV blown, etc...

But we need your Holley Carb number off the choketower/air horn... 69's are way too rich for a 2300 /350 cfm (51-53 is an ok jet size for most applications...I have seen 56's used in the bigger Ford 300 applications)...
Now if the carb is a 500 cfm .....

Did you ever reset your valve lash, that will make tuning the carb less of a guesswork type thing...

-D.Idiot

I did reset the valve lash to stock specs, it was tighter before- Im going to set it like doc said when I open the valve cover up to find #1tdc- a little looser. The problem is that it was hard to do with the engine on since the idle is so high (around 1200) those suckers are really moving at that speed! I ended up just bumping the starter with a screwdriver on the relay and the ign off.

Thanks for the jet advice. It shouldn't be a big deal to pop the float bowl off to change to some more reasonable jets.

I am going to order a new 350cfm 2300 today at the speed shop near my work- autozone was the only shop in philly that claimed to have one but when I drove there yesterday it was actually a four barrel double pumper! I hate when autoparts stores are manned by people that don't know squat!

I am convinced that my carb is an inverse idle adjustment model. It is list 6221-2 and the holley people told me it is a replacement carb for a ford '70- '72. It dies by screwing out, not in, and it seems happiest all the way in (something not right?)

I know Im biting off a lot fiddling with the carb and the lash and the distributor at the same time- I just need the car to run steady and slow enough to start tuning the idle then I feel like I can move on to trickier bugaboos and shakedown problems like when my alternator nut backed off and the loose ring terminal began welding itself to the stud and melting away threads or little flat spots in the torque, etc.

Thanks everybody for the help- I definitely will get some leaner jets.

kevin

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madam im adam

What part of Philly are you in?
I am just up 309 from Philly.

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You mentioned that stepping on the brakes made the rpm nosedive. I'm not sure I'm understanding the circumstances correctly, but if you have the tranny in N or P and you hit the brakes and the engine speed drops, you have a bad brake booster. You're leaking air right through the tank past the diaphragm and/or seals. This would cause your high idle condition as well. You have to richen the carb up to get enough fuel into the engine to compensate for the air leaking through the booster. When you hit the stop pedal you leak even more air worsening the mixture and dropping the engine speed back down.

Mike

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Recognized by US Federal Courts as a Fuel Economy Expert!

hey mike- thanks for the reply.

I have manual brakes. I couldn't find a manifold leak- I tried spraying carb cleaner all around the manifold to head connection, carb to manifold, throttle shafts, etc. It is pulling 23" of vaccuum at cruise, so I don't think it is leaking.

What I am talking about is something that also happened with my stock (beat) 198- it would idle lower in drive than in neutral. I assume the torque converter eats up some energy even before it sends lots to the wheels- eg. the car in drive at idle will creep foreward.

The problem I was having was that the motor didn't want to idle at all unless it was at least 1000 rpm, and needed to be around 1200 to be strong enough to not die in gear (auto trans), and even then it would only idle at 500 and rough.

I have a manual trans in the works, so that should help with drivability problems if the setup turns out to be more revvy than torquey because of the cam/ headers as opposed to just being out of tune.

Im at work now, but Ill be back at it around midnite when I get home.

thanks
Kevin

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madam im adam