[Mike_The_Grad]

Well that airtex fuel pump was junk. My fuel pressure gauge at the carb inlet was reading only about 2-3 psi even if I revved the engine. So it was either a bad gauge or a bad pump. My parts guy said he hasn't had one of those specific gauges come back to him, ever. So he offered me a different brand pump. I swapped the airtex flr a spectra premium fuel pump. For some reason this spectra pump was a PITA to install. The gaskets were junk. So I cut my own out of some Fel-Pro karropak gasket material my brother bought some time ago. And sealed it with some of "The Right Stuff" one-minute gasket maker. What I do like about the spectra pump is that the inverted flare fitting sealed great the first time. The airtex pump leaked and leaked until I finally just went all in and torqued the you-know-what outta it.

The spectra pumpbos putting out about 7 p.s.i. according to the gauge. I also had to swap out the clear plastic online fuel filter for a steel one because the filter element separated from the base and was free floating around inside, and not providing any filtration. I think I might be getting some flooding now with the newer pump. I'll keep an eye on it and if it is indeed flooding then I'll put a regulator on it. I'm still running lean because my temp gauge is riding higher than normal. Do I think I have to go ahead and take the top of the carb off and replace the primary jets. I've already gone through the range of metering rods in the calibration kit and it has gotten a lot better. But it's not quite there yet.
It makes sense to me that a jet change is necessary because regardless of the rods ability to meter fuel the jet is a fixed orifice and will only allow a specific amount of fuel to flow. I'll be tackling that today along with checking float height and drop.