I need some help guys, I have a 88 Z28 with a built 350.

Edelbrok performer intake and carb(650)
64 DBL hump heads 202/160
Comp cam 501/501 292 ADV Dur
HEI with adj. advance
TH350 w/3000 stall
10 bolt rear end w/ 373 gear
.22 domed pistons running 11.85 to 1
My problem,

Was not running hardened push rods and bent a couple. Ireplaced them with Mollies. Now i cant seem to get enuff vaccume to run the vaccume advance and my vacume gage is going wacky. I put a vaccume pump on the advance and it is holding and i was able to time the car that way but as soon as i hook it up to carb it stops working. Did i kill my cam or is it something else?

 

Crazy vacuum gauge can be a valve problem. I'd do a compression test looking for a bent valve. If that passed, I'd take off the valve covers and watch each rocker as the engine is cranked looking for a wiped cam lobe or rocker lifter issue.

 

Well a big cam will have low vacuum. It will also have "crazy" vacuum in the sence the needle will vibrate due to the overlap. Because of the low vacuum they also recomend for big cams to attach the vacuum advance to strait manifold vacuum rather than the ported vacuum that you would normally hook up the distributor to. Now there could always be bent push rods ect but big cams will cause issues with the vacuum