Well after much head scratching, parts changing, dropping and inspecting and repairing the fuel tank, putting a new HP fuel pump on the car I finally got it to run pretty good and stop falling on it's face. Today I went out to put some more timing in her so that she would get full 34' of mechanical advance instead of the 27' I was getting before and that is what it needed. It has 14' static timing at idle now but apparently that's what it wants because it's running great now. No crapping out at all when I nailed it. I still don't have that great of throttle response like I'd hoped for but I think we agree that is mostly due to my Victor Jr. Intake, the 1" spacer and the 195cc Intake runners is a lot to fill for a standard Edelbrock 750. Maybe that will be a little bit better after I put my proposed Holley HP 750 on there.

I'm quite surprised it was just wanting some more timing because the cam I have in the car is very mild about the equivalent of an Edelbrock Performer Plus 278/288 @.006 204/214 @ .050 with a very mild .420 intake/.443 exhaust lift on 110 centerline with 107' LSA. You can barely tell any difference in the idle over stock. But it is making some torque and Desktop dyno says (with the airflow file I built from canfields specs) that the combo makes 440 HP @6000 rpm and 436 LB/FT TQ @4500. I figure it's probably somewhere around 375-400 range but that's cool! I suppose it probably wants some lighter springs on the mech advance might do the trick to be able to bring the static timing back down to around 10' at idle and still get the full 34' of mech or maybe it just needs to stay right where it's at. I heard not pre-ignition so it seems to be fine right there.

I appreciate all the help that everyone gave in helping me troubleshoot this and while I have plans for more upgrades coming I am pleased with the way the car is running for now! :hurray:

glad ya got it runnin' right :thumbsup: ;)

I had a lot of help and good suggestions here. I took it out for a little cruise tonight and on the way home it still stumbled a bit on me but I'm telling you it's 100% better than it was. Now I'm thinking that I may need a stronger spark, I still have the old alternator with external volt. regulator setup and I notice my volt meter is only showing like just under 13 volts when it's running and it should be above 13 and 14.5 would be nice so it makes me wonder if that could be a part of the problem too, maybe I'm not getting enough juice to the HEI to really hit a good fire, but like I said it's only slight now and doesn't do it but under certain lower rpm conditions.

If you are running off of the wire that fed your points distributor, it is a wonder it runs at all. An HEI has to have a full 12volts supply at all times. The points system ran on 8 volts by way of a ballast resistor, or resistor wire on the newer cars (about 1966 and up).

Big Dave

PDQ, run as much initial advance as the engine likes. Some respond best with 10° of initial and some respond best with 20°+. Set the initial where the engine responds and idles the best, does not detonate and cranks without hesitation or drag when hot. After that figure is determined, then set the full mechanical advance. Don't fall into the trap of setting the initial at what YOU think the engine wants. Let the engine tell you what it likes best.
Too many people get caught up in what worked best in ***** magazine on an engine they built or what Joe Blow down the road did on his engine.
Make one change at a time and take your time. It takes time and patience to properly tune an engine combination. Take a look at this engine in my own car. It took a few months to get it dialed in properly to run on the street, but it was worth every minute. :yes:

Oh my Barry, How SWEET does that engine look!!!!!! What do you by "After that figure is determined, then set the full mechanical advance." Are you saying just keep advancing it until it completely stops stumbling and missing during transition even if it takes up to 20' at idle? I don't know what you mean about then setting the full mechanical advance? I always thought you should not go above 34-35' on a sbc for advance and maybe 36' on a BBC? Right now I'm at 14' static, 34' static and mechanical and around 50' with static, mech and vacuum. You're saying I should put in as much as it will take without detonating and causing hard starting is what I'm hearing regardless if it goes above 34-35'? Or after that you go back and put on stiffer springs to keep it in that range for mech advance? I'm certainly open for suggestions and how to. It's running pretty good right now but it still needs just a little more tweeking I think somewhere. I appreciate your input and I'm all ears for any guidance.

Big Dave that is a good point also and I will make sure that is not the case. I believe I had checked that when making the conversion but I don't recall if I used a circuit tester light or my voltmeter, that is something I could surely check easy enough also.