Reply to "Carb Tuning"

If your engine is basically stock, then a basically stock carb will probably not be too far from optimal. A little rich, but it will probably not be bad.

If your engine is not stock, then the only way to get a carb working properly is to either spend a whole bunch of time playing with jets, etc, or to pay someone who knows what they are doing to get you close.

I bought a Holley 700 that was "dyno tuned" for a Pantera. After buying it I realized that there really is no way that a carb dyno tuned for one engine can be optimally set up for a different one.

I installed the "tuned" Holley on my engine and it ran pretty terribly. I bought a complete set of jets from Holley and spent weeks pulling the carb off and adjusting stuff. I got closer, but not acceptable.

I finally threw in the towel and sent it to a specialist - Chuck Nuytten. He had a 5-page questionnaire - compression ratio, cam specs, vehicle weight, on and on. I sent him the carb and some money (I don't remember how much) and got a carb back that was right on.

One other owner - Chuck Engles - had his Nuytten tuned carb installed and then dyno tested his car. By fiddling with the carb and changing jets he was able to find an additional 2hp or something. That's pretty damn close to be optimal in my book, considering that he hadn't seen my engine!

I got tired of trying to get it dialed in myself and called an expert. If you have a non-stock engine (or would rather be driving than pulling the carb AGAIN!) then that may be a solution.