Hi guys!
Ok, I've finally got my new 350 in my '84 TA along with my 6 speed. The motor is a 4-bolt main block bored .030 over with forged rods and pistons, cast crank, Holley Systemax II system with aluminum heads, intake and cam all matched together. It's a regular hydraulic non-roller cam, and I've got 1.5 roller rockers on it. When we first put the motor together we set up the valve adjustment just like Holley said in the book that came with the kit: Tighten down the rocker nut till you feel drag on the pushrod, then 1/2 turn more and lock the adjustment in. When we first started the motor we ran it for 10-20 mins. at 2000 rpm or so (guessing cuz I didn't have the tach working yet) to break in the cam. At that point the lifters/rockers were clattering like crazy, and the motor got pretty hot (prob 240-250 yikes! ) but the motor was running very well. We shut it down, let it cool off completely and the next evening we ran it some more, not at as high rpm, and the lifters/rockers were still clattering away, but the motor really seemed to be running well. At one point we even idled it down to 600 rpm or so and it just kept running, which was great. At idle it was running about 220...still hot, but bearable, considering it's a brand new motor and everything's tight, right? Ok (sorry this is so long) so next we adjusted the valves with the engine running and the motor warmed up...backed off the nuts till the lifters/rockers clattered, then tightened them down till they stopped and then went another 1/2 turn and locked in the adjustment. The valves were quieted down, but then it wouldn't idle anywhere below 1000 rpm, therefore we couldn't dial in the timing accurately. Also when we shut it off it'd make kind of a "POP" sound through the exhaust (and once through the carb too) Next we pulled the intake off and took off the headers and everything and retorqued the heads, just to make sure that was all set then (per a machine shop/engine builder's suggestion) we went through all the valves again, tightening them down till there was no play in the rockers and then going 1 full turn more. Now the engine runs ok, and at idle the temp. never even got up to 220, but we still can't get it to idle down and when we hooked up a vacuum guage it jumped all over the place from 15-20 (which it didn't do before I don't think) We checked for a vacuum leak and when we covered the top of the carb, the motor shut right off, so we're thinking it's the valves. I'm gonna try adjusting them with the motor cold, going with 1/2-3/4 turn. Are we missing something here? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks!

-Paul