Holley Tuning HELP

For your Holley electric choke issue:


Assuming that the choke is properly installed on the engine and functions properly.


You need a good 12 volt source for the + input. I like to come off the input side of the ballast resistor and use a piggyback flat terminal. This allows you to stack the terminals and then be able to remove the choke and wire later without any traces that it was there. The two post ballast resistor is easier to deal with this than the 4 post ballast.

For the two post ballast resistor. Unplug both terminals from the two post ballast. Then turn the key on to the run position. Gat a test light and connect the clamp to the negative (-) side of the battery. Poke both wires that you removed from the ballast and see which one lights up the test light with the wires disconnected from the ballast resistor. The one that lights up is the terminal you want to use for the positive (+) power into the electric choke. (Don't use any coil wires as the coil runs at 6 volts - not enough for the choke to function properly).

Then hook the negative side of the choke to any ground. Set the choke setting to somewhere in the middle of the adjustment and start the car and then tweak your choke setting so the choke butterfly is completely verticle when the engine is warmed to running temp. It my take a few good cold starts/mornings to get it all dialed in.

If you get the correct power input and adjustment to the electric choke, you should be able to go out on a cold morning, pump the gas pedal twice, start the car, and as soon as your oil pressure comes up, put it in gear and drive away without any stumble. I drove a 67 barracuda with a 80457 in the winter in Detroit (20°F to -20°F cold starts). The 80457 is a nice carb and should run great. Tip: Get the vacuum secondary spring assortment and put the short yellow spring in your vacuum secondary pod. This will allow the secondaries to kick in sooner and reach full opening by 6000 rpm.


I agree with the other posts that you may have other issues like a vacuum leak causing your engine to idle so high/rough. Look for vacuum leaks, and check your timing.