Another post about this issue on this car. Bought the improperly carb'd, took it to mechanic, had his shop find a new throttle body, and install it along with an intake manifold. I believe that they also installed a new distributor cap and rotor, and changed the oil, my parents asked them to do that, and we were charged $450 plus the sale of the carbureator.

When I picked the car up, they had told me a lifter had begun to tick (wrong oil?) and the only way to start the car is to lift the hood, unplug the timing cable, and then start the car, let it run for a few seconds, and plug the cable back in. I was so p*ssed that I made them run a wire and switch to my dash to control it from there. If you start the car with the timing on, it starts, sputters and then dies.

On my way home, I made the biggest realization! The car went from being pretty quick to not having any guts, and under full throttle, it takes 14 seconds to get to 60. It drives very smoothly, but it's so slow it's unbearable.
Some Camaro buddies of mine said it's timing related (obviously), and I need a new distributor. Do I? I have also been told that the shop may have timed the car with the timing plugged in. I've also heard theories of the shop possibly installing a 350 or 454 TBI on accident. I don't think the TBI is the problem, I think the starting issue is directly related to my terrible acceleration.

When you get on the gas anything over 60%, it pulls okay, but then the rpms keep going up and the car pulls less and less, then it jerks hard shifting into second gear, and continues on its slow run through second.

I had the car "tuned up" and a new fuel pump put on later, the problems still persist. What do I do?

Change oil?
New distributor?
Could the cap and rotor be installed wrong? The rpms bounce a little bit during idle, if that's an indication).

 

Was the timing ever set properly, with the EST wire unplugged?

A bouncy tach is often a sign of an ignition problem. Could be the distributor, could be the coil. Even other things, I would guess.

 

The car doesn't normally start on the first turn. It clicks a couple times, then finally starts, bad starter solenoid I think. The rpms bounce from 1,100 to 1,300 during idle, but the engine sounds steady, other than the occasional quick dip in rpms occasionally when it's in drive (cam lobes?).

I have no idea how they timed the car... I wasn't there, I was in school unfortunately.

I never had any timing issues when the carb was on it, and before this shop worked on it.

 

if it ran fine before the shop had it, then that's a load of BS. The shop should stand by their work and make it run better than it did when it was given to them...

 

I'm really not sure what to tell you, but you may find it helpful or comforting to read what my '91 RS with LO3 and 700R-4 did to me. It was pure stock, no mods, ran well when I got it. That was winter. Come summer, It occasionally had detonation, then the computer pulled timing and lit the check engine light. It really doesn't pull but a few degrees, but it was a dramatic loss of acceleration. I switched to premium fuel, I switched to a 3.42:1 axle to reduce the load on the engine, but even so, every time it pulled spark, I had to disconnect the battery for 30 seconds, then everything was fine until the next time I was at like 2/3+ throttle at low rpm. Maddening. I removed the knock sensor, wrapped the threads with way too much teflon tape, then snugged it back into the block and didn't torque it to spec. That helped. Oh, it was wonderful with the 3.42:1 gears, I highly recommend them. Even with them I averaged 23 mpg highway, after correcting my speedometer. 3.42:1 gears will jump you from 1600 to 2000 rpm at 65 mph. Finally, about 2 years after I got the car, the TBI system did what TBI's do, it failed mysteriously. Probably the computer. I swapped on a carburetor and intake and non-computer distributor so I could drive it home. Bottom line is: LO3s need their spark advance to be spot on!