Motor stuttering going up hill, not getting enough fuel?

[Crazy-J]

Hi,

I am having some trouble with my motor when going up hill. It just starts running flat and doesn't give me the power I get on flat roads. You can actually hear and feel it go from full power to a like stuttering state where it seems to come in and out of power.

Giving it more throttle doesn't help at all. It will downshift but still has the same problem. I've found that giving it about 50% throttle helps keep it from screwing up as much but it still has the problem. It's never bad enough to keep from getting up whatever incline I am on but I do slow down a lot.

Flat surfaces and downhills give me all the power I need and running around town it never has a problem. But come to any incline and it starts giving out.

All I can guess is that it's not getting enough fuel. My '72 shortbed has a stock fuel pump on an early 80's Chevy 1500 5.7L 350. It's running a mild cam, headers, 600 CFM Edelbrock carb, and an Edelbrock RPM manifold. I am also running a Summit fuel cell in back under the bed which also leads me to believe it might be the fuel problem given that going up hill that fuell would be shifting all to the back. Do I need a higher performance fuel pump or could it be something else?

I was told that it could also be the floats on my carb are not set correctly so I am going to check that this weekend, however this motor was built by the previous owner and I think he just popped the carb on and didn't mess with it. Otherwise I am lost.

Thanks for any and all help!