idle speed in neutral is at 900.. the machine shop guy told me to keep it at that for a while to break the cam in... when it wouldnt go over 1500 i think it was the timing was way off... i had the whole thing assembled i was going to do the heads my self but then figured i would just have them do it..
While the most critical time for the cam is the first half-hour of running (at 2500 or up hopefully), they're not wrong to suggest a higher idle at first. It's probably not absolutely required, but it can't hurt except for shifting an auto tans out of neutral and shutting down the engine. Sometimes a 900 rpm idle will be enough to make some engines run-on for a moment or two after you turn the key off.
fork over 30 bucks??? for wha? im not following..
For a rebuilt points-type distributor. That would be if you couldn't get it running satisfactorily in time to break-in the cam and couldn't let that time be wasted in trying to diagnose a possible electronic ignition issue.
That's all. If it's running now, just ignore that idea.
i tried to put the vacuum back on it today after i drove it for a while to the port on the side of the carb.. and it just killed it...
Gotta keep looking at this. After you get the timing light hooked up, just see what it's doing. There's no way that it's right, and no way that the correct port will do this unless the idle is too high, the butterfly/throttle plate is too far open for another reason, or the port itself is buggered in the carb. You need to find a port/fitting that does not have vacuum at idle.
Here again though, if there is no such beast, then your idle will have to be lowered. Timing reset, carb adjusted for idle-air mixture, and then try again.
The idea here is to have the vacuum signal transition from zero (or near zero) to high, then to full manifold vacuum, varied only by how much load and how far open the carb's throttle plates are.
i feel like im getting about the same power... maybe better sound.. that i did with the stock 302..the 302 had headers with a 4 barrel carb with a adapter on the intake to fit the carb ....feels like the engine is there but its not throwing me back like it should ... and im not really sure what rpm i should keep it below for now or what rpm it can handle
Might be just the new-engine thing, with it being tight and all, but with the way the distributor and vacuum are acting, I'm thinking you're not seeing it's full potential yet. Keep fiddling and tweaking.
General break-in procedures probably apply here. For the first few hundred miles, try to keep it under 3500 rpm "most of the time" while also keeping it under light-to-moderate loads, again, "most of the time". Don't let it overheat (over 230 for a new engine I would say) and try to keep it under 210 degrees as much as possible. Run it at street speeds and in traffic, then run it out on the open road for a bit. Run it through as many heating and cooling cylces as you find reasonable given traffic and location conditions.
When I say "most of the time" though, I mean that during that first 400 to 500 miles or so, just run it up a bit higher every once in awhile. Not too much, but enough to give it a variation. You want your engine to run through as many variables as possible for that time.
Once it reaches 500 miles though, do that more often. Even up close to redline and under a heavier load once in awhile. If it was build up right, it'll handle all this and more. It just likes to see variation on the theme.
What you consider the next milestone is up to you. We used to use 1000 miles as the magic number, but really, these days, you can probably do just about anything you want after 500 miles. The only reason we even keep it lighter and easier for the first few hundred is to let the metal parts cycle with each other to help extend the life of the engine. An engine that's run super hard right out of the box (like any race engine, or Ferrari or Lamborghini engine would be) shouldn't break. It just might not have as long a service life before the rings and things wear out enough to burn more oil and be a little noisier/looser and whatever that entails.
Taking it just a bit easier for the first segment of it's life can extend that wear point WAAAYYYYY down the road.
Paul
