Okay, what's going on? (Edelbrock 1406 troubles)

[shuttermutt]

Just a follow-up... During the Minnesota board meet on Saturday, Todd, Mike and I hung a new set of plugs (thanks for the helping hand, guys!), tweaked the IMS screws and gave 'er a bit more advance. Now it's pulling about 18 lbs (up by a few pounds) at an 800 rpm idle and definately picked up some power.

On Sunday I played with carb spacers. Much to my surprise, I got the biggest "seat of the pants" gain with a 2-inch tall, 4-hole, phenolic spacer from Edelbrock. It's more responsive through the entire rpm range that I drive in most of the time (idle through 3500). On the other hand, the 1-inch spacer (also Edelbrock) didn't seem to make any real difference at all.

Best of all, my hot start and idle problems are completely solved. I can run it hard and hot, kill the engine for 2 minutes or 2 hours, hop back in and she fires up with barely more than a bump on the starter and without putting my foot anywhere near the gas pedal. No more of that nasty cranking you heard Sunday, Todd!

The idle now sticks right at 800 rpm in Park and 650 rpm in Drive. I don't have any idle fluctuation, the response is as crisp as it's gonna get no matter how hard I hit the gas or at what rpm and, well... everything works. I did end up with a spacer since I use a drop-base air cleaner and a 4-inch K&N filter. Basically, it's like this from top-to-bottom:

• air cleaner lid
• 4-inch K&N filter
• drop-base air cleaner bottom
• 2-1/2 inch spacer
• carb
• 2-inch, 4-hole, phenolic spacer
• Edelbrock Performer RPM intake

It all fits under there, but there's not much room for anything else. Now that I've found a combo that works for this particular engine, I'm sticking with it. Thanks to everyone that offered up their suggestions!