El Camino Tuning

by 76 Malibu Fri May 17, 2019 4:56 pm

I am helping out a buddy with an '82 El Camino, trying to get it running a bit better. It has a LG4 305, Holley 4160 carb with long tube headers and dual exhaust. Otherwise it is pretty well stock. I set the timing on the car (seemed to run okay with about 10-12 degress initial) and took it for a run. It seems to be fine at lower RPM low to medium loads. At full throttle/heavy loads it bogs until it reaches high RPM than it starts to pull okay (no tach, so not sure on the RPM). Running WOT I am getting lots of gas smell from the catalytic convertors and the tailpipes are sooty.

I am thinking that it may be running rich when the secondaries open, and then once the engine builds enough RPM the mixture leans out a bit and it makes more power. So, I was thinking that it likely needs a spring kit to tweak the vacuum secondary spring to a stiffer one? Anyone have any other ideas why it would have no mid range power at WOT but pulls okay at the upper end?

It also has a TH350 transmission (not sure if it's stock to the car)? I noticed the kick down cable seems kind of cobble together with a bracket that doesn't line-up properly. It appears to be a TV style cable from a TH700-R4/TH200/TH2004R, with the push button and the ratcheting action. I adjusted the cable by putting the carb to WOT, but not sure if this style will work okay with a TH350. It seems to kick down okay though.

Any help is appreciated.