trying to tune the whiplash in my 440.

I think I am almost there with it.

the holley 650 dbl pumper is set up with 70/f 80/r jets 2.5 power valve.

seems to be the best I am going to get at the moment and it is drivable with no real issues other than to me the idle seems high in N to keep it at a point it does not die dropping in gear.

it idles 1100-1000 rpms and drops down to a 850 +/- 100 rpm and will hold a choppy idle at a red light in gear now.

I get about 11" in N and about 6" in gear on a new autometer vac gauge.

is the high idle just the nature of the beast with a lumpy cam?

and is the edelbrock duel plane RPM intake going to help any over the Holley STREET dominator I have on it.

it sounds nasty, idles along 25 mph in 3rd at 1000 rpm pulls right off the line and drives great low speed or cruzing but does feel down on power a little at WOT. bigger carb needed?

maybe I JUST need to get used to it.

one thing for sure. NONE of the SB whiplash cams seem this BIG and NASTY.

if you have over 1 in hg at WOT you would likely benefit from a bigger carb as far as WOT performance goes. 650 is pretty small. I would not be comfortable with 1100 RPM. not sure if its a possible vac leak or carb issue or?? but here's a BTT for ya

What's your initial timing at?

Is your idle throttle open enough to be in the transfer slots?

If I had to guess, I'd say that more initial timing will let you close the throttle more without killing it.

Be sure to keep your total timing in check too.

X2 X2!

I believe a bigger carb will help.
What is your vacuum at during wot?,medium+ acceleration? power valve to low maybe.
I agree with a good check on timing.

What they said, you need more initial timing!
This will cause the mechanical to be too much so you will need to limit that.
Also check carefully for vacuum leaks.

X3 or 4 on the timing. I forget specs on your cam but don't think it is too radical. On my stuff I started with 12 degrees initial and it idled but only 8-9 in Hg (243@.050 duration and 108 lobe separation). Very smelly also. Bumped the timing to 20 degrees initial and got it to around 11". Got the idle mixture sorted and 13". Also not as smelly.

Bigger cams want more initial timing.

I am very close to being in the sweet spot now. I think?

I had help in driver seat while I watched vac gauge under hood.

with the timing light and the damper mark anywhere in the timing scale/tab it seems to retard and ran poorly.

advancing the dist getting highest vac reading of 12"- 13" in N 1000 rpm idle.

vac drops below 4"-3" going into gear then recovers with a stumble and idles or does not recover and dies. a slight tap of throttle as it drops into gear will keep it running. very slight throttle with slight throttle pressure would help idle with it acting like PV bouncing/loading up.

so dropped from 4.5 PV to 2.5 PV with fresh plugs. this cleaned it up a lot on the idle and dropping into gear.

with it advanced for highest vac reading in N it seemd a little to much advance at cruz and had a little kickback on starter when fully warmed.

so I did the hot rod trick of advancing for highest vac reading backing it down 1 full inch on the gauge. this worked ok and seemed closest it has been.

then I advanced the dist to get the highest reading while hot idle in gear = 6" of vac droping down 3.0 - 3.5 going into gear then recover and idle.

now it drive great with a very choppy 850 rpm idle in gear - 1000 rpm in N - drops in gear with out a stumble 90% of the time when full warmed up to temp.

I think it is me having to get used to the lumpy idle and holding the manual brakes and a 1000 rpm idle when in park.

I may still need to recurve a dist or do more fine tunning but right now it seems to be real close on the sweet spot.

idles like a funny car, scares everybody at the gas pumps, idles thru town like a funny car at 25 mph in 3rd @ 1000 rpm idle, chops a load of wood at a redlight, jumps off the line and hits cruzing speeds no effort, kickdown from 55 to 120 with ease even with 2.76 gears 29x15x15 M/Ts.

pretty much everything Hughes said. I just was not expecting it to be this much for a 165$ cam

I am working on the cash for a firecore dist/wire set up hopfully very soon. sparkys PM box is still full.

You have to run thru idle mixture, idle speed and timing adjustments a couple of times to fine tune everything properly. One change affects other adjustments.

correct, been hitting all that. why I am thinking it is not on transfer slots. idle air screws are about 1.5 turns out past where it stumbled turning them in clock wise.

Simple test.

Get it started and at ~800 rpm in p/n. Give the distributor a small bump CW. If the engine picks up RPM, it wants the timing. reset idle to 800, do it again. See where it stops picking up RPM

You will not get it to run without a hillbilly timing tape, marking the balancer or using a timing tape. The stock marks only get you about 10* BTDC, barely enough for a stock cammed 440. You'll need high teens maybe low 20's for initial.