I recently put in a new cam in my 355sbc 85Z28...got the car started late that night and while breaking in the cam noticed the headers glowing bright red and the car wouldnt idle...The next day i asked my buddy did he ever unplug the vaccume advance while setting timing and he said he didnt. I got up and unplugged the vaccume advance and advanced the timing a little and it idles at 2k rpm but would not go lower and if it did it would immediatly start trying to cut off...idk if i need to keep advancing timing since that helped or if something else is wrong

 

Do you have a timing light? Generally the more you advance your timing, the higher the motor idles and the hotter it runs.

 

I was thinking retarded

 

yea man im with you i think it was wayyy to retarded since the headers were glowing red hot and the car wouldnt idle at all that night but when i got up the next day and advanced it the car ran better just not where i wanted it to run...advance it a little more i think i may have it

 

I Have HEI and whenever I pull EST wire it immediatly starts to glow. Goes right away soon as I plug it back in. I have to move quickly when I go to set my base timing. I am still in the infancy stages of my actual computer tune so I'm sure there are some issues there as well.

 

Don't know too much about tuning carbs but I think guys are running 12-14 deg's initial advance with a total of about 32 degs on average. Search a bit to find a writeup about best way to tune. It sound like you need more though. Could be idle set screw as well. More than one problem at once I mean.

 

thanks allot for all you guys help its good to get more than one opinion on stuff...87SLEEPER mines glowed when the vacc advance was plugged in...today i unplugged it and they were fine but i should have this all sorted out by tomorrow just going to advance her a little more get the timing light on her and see what things look like

 

thanks to everyone who helped out i finally fixed the problem and she idled for the 1st time today with the new cam...turns out my vacuum lines had dryrotted and there were holes in it causing a big leak but long story short...THNKS....

 

Just listen to your video and it sound like you still have a vacuum leak. Timing should be around 12 deg. @ idle. Total timing around 32 deg.

 

Thanks allot...turns out the #7 plug was not on and it had a miss and I also replaced the vacuum lines b/c one had a hole in it...now my stinking choke died on me and she either idles at 2k or not at all and I found a coolant leak right above the starter which seem wierd but other than that I drove it on the street for 1st time she did good

 

The leak most likely is a freeze plug. Pain in the a** to fix but you can do it. Which carb to you have? Holley or quadrajet?

 

Quadrajet

 

Don't know too much about tuning carbs but I think guys are running 12-14 deg's initial advance with a total of about 32 degs on average.

 

Yea I'm running 12* on a k1102 cam