[DeTomaso] Fans of the newcomer

[steven.liebenow at att.net]

Levitt,

You mention that one side of the Holley has the idle adjustment needle screwed all the way in.  If this is the case, theoretically, there will be no gas going to four cylinders at idle......

Now, you don't mention how far out the other one is.....  Typically, 3/4 to 1-1/2 turns is a running engine....  Adjust these for the highest vacuum at idle.

If your secondary blades are open and exposing too much of the secondary bleed in circuitry, your primary idle adjustments will do little. This can be adjusted but off of the engine as the screw that adjusts the secondary blades is most often stuck.....and is a very odd slotted screw.....

You also could have primary bowl gasket issues.....or a power valve that is hosed.  If the car has sat for a long period of time, either or both of these could be an issue.

I'd start first with backing out the idle screw that is closed, about 1/2 turn....  If it get's worse, play with the secondary blades and make sure that nothing is keeping them open, like linkage that is too tight.....may need to bend the pull-in rod a tad to loosen it up.....

You already checked your float levels so should be good there.....  Some double pumpers have a secondary power valve....but not many.... People do put the wrong secondary gaskets on the metering plate to the body....and then your secondary throttle "pump" doesn't work right.....need the same gasket as used for the front....

If you do take your primary bowl and metering block off, do a roto-rooter job on all of the holes and ports....  I like using a thin piece of copper wire, (pulled from a multi-stranded piece) to go in and out of all of the passages....  Then follow up with carb cleaner (watch your eyes!!!) and compressed air.  You can easily check from side to side to see if each circuit is operating properly as most of them are symmetrical.

Good luck!
Steve