fatcat
Junior Member
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2015
- Posts
- 3
- Reaction score
- 0
- Location
- Canada
- First Name
- Kyle
- Truck Year
- 1979
- Truck Model
- K5
- Engine Size
- 5.7L
Hi,
I have a 79 k5 with a 350 and have just put in new GM 060 vortec heads with a new edelbrock performer RPM and used my old Holley 650 carb, and old HEI distributer.
I used the 501SD head gaskets and the manifold gaskets from the MS9800T2 kit. After cleaning them I used my old pushrods and old self-aligning rocker arms, and I already had center bolt valve covers so I used those aswell.
Now my first problem was I couldn't get the thing to fire properly and I tried swapping caps and the chip but I found out I needed 0.708" reach on the spark plugs and I was going by the normal 0.4" or so of the original, so I ended up going with the TR5's from NGK, I thought this would solve all my problems.
Now it runs fine and doesn't misfire at all, but I can't get the damn thing to idle! It will start great and if I rev it out it will keep running, but pretty well as soon as I let off it will die. I had someone in the engine bay hold the choke and we had it idling at around 3000RPM! What could be the problem?
Vacuum leak? Fuel issues? It sounds like it runs super lean. Could my carb be giving it the problems? It worked good before.
I tried premium in it today by putting it directly in the carb after draining the regular 87 stuff out of it and plugging off the hose to the fuel tank, but no go, it seems to run better but still can't get it to idle.
Has anyone else done this swap and had to change anything related to the carb? Bigger jets maybe?
I have a 79 k5 with a 350 and have just put in new GM 060 vortec heads with a new edelbrock performer RPM and used my old Holley 650 carb, and old HEI distributer.
I used the 501SD head gaskets and the manifold gaskets from the MS9800T2 kit. After cleaning them I used my old pushrods and old self-aligning rocker arms, and I already had center bolt valve covers so I used those aswell.
Now my first problem was I couldn't get the thing to fire properly and I tried swapping caps and the chip but I found out I needed 0.708" reach on the spark plugs and I was going by the normal 0.4" or so of the original, so I ended up going with the TR5's from NGK, I thought this would solve all my problems.
Now it runs fine and doesn't misfire at all, but I can't get the damn thing to idle! It will start great and if I rev it out it will keep running, but pretty well as soon as I let off it will die. I had someone in the engine bay hold the choke and we had it idling at around 3000RPM! What could be the problem?
Vacuum leak? Fuel issues? It sounds like it runs super lean. Could my carb be giving it the problems? It worked good before.
I tried premium in it today by putting it directly in the carb after draining the regular 87 stuff out of it and plugging off the hose to the fuel tank, but no go, it seems to run better but still can't get it to idle.
Has anyone else done this swap and had to change anything related to the carb? Bigger jets maybe?
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