Too much at once....

[J-Spec C10]

Hi guys, glad to see all the regulars are still on here, and hello to the new members I haven't had the chance to get to know yet.

I haven't had a lot of time lately, working like mad to take care of my new house & paying off college. Without boarders I wouldnt be able to make it, but man,.. what a chore, who knew that renting out a couple of rooms to college students would be such a drag.

Anyways, down to the truck.

Ive been slowly building a pile of new(ish) parts for my ride, and this weekend I got time to put them all on. But I think I've done too much at once. Here goes; I replaced the worn out (& leaky) quadrajet with a brand new Edelbrock 1406, and a used performer 2101 manifold. I also re-curved the stock distributor with a kit from "spectre", and I installed the M/T aluminum valve covers I got off of ebay wit rubber felpro gaskets.

Heres the problem, it has less guts than before, and no snap at all off the line. I can't figure out if I have a distributor that uses ported or non ported vacuum, and although the valve covers are tight, it leaks oil terribly. I feel like this whole job is seting me back farther than when I started.

I dont know where to start... can someone offer a suggestion? Since this is my daily driver I cant afford to have it out of comission for long.

[swervin ervin]

Part of the guts was the Q-jet. A 1406 can't compete with a Q-jet. But, I think your biggest problem is the recurve kit. Spectre is not a good company to buy this stuff from. I would stick my stock weights back in, if you changed weights. Just go with the lighter springs. I have no idea on what springs to tell you to use from the kit, but try the next to lightest ones first. You need to check the advance rate with a timing light to be sure of when it starts and when it's all in.

For the leaking valve covers, I don't know. Some gaskets are better than other even though they may be rubber. Are they Fel-Pro gaskets? I like Mr. Gasket Ultra Seal valve cover gaskets myself. Never had a leak with them. May be som bad covers too. ebay is renouned as a place for folks to get rid of junk. I'm hope not in your case though.

Anyway, glad to see you back around.

[J-Spec C10]

I used the strongest springs in the kit, I gues I read the re-curve instructions wrong. I'll try the softest ones tomorrow. Re using the stock weights is not really an option due to the fact that the bushings in them were worn out so badly.

When I set the new stuff up, should I set the Ignition timing first or after I set the caburetor idle mixture screws? I read the setup info, but it gets very technical very fast. It even says to set the WOT settings on a dyno! I cant afford to do that. Man...carbureted engines confuse me. Ive always been into mpfi and electronic ignitons due to my background in rice racers, but working with this "old school" stuff is way harder. It is definitly way cooler though

Oh yeah, I used new FelPro rubber gaskets on the covers. I also took off the EGR valve and used the delete cover on the manifold.