"I pulled the top off and found they hung the needle through one of the little holes in the float and it was not closing on the seat so i hung it correctly. I also found the power piston stuck in its bore. I took it out and polished it up and polished up the bore and got it to slide in its bore very nicely."
Sounds like you discovered 2 of the 15-20 problems typically found on commercially "remanufactured" carburetors. Instead of polishing a turd the carb should have went back to where it came from for a refund....IMHO.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to help in any area with the information supplied. What is the part number on the fine piece of bovine excrement they sold to you? You simply mentioned "period correct". The list of people skilled enough to supply you with a correctly working early Chevy Q-jet for the 396 would be a short one for sure.
The original 1965 Q-jets used on the Olds and Chevy engines were by far the WORST Q-jets every made. They had too many issues to list here without writing another book, but good news is that the factory moved quickly and by 1967 they fixed most of them except the leaking bottom plugs and the corrected that issue by 1969.
Sadly it was a little too late and they Quadrajet had a pretty bad reputation by then. It was so bad that to this day folks still regurgitate old/outdated/inaccurate/incorrect information about them. Leaking bottom plugs is at the top of the list. I say that because every single one that comes in here will have a ton of "monkey chit" dabbed over plugs that weren't leaking in the first place. 8 out of 10 have so much glue on them it's holding the baseplate away from the main casting too far and causing either a vacuum leak, binding of the secondary shaft or a little of both.
Anyhow, without knowing all the parameters it's impossible to help. All I know at this point is that you pulled some sort of Q-jet someone supplied out of a box and put it on a 396 and it doesn't work well.
To help I would need to know the engine specs if other than completely stock (which is rare these days). What is the carburetor part number, and exactly what has been done to it? I you are dealing with some sort of "frankencarb" which is highly likely I may not be able to help unless you go into my book and measure every hole in it mentioned in the chapter on modifying them, plus pictures of exactly what you are working on.
It already appears that you noticed "missing airbleeds" in the airhorn. Most likely those were the upper Main Air Bleeds. What else doesn't appear correct or has been altered or modified? What jets, metering rods, idle tubes, DCR's, upper/lower IAB's, upper/lower MAB's are used. Where are the upper IAB's located? Bypass air? Hole size under the mixture screws?
Do you at least have any pics of the carb to put up here?.......Cliff
