Well the engine swap went in just fine, run her round for a little while and now comes the frustrating part - sorting out some niggles.

I've put a 1st gen 350 (well a new Goodwrench 300hp - all stock) into my 84 Camaro, Edelbrock performer inlet, 600 vac sec holley, black jack headers, removed the AC, removed the smog pump, put a vac advance dizzy (MSD streetfire), MSD 6a ignition and a damn good wiring tidy up in the engine bay.

Whilst doing all this, I've encountered some minor bits that required mods / adaptations. These included:

The manifold vacuum port (from the 305 stock manifold) that appeared to drive the heater vacuum bits is now blocked off (the holley hangs over the back of it and there isn't the room for carb plenunm a spacer underhood) with a proper fitting and heater vacuum from the carb (works fine apart from the flap gets stuck between front windshield and face - this was an existing problem).

The brake booster vacuum hose was shot and the metal adaptor flange from the QJet doesn't go onto a holley (the Holley has the barbed hose connector on it). So replaced this with 3/8 reinforced fuel hose (this may be one of my problems - please read on)

The problem is inconsistent rough idle and poor (11MPG) fuel economy when plodding around town (lots of 30MPH limits on my way to work). Fuel economy doesn't change regardless if the right boot is heavy or light. Now when she goes - she goes. Responsive and quick accelaration but I would have expected a little better than what I'm getting.

Also cold idle is a real bugger and when she is warm, the idle can drop right down to almost stalling when in gear. At warm idle in park, the RPM is circa 920 (bit hard cause it jumps around a bit) and in gear, the idle is about 700 (again bit hard cause it jumps around a lot).

What I've done to try and cure it:

Set the timing to about 8 deg BTDC - not sure if this is right - please help !!(timing checked with the vac advance pipe off the dizzy)

Reduced the mixture back to about 2.5% CO from 6% CO

Where to next

It has been suggested that I may have a vacuum leak at the booster - what size pipe is that on the booster check valce to the carb ? Is it possible that 3/8 is a little too big and I should go for 5/16 ?

It has also been suggested that the timing may be wrong - what is the suggested timing BTDC for this setup to get good economy and reasonable performance (she is a daily driver and 11 MPG at UK fuel prices is getting hard to swallow!) ?

A final suggestion (makes a little bit of sense) is a possible fuelling problem. I've got a carter elec pump (mounted at the back in front of the axle as no in tank pump on the car) and it does seem to play up sometimes (even with the previous engine). I was considering a Holley elec pump and regulator. Does anyone have any suggestions on elec pump, where to mount (pics if you have them would be great) and what pressure / regulator to use ?

So if you got this far without sleeping and am not totally confused any help would be great !

Many thanks
Pete