So now that I can start my beast without fear of killing the starter. It's idling at 1300rpm until it warms up, which takes about 7-8min. My check engine light isn't on and it seems to be running fine after warm up (maybe a little rich). The vacuum motor in the thermac air cleaner is working, but there's no pcv filter (do I need that?). Also, I did what the Haynes manual says about pushing up on the egr valve to see if it's stuck. It seemed very hard to move, could that be my problem? Sorry, I usually work on pre-emission cars.
Alex

 

1300 when cold sounds ok. the pcv filter will keep crap from getting sucked through if your air filter gets dirty, thats about it. the egr valve shouldnt be too hard to push, but if the car is running fine as you say, id leave it.

 

1300 sounds normal - my LT1 idles around 1200 for a couple mins when its cold. 8 mins sounds like a long time though. Does it come down to a normal idle after that? If it does, I wouldn't worry about it.

Whats this about pushing the EGR valve? I've never heard of that...?