First post here.
I just rebuilt a 306
Mostly stock motor with flat tops and person mild cam (480 lift 214 duration)
Truck is running rich at idle and getting lack luster acceleration.

Timing seems to be OK. Got this carb off of another 302.
Its an edelbrock 600 vac secondaries.

Any tuning or troubleshooting tips?

Thanks

 

Welcome to FTE!
How did that carb run on the previous engine? Did you degree in the cam? Have you read your spark plugs?

 

Did not degree in the cam.
Carb is from an aquantance supposidely was fine.
Plugs read rich

 

Only other thing I have had issues with is the balancer timing marks appear to be way off. I took the motor to tdc #1 on compression and it was way off the timing marks on the balancer which I've seen before a few times. I marked the balancer and got the timing close. Advanced it til it hard started and then backed it off. Starts easy and quickly with no real idle issues.

Going to have to get a friends timing light because mine is cheap but the timing seems to jump around with my light.

No spark knock running or anything like that. No backfires or sputters.

Just overall feels like something is off and I'm not making the power I should be. I know its not gonna be a rocket but it feels like I'm making 100hp at most lol

 

Only other thing I can think of that might be important is that I'm using an electric volley fuel pump and regulator for the first time. I have it set at 5.5 psi at idle. Not sure if that changes at different throttle positions.

 

If the timing marks jump around that is the sign of a worn out timing chain. I'm sure you installed a new one so I am assuming it is a China special. Locate a Cloyes brand one and install that. According to the cam's specs. Look at the card it came with. Not all cams are ground to be installed "straight up". While there look closly at that vibration damper. If it has slipped you don't want the outer ring coming off while driving. IMHO I'd find a Holley 600 vac sec. If you do I can tell you what jets etc. would work fine. I personally don't like Carters. But that's me.

 

The timing set was a PBM chain and sprockets and yeah it was brand new. Maybe has an hour run time on it. Got a friend bringing me another light tomorrow to verify. I had a cam sheet and it didn't note anything special. But of course it got lost in the mayhem.
The only adjustments I can make to the carb is the air idle mixture right and then change the jets if needed right?

 

Having a new T-chain and timing still floats around check for a bad dizzy.
Maybe advance springs or dizzy shaft bushing. Timing is checked with out any vacuum hooked to the advance "remember"

A lot guy have will have a bad ignition, dizzy or carb problems and not know it.

So they do a rebuild only to still have the same issues after putting the motor back in

How did you set the T-chain up as most after market sets you have 1 of 3 ways to set it =+ 0 - on the crank sprocket ..
orich

 

I installed new timing chain and sprocket setup dot to dot. Didn't do any offset.
Just to double check its not an issue to have the vac advance on the carb plugged right? I disconnect and plug both vac ports where the line normally runs.

Could be my dizzy. Its an old he dizzy and when I built this motor I noticed the shaft was a little hard to spin so I soaked it in carb cleaner and blasted all the gunk out of it and it spun freely before installing.

 

Aw forgot to add most old dizzy have bad vacuum advances.
points set at 0.21 and idle 675 standard & Auto trans 500 rpm.

If dual Vac. advance one line to carb & other to intake ..
In general you did not say what yr of 302...orich

 

Well its a late model 302 1 vac adv line. I plugged it up and checked and timing marks jumping around like crazy. Guess my distributor is toast.

 

Carbs have 4 internal curcuits. Idle,cruise,power,and choke. The jets are not used in the idle curcuit to adjust air fuel ratio. You said it idles rich. If during cruise it is still rich (which it probably is since your plugs read rich) then jets and/or metering rods will be required to lean it out a little. You can change jets twice in sequence before you will need to change to a leaner set of metering rods. Note, there are 2 series of Eddys. Performer series (Carter AFB) and Thunder series (Carter AVS). If you want to keep that Eddy I suggest you buy this book by Dave Emanual. I do not own it but I googled and looking at the table of contents it looks like a good info one.
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD><TD><IFRAME style="POSITION: static; BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: none; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: none; MARGIN: 0px; WIDTH: 70px; BORDER-TOP-STYLE: none; HEIGHT: 15px; VISIBILITY: visible; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: none; TOP: 0px; LEFT: 0px" id=I0_1388534947859 title=+1 tabIndex=0 marginHeight=0 src="https://apis.google.com/_/+1/fastbutton?usegapi=1&size=small&count=true&source= google%3ABOOKS&hl=en&origin=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.goo gle.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks% 2Fabout%2FHow_to_Rebuild_and_Modify_Carter_Edelbro .html%3Fid%3D7UYdwPcl3xMC&gsrc=1p&hostiemode=8&jsh =m%3B%2F_%2Fscs%2Fabc-static%2F_%2Fjs%2Fk%3Dgapi.gapi.en.5GL3tg_C6Nc.O%2 Fm%3D__features__%2Frt%3Dj%2Fd%3D1%2Frs%3DAItRSTPf sfz-ifAZeiHMk7mKfiGQJuhVFw#_methods=onPlusOne%2C_ready %2C_close%2C_open%2C_resizeMe%2C_renderstart%2Conc ircled%2Cdrefresh%2Cerefresh&id=I0_1388534947859&p arent=http%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com&pfname=&rpctok en=14895867" frameBorder=0 width="100%" allowTransparency name=I0_1388534947859 marginWidth=0 scrolling=no data-gapiattached="true"></IFRAME>
0 ReviewsWrite reviewHow to Rebuild and Modify Carter/Edelbrock Carburetors - Dave Emanuel - Google Books
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

How to Rebuild and Modify Carter/Edelbrock Carburetors

By