primer84z

Im not sure if my carb is running as good as it could be. what kind of gauges or equipment can i hook up to get an idea of if my carb is running properly? The reason i ask is becuase it runs good kind of intermittantly. sometimes after a cold start, anything past 1/4 throttle bogs untill the secondaries open. other times it runs perfect. any help is appreciated.

82camaro

How does it run when it's fully warmed up? You want to tune the carb when the engine is at operating temperature, then adjust the choke to achieve the best cold engine drivablility. The ability of FI to run better than a carb when it's cold is one of the reasons FI took over. Also, when the engine is cold, you should be taking it eeasy anyway--better on the engine and drivetrain.

Max

An Air / Fuel ratio gauge will tell when and to what extent your engine is running rich or lean. It tells you when your air fuel ratio is optimized for either efficiency or maximum horsepower. I have an auto meter gauge and it made tunning my carb a lot easier.
It simply connects to the o2 sensor and a power source. If I were to replace the autometer gauge which has an LED display I would look for one that had an analog display.

A fuel pressure gauge is also helpful.

88IROC350TPI

Get a hold of a vacuum gauge too. I bought a simple $8 one and mounted it under my hood. With a vacuum gauge you can pretty easily set the idle mixture. It may also be useful troubleshooting other engine problems later on.

SSC

Ugggh not another edelcrap. Mixture control tunning that works on 99% of edelbrocks on 99% of engines. Turn both screws in all the way and back them out 1 & 1/2 turn each. Back when I was running edelcraps sometimes they would ice up on a cold day and do what your describing but I dont think thats the problem your having sounds more like your running too rich and when the engine is cold and the choke isnt fully open and its just dumping too much fuel.

primer84z

thanks guys. i need to go buy some of those guages. also when its fully warmed up, it drives like champ. i dont drive it hard when its cold or anything, but if i give it more than about 1/4 throttle it bogs untill i get to about 3/4 throttle, then it jumps forward and flys. but i never get on it untill its running smoothly. ive noticed a little smoke on idle as well. also when you floor it a puff comes out. someone suggested this was because i have a cam and no cats, the smoke color indicates a rich condition with it being pretty dark. the idle smoke is barely noticeable unless you get right up on the tail pipes. when you punch it, it lets out a small cloud.