I have a Holley 4011 650 DP spreadbore carb with mech. secondaries and man choke.

I have an Edelbrock Performer RPM that has always been used with this Holley carb.

I have a used Erson TQ20 towing cam that I first used with the carb and manifold for about 20K miles and then stored it when I tore the engine down for a rebuild.

I have used this carb and manifold on another 360 while the cam was stored having no problem with it.

Both engines had points distributors, one was a Mallory dual point with mechanical advance and the other engine used a stock single point distributor with a vacuum advance and I had no problems with either setup.

When the second engine got tore down about two years ago, the vehicle had been sitting for a couple of years and I put all the parts in storage for future use.

My Son got a 75 Dodge Maxi van and I gave him a TON of my parts stash including the Erson cam, the RPM and the Holley and it uses a magnetic pickup distributor and a vacuum advance. So we installed them onto his 360 and the thing just won`t act right no matter what I do.

I went through the Holley and cleaned it all out, replaced the power valves becausse one was stuck from storage. I checked the needle and seats and they worked flawlessly, float level was still dead on and all passageways were blown through to make sure it was all clear.

The cam had a little patina on it from storage, but it was light and cleaned right up.

This thing will surge at park idle as well as in drive while sitting still. Some of the time I can mess with the timig, and carb adjustments and get it to run without surging in park, but not in drive. It will rev up real nice, with no bog or lag, but it seems to top out a little early at the high end and sounds like turbulence. At idle it will either surge in park and in drive, or at times just in drive. Once I fiddled with it and got it to run without surging in both park and in drive, but the timing was set at 5 before BTDC and upon taking for a test it bogged when trying to accelerate, popped out the carb once and then felt likeit was being held back and didn`t have ANY legs to run with.

Back to the beginning and set the timing at 7 BTDC and it bogged less, the idle surge was a lot less and it didn`t pop out the carb at all, but the lack of power and same acceleration feel, or lack of it, took me back to the driveway.

Then I set the timing at 9 BTDC and the surge was all but gone in both park and in gear, rpm`s were almost steady and it took a lot less pedal to get it moving, but STILl the lack of acceleration was still exactly the same, rough and choppy like it is being held back.

So, I said to hell with the timing tight and set it the way I always have done on ALL of my old Vans, by ear and feel. I checked my adjustments with the timing light and it was 11 or 12 BTDC and the idle was very slightly surging in gear, but not park and when tested it ran fair but a little sputtery just putting around the neighborhood. It still felt a little choppy when accelerating and it was pinging under heavier acceleration. Damn !!

I have got out the vqacuum guage and got as much as 18 and as low as 12 depending on the timing and adjustments, but nothing makes it act any differently, the feel is always the same no matter how I work it. Smoothish idle, occasionally surging, in park it revs up nice with NO lag or bogging, but once driven it has a semi choppy idle and a choppy and held back feeling to the acceleration.

I have been used to the way this thing SHOULD feel for 20 years and this ain`t getting it at all, I`m missing HALF my ponies.

I wondered, if the tach is wandering up and down only 100 to 150 rpm`s with this surging, .... Could it be a slack timing chain ??

I`ve done everything but sprinkle magic Merlin dust on this thing to get it to smooth out, with ZERO luck. Anyone have any opinions of what might be the problem ?

Thanks for reading, I know this was a bit long. Guido