Hi Waveski, I can't remember if that Edelbrock carb is a spread bore or square bore, I would think the idle should be ok with each option. At idle, only two of the carburetor barrels are in play, those being the two front barrels. Do you have a tachometer and what is your idle speed at 13 inches, is that in drive or park? You could disconnect and plug all of the vacuum ports to confirm that you have no vacuum leaks through any of the components. My 283, 2 barrel manual trans idles at roughly 550-600 RPM with 17 inches of vacuum, the cam is a stock lift/duration with smooth idle. Typically, when you have a cam with a lot of overlap and/or long duration, it will idle rough and will need a higher curb idle speed to stay running. My guess is that whoever built the engine thought it was a race truck and the manifold/cam combo was geared for HIGH rpm use, the manifold certainly was not a good choice for daily driver/ street use. The Performer is a nice street manifold, the carburetor should be ok with it, the cam could be way overkill. If your buddy still has the Quadra-Jet carb, it would be a good experiment to install it and see what the results are, the Q-jet has very small primary barrels and is an excellent street/economy carb, the small primaries result in high velocity and great fuel atomization at idle. The Q-Jet will bolt on directly to the Performer manifold due to it being drilled for square bore and spread bore carbs. Edit-try HRL suggestions first. we were typing at the same time.
Last edited by 78buckshot; 02/03/2025 12:24 AM.
