88_Import_Slaye

Dont know where to start. I just got the damn thing drivable which made me happy, but here is what happens.

When in gear, and idling at a stop, when I press on the pedal, the car revs up (varys on how hard i push) about a few hundred rpm, then it finally moves. not with a jerk or a bang, it just moves like normal.

When I romp on it, the car doesnt do much. All jokes aside (being it's a built 305), I'd expect to go a lot faster, or have some tire spin or something. It goes a little faster, but not what would be considered normal.

My tranny pressure gauge needlelikes to jump back and forth a lot, not really sitting on one reading. I thought it could be lack of fluid (which it was to a small point). I put in an additional 4qt and it helped steady the gauge a little bit, but after driving the car, it does it again.

I was having a problem with the car not starting back up after it was warmed up and dying when I try to drive it. I could smell fuel coming from the headers. I fixed this by adjusting the carb pump by putting it on a "less fuel per pump" setting. I did that by moving the lever to the last position on the arm.

After that, the car ran great and would start over and over again.

A friend suggested that I might have the rocker arms too tight and it could be causing the valves to stay open enough that i'm losing compression.

Thinking about this, it might explain my lack of power, and if the valves were stuck open, and the air was being pushed back out of the cylinder, then that would leave more fuel that air causing it to flood. At least that is my theory.

when I adjusted the timing after break in, I set it to 18*, but I realized that the motor was reved too high and I read that it could have affected the timing that we set. So maybe the timing is below what it should be?

I have the TV cable all setup correctly, my pressures are reading where they should be. I have the regulator set to 5psi but I think there may be some junk in the regulator so i'll be cleaning it out soon.

If I do a motor compression test, what PSI should I see on the gauge? What is the correct way to test compression? each cylinder?

any ideas are greatly appreciated.

ZZ28ZZ

To do the compression test:
Remove all the spark plugs.
Disable the ign.
If batt is questionable, get a charger on it.
Screw the compression gauge into a spark plug hole.
Hold throttle wide open.
Crank eng until the compression gauge stops rising. Usually 4 or 5 revolutions will do it.
Pressures will vary depending on how stock the eng is.
Usually they will be somewhere between 150 and 220 psi.
Main thing is that all the cyl pressures be within 10% of each other.

88_Import_Slaye

Only thing stock is the crank

Thanks. I will do the test and see what I get.

BTW: Is there really any way to tell what CR you have from the PSI reading?