Edelbrock1404 carb ????

Hi all

This is driving me mad   

Engine is an 84 305........... 350 stock heads,
350 cam,
stock hei,
edelbrock inlet and
edelbrock 1404 carb (65x52 needles .86 jets 35 spray jet)
Its at 8' timing and around 19hg of vac

Theres no air leaks anywhere on the carb or inlet

I can not get it to rev unless I restrict the air entering the primaries by partially closing the choke flaps and it revs cleanly from that point

What am I doing wrong ????

Hard to say without being there. Someone else may have an answer. I'm not a huge fan of those carbs. I had a used one that I could get to adjust right. Ended being whoever got the carb first put the mixing screws all the way in and it took a big chunk out of the house where they turn it in too far. No way to adjust it after that. To me it sound like you are having a gas issue. If you don't have enough fuel the more air you give it the more it will bog. Hold your hand over it and restrict the air and it will be matched enough to get higher RPM's. Float not set right and it's sucking just a bit of gas from the bottom of the bowl?? It's hard to say. Joey is the local Carb guru. I'll see if I can get him on here.

If you are sure there are no leaks then I'm with Steve, sounds like the floats may be set to high. Did you rebuild this carb? Edelbrock is know to give out the wrong specs on float height. You didn't state weather or not the intake was an open or split plenum, these carbs do not like to be run on open plenum intakes. How about fuel pressure, fuel pump still good. Is the PCV valve good? Does it still have an EGR valve, when the springs get weak in those they can open to soon and cause a lean condition.(although it usually shows up as a stumble on tip in) Does the truck have power brakes? I had a car do almost the same thing, turned out to be a small rip in the brake booster diaphragm funny thing was the pedal still felt good. How about the timing, 305s are notorious for having the outer ring on the balancer slip, witch makes the timing mark wrong. Bring her up on number one and check the mark. Like Steve said, without being there, it's hard to say.

intake is a split performer and the balancer is all good

Fuel pressure is 5psi and I know what you mean about someone bottoming out mixture screws but there still working and am able to adjust to get the max vac so hopefully that's all good

floats are set as per instructions (7/16) between the top of float and carb top

Things maybe improving

Nah not what I thought it was

Do you have another carb you can stick on it to see if it's really the carb?

My Holley on the 69 GT did the same thing, it WAS the carb.....dirty as heck and bought a new one, BAM.....fixed....

Sounds like your accel pump shot might be weak, or not atomizing. Backfire out the carb when you stab the throttle?