Alright, we still haven't made it back to your carburetor problem, but I'm going to offer up this tidbit just to tuck in the back of your mind, for what it might be worth, which just might be nuthin'. Last winter, when my car was just sitting in the garage, minding her own business, the Holley sprung a leak somewhere on the front fuel bowl/metering block area. You couldn't really tell where it was coming from but it left a nice trail on the intake manifold. No big deal, I hadn't had the bowls off in years, so I just changed out all the gaskets, and needle/seats too, on both sides of the carb, mind you, buttoned her back up, filled the bowls through the vents, no leaks - hurray, and waited for spring. I always document everything I do with hi-res pics for future reference, so I had plenty of shots on the camera. This summer, the leak returned. Slow, at first (I was even going to live with a small Holley leak), but then it became an ounce or two pooling . Hmmm, crappy gasket switch out by me? Naaah, done it a million times -- I suspected a warped metering block, so I just ordered a new one from Summit, and some jets, and idle mixture screws, I had a new PV sitting in the parts bin. When I pulled the old metering block off, it passed the straight edge test, but on closer inspection, I found a nice sized crack on the perimeter. When I went back and checked my pictures from the winter, the crack was there... I just missed it. My particular vintage of metering block was manufactured during a period when Holley had some QC problems (2005/2006) on some of its metering blocks and internal components -- that's well documented on the Holley forums. You can see from the pic below, which was from last winter, that the ethanol gas causes flaking (requiring air bleed blast outs). You can also see the hairline crack that I missed last year, but was able to band-aid fix with new gaskets, for a few months at least. Now remember, that crack just sprung up out of nowhere; it's not like I was tightening the bowl screws or anything. And it was actually pretty easy to see, if you were paying attention. Good thing I don't make a living as a radiologist. That crack actually goes all the way through and around and in to the idle mixture screw housing. I had even replaced that gasket because I thought it was leaking as well. The point is, if your carburetor was made around 2005/2006, it may have some components in it that are literally falling apart. The internal components all came from different manufacturers, and some had serious QC problems. So, if we set up your carburetor "perfectly," and it is still causing bizarre behavior, then we need to keep that in mind and be on the lookout for maybe a single piece in your carburetor that may be literally crumbling away on you.
