Need some advice tuning new engine

I'm pretty much a rank amateur mechanic. But I built an engine and it runs. I couldn't have done it without the help of this forum :grin:. After the initial break in, I had a couple of oil leaks and the intake wasn't sealed correctly. I fixed this stuff and now I need some help to dial it in.

I starts and idles just fine. There is a slight bog when I step on it from idle, and then when I hit about 4700 rpms, it kind of sputters or surges. Then when it gets above there somewhere, it takes off again and I have had the engine up to about 6500 rpms, but at that point my foot is off the gas.

I've messed with the timing. I currently have it set at 12 initial and approx 30 total. The vacuum pod hasn't been hooked up yet. I have the hoses plugged. It was dieseling after I turned off the engine at higher initial. It still did a couple of times at this setting but hasn't the last three or four times I've run the engine.

Carb issue? I have adjustable roller rockers. Can the valves be too tight? (my slant six has a solid cam that I check the valve lash each year, and I don't know much about the hydraulic cam).


The engine is a 408 smallblock
Edelbrock 800 cfm Thunder AVS carb w/electric choke
stock edelbrock heads w/ hughes springs (bought from Hughes with the cam)
Hughes 3237 hydraulic cam (232/237 dur @ .50, 540/548 lift)
Eddie air gap intake
10.2:1 compression
Hughes roller rockers

TTI headers, X-pipe, turbo mufflers

3,000 stall Spec-Rite converter

727 tourqueflite
3.23 suregrip 8 3/4 rear

FBO "stockish" ignition (recurved dist by them)