edelbrock carb. help.

[greenwater]

I have a 1405 600 cfm edelbrock carb. on top of my engine a 383 chevy stroke and am running too rich. I bought the edelbrock calibrating kit and went to stage one lean with some improvement as my O2 sensor indicates a bit leaner mixture but it still is definately too rich as the exhaust odor prooves and also corroborated by the O2 gauge. When trying the rods/jets suggested for stage 2 lean ,as per edelbrock owner pamphlet, then my gauge doesn't have a steady reading anymore and will indicate anything between way down extreme lean up to too rich situation....now the gauge always give me a steady reading under "out of the box" setting or even stage one lean so this indicates me a reliable functionning from the sensor/gauge.

The stage two lean looks like the better set-up as far the engine's performance is concerned but I don't dare leaving it this way affraid of a too lean situation! I should also add that the engine is running a bit hotter once the carb set-up as per lean two arrangement The O2 sensor/gauge is an older model with LEDs lights (maybe ten total) with the ideal mixture reference beeing the fourth from the left with six LEDs to the right of that ideal reference. Spark plugs reading is not a practical way to judge from in my case neither. Anybody can tell me what's going on with that sensor and why does it act that way? Suggestions?

thanks, Ronald.

[wilf leek]

Ronald - exhaust gas guages can be really confusing. You have to remember that only steady state conditions can give reliable readings - transient conditions can be meaningful (e.g as you stamp on the gas, telling you if your accelerator pump/jets are right or not), but unless you really know what they mean, they will just confuse you.

You should only rely on steady readings with the throttle at a fixed position - cruise or WOT for example. Only readings from the guage in such conditions are meaningful.
In reality, the guage will jump all over the place in "normal" road driving, perhaps you should try getting the car onto a chassis dyno to check it out.

HTH