I stopped in to get an inspection at my friend's shop. He had just dragged in a 1957 Chevy. A mutual friend had it for around 30 years. He had a shop put a Chevy crate engine in, T-350 trans, added front disc brakes, Mallory Uni-Lite ignition, electric fuel pump, but otherwise pretty stock. The guy had let it sit for like 10 years without running it. He had no wrenching skills and was tired of just looking at it, so he sold it to my shop friend. They changed the oil, spark plugs, bought a new Holley 600 cfm carb, but it ran like crap. He asked me to look at it, and right away I saw that it was 'idling' at 2000 rpm just to stay running. They had just taken the carb out of the box, plopped it on, started it, and stood there staring at it. No one knows what a carburetor is anymore. Right off, I saw the float level was so high it was flooding. All the vacuum hoses were placed wrong so I identified each and put them straight. I hooked up a vacuum gauge and an rpm/timing light. I slowly lowered the rpm's, adjusted the idle screws, all the while watching the vacuum gauge. I got it from 2000 rpm, 10" vacuum, down to 650 rpm, and 20" of rock solid vacuum. It was so strong I hooked the vacuum advance to ported vacuum, and it responded nicely. I don't know what cam came with a GM Targetmaster crate engine, but it ended up with a super smooth idle, so not a crazy grind. Even in gear it idles nice. Now they don't have to push it in and out of the shop anymore. He wants to clean it up and sell it for a nice profit. I said when was the last time you saw someone driving one of these? Never? You have a nice, solid, driver here that you don't have to anguish over and be afraid to take it out. We'll see what he does with it.
