i have a basic 350 with about 9.5 to 1 comp, edelbrock performer cam and intake, camel hump heads 1,94/1.5 valves, and i just got this thing running and it seems to run great, i set the idle to about 750 in park and adjusted the a/f screws with a vacuum gauge to get the most vacuum and set the timing to between 8 and 10* with the advance disconnected, and it has great response and very clean rev with no black smoke anywhere, the problem is i pulled a few plugs and their very dark black and sooty, what would be the first step in correcting this problem? its a performer series 750 carb btw

 

Trying to fine tune the a/f ratio with plug reads is going to be pretty tough, thats more a ball-park method. If you're looking to really dail things in, you can consider a wide band O2 sensor and spend some time dialing things in. Plug reading needs to be done with a fresh plug, if you've given it a decent amount of time to idling before doing the read, you're not going to know if it was the idle, or the power stage that darkend the plug. You can keep dropping jet sizes until you start to lose power if your rich other than at idle, you'll find a sweet setting if you play around long enough. It sounds like you followed procedure for the "lean-best idle" that Edlebrock has outlined. So, just keep playing with the power stages if you think its rich. Just remember, only one change at a time, or you won't know what help/hurt from the last combination.

 

i havent actuall driven the car yet, just started it and broke the cam in, and let it warm up a few other times, seems to run fine, and i pulled one of the plugs just for the heck of it to see what color it was and it was very black and sooty, so should i start with changing the rods? thats what i was told by a guy i know???

 

I wouldn't go assuming the car is rich just because you've got a black plug. Even a properly jetted and tuned car w/ a decent cam is gonna make some dark plugs just idling under no load all the time. You're gonna need to drive it before you have any idea where you're at on the jetting.