I went ahead and removed the airhorn on the 1406. I wished they would have mentioned that the fuel inlet would need to be removed in order to fully remove the airhorn from the carburetor. Would it have made a difference to me actually removing the airhorn? No. But I wasnt sure if banjo fitting washers were reusable. And I didnt have a spare set to use in case they weren't. I say this because I have the chrome drop down fuel line with inline fuel pressure gauge.
Anyways, the float height checked out on both floats. But the float drop on the passenger side float was out of spec at 1-1/8". So I bent the tab that adjusts float drop to somewhere around 15/16"-1".
I also swapped the stock primary jets from 0.098 to the largest set of jets in the calibration kit, 0.101. These actually are the only set larger than stock in kit. I buttoned everything back up and put the stock metering rods along with the strongest step-up springs back into the carb to get me at around the #18 setting according to the edelbrock tuning chart for the 1406 carb. I definitely noticed a change. Mostly in the idle and off idle characteristics. The engine seems quieter and a little "lazy" in the idle to off idle performance. And seems to be running lean in the "power" mode. Which is not good from what the tuning guide suggests. Running lean in the power mode has the potential for detonation and pinging. But I will say that the jet change seemed to cure my engine temp rising issue during "cruise" mode. Now it appears that I need to riches up the "power" mode and I should have this carb dialed in for my setup.
I'm sure I also need to go back and readjust my idle mixture screws to compensate for the jet change. One thing at a time and eventually it'll all get worked out.
And I think I am experiencing flooding now with the new spectra pump and the primary jet change. So, I guess an adjustable pressure regulator is neccessary. It seems like edelbrock knows all this stuff and could easily factor into its design all of these "necessities", but I also think they dont do this purely for the fact that they could profit more by piecing all of the parts out. This is purely my own opinion and has no bearing on anything other than that.
That being said. I'm still happy with the 1406 carb and performer EPS manifold sitting on my engine. Next thing to tackle is if and when I get my buddies "041" casting sbc heads and have them gone through at the machine shop so I can replace the Reman "882" heads I currently have. Then I'll be looking at some real improvement.
Oh yeah, I threw a pic of the LS1 my buddy is putting in his 71 swb factory a/c cab. It's got a stage 3 MRE custom grind cam, LS3 heads, Holley sniper EFI intake with 92mm throttle body. Should be making somewhere around 520 HP. This is gonna be fun to install and drive. I know very little about LS engines, but me and him are gonna tackle this one head on.