Very Frustrated - Engine Problems!

[patrija]

Well, just got back from the local shop. Good shop and found out the manager went to school with my younger brother ... so shouldn't get price screwed. Car's still there. Here's the day's itinerary:

1) Removed the carb this am and did a quick breakdown of it. New gaskets, pin, etc. Everything looked "ok"

2) Remounted the carb. Cleaned up myriad gas leaks by tightening screws, etc. No leaks now. Tried to start, but no luck.

3) Replaced all the plugs. Some of the plugs were gas fouled while others just carbon fouled. Tried to start, still no luck. Hooked up a power boost to the battery since it was starting to turn slow.

4) Started checking for spark and was not getting a spark at the distributor. Constant power going into the MSD 6A, but none coming out. Checked and removed the ignition kill for testing purposes, but no luck.

5) Traced an electrical issue in a wire leaving the MSD box. Wire goes to the spark boost and then to the distributor cap. Ran an aligator clip bypass on the wire and restored power on the other side of the box. Car finally started.

6) Let it run for awhile to clear things out a bit and then took it for a test drive. Definitely not running right. Getting acceleration backfires (flame too) and it really boggs down.

Tonight, he's looking at the timing and power valve.

He also tried to convince me to pull the holley 750 and go with an edelbrock street performer carb for reliability, but going to hold off on that. Just like the "look" of the holley.

Jason