Hi guys, I'm looking to adjust my carburetor since it's running too rich. I don't have a vacuum gauge so I'm trying to get a close enough adjustment for the carburetor. Not sure if anyone has recommendations for how many turns I should turn the adjuster screws, which vacuum line to remove, what rpm it should be at idle, etc. I have a stock 4 barrel Rochester Carb with the two adjuster screws on the front. The car gives off a heavy exhaust smell from the tail pipes and slight sputter at idle, but nothing too crazy where it bogs or anything. The car will have very low rpms and try to die if I start driving on a cold start (at low speeds and driving lightly of course) and come to a stop. The idle is a bit high if I'm not mistaken at 1,000 rpm

 

In gear you want it to idle around 625-650. I've only ever messed with a holley, so I can't help you with the rochester.

 

Is the choke opening up completely when the engine warms up?

There's a sticky in the top section of this forum with the factory shop manual pages. Toward the bottom of that thread are the adjustment procedures. The idle mixture screws are to be set to a specific place and then left alone - you don't use them to "fine tune" the idle mixture because that is controlled by the computer after the engine warms up and the system goes into closed loop.