I have a 1969 442 convertible with a true 9.6-1 455 Olds in it. It's essentially stock with big valve heads, TRW cast pistons, an old Erson Viking 100H cam (depending what cam card I read online it's either 223/223 at .050" on a 113 or 233/233 on a 113. It seems a little too smooth an idle for 233/233 to me so that may have been a typo), Edelbrock Performer intake, recurved HEI and repro 2 1/2" exhaust manifolds and exhaust. I run it at 15 degrees initial timing and about 36 degrees total. I have a 200-4R trans, stock 12" 2000+ stall converter and a 3.91 rear axle. It was running pretty well but the carb was built in 2013, developed a slight hunt to it at hot idle and the exhaust was starting to smell rich. I figured I'd re-gasket it, look everything over inside and update it to more current parts.
It was set up with 69 main jets, 49B primary metering rods, .041" fuel pickup tubes, ,064 DCR, .070" upper main bleeds, the lower bleeds are bigger then .050" and smaller than .070" (I didn't think to measure them till I had the baseplate back on and didn't have anything between 050" and .070" I could bend 90 degrees to measure with), idle adjustment screw holes drilled to .089", AU secondary rods and blocked idle bypass air.
I changed it to 72 jets, 48B metering rods (next size down I have in stock was .041" which I thought was too small), .055" DCR, .038" pickup tubes, and added idle bypass air with .065" base plate holes. It runs very well and has 17" of vacuum at idle. It still smells slightly rich at idle but that may be as good as it gets. I'm open to suggestion on further tuning advice if you guys have any though. I thought the primary rod to jet ratio was supposed to be around 30 digits apart but it wasn't when I got in there and it was supposed to be set up like a 1970 Olds W33 engine (455/390 HP Delta 88 Police option). Thanks!
