LA 318 Dying when put in gear and high idle issue solved!

Hey everyone, I wanted to take some time in case this potentially helps someone in a similar situation to mine. To start I had rebuilt my 318 stripping it down to the block, honed cylinders, put everything back together according to spec blah blah blah the usual engine stuff. HOWEVER, once I fired off the engine I could not get the engine to idle below 1200 rpm without suddenly dying. As if someone just flipped an off switch anytime I tried to lower the idle. So I tried everything, and I literally mean EVERYTHING.

For clarity all I am running is a single plane intake, 600cfm Eddy carb, .020 over bore, headers, air conditioning and heater delete, square bore carb spacer. Nothing crazy. Also everything was brand new. Brand new oil pump, and pickup. Brand new fuel pump. Brand new carb and distributor. Brand new wiring harness, and all electrical components such as ballast resistor, relay, ecu etc. EVERYTHING was brand new.

I adjusted my air fuel mixture using a vacuum gauge to achieve peak vacuum. That wouldn't let me bring idle down below 1200 without dying. I tried everything mixture wise from 4 turns out to 1 turn out in 1/2 turn increments. Every time I would try and bring my idle down below 1200 rpm it would die. Also when the engine would die sometimes it would shoot fuel out of the carb. Which you would think is a timing issue, right? Well before my timing light broke I had the timing right at 32 degrees advanced @ 2000 rpm when I was breaking my cam in. I couldn't get my idle below 1200 to see what initial timing was because all I wanted was to immediately get to 2000 rpm for 20 minutes to break cam in, it was when I was lowering idle I realized there was something wrong.

Ok, so, after I tried adjusting air fuel mixture screws using vacuum gauge and by 1/2 turn increments I thought maybe I have a fuel pressure issue, maybe I am getting too much fuel and not getting enough air. At the time I was using a 650 avs2 eddy carb and drilled holes in the butterflies hoping that would allow more air and help me bring my idle down. I thought maybe my air to fuel ration was off. That did nothing. I then added a fuel pressure regulator and gauge to be certain I was not above 5psi and that again did nothing.

I then had a good buddy ship me his known good 600 cfm eddy carb, in case there was something wrong with the 650 avs2 that I just couldn't figure out. I put the 600 eddy on and had the SAME ISSUE.

At this point I am stumped. I tried advancing and retarding my timing from one extreme to the other but to no avail. Every time I tried lowering my idle set screw OR putting it in gear the engine would just die. I tried using the vacuum advance for the distributor, and I tried plugging it, neither one did anything for getting the idle down or running in gear.

I thought at one point man maybe I am actually 180 degree out, maybe I messed something up. So I rechecked everything, put my #1 cylinder on compression stroke by removing the plug and bumping it over until it poofed my finger off and stopped at 0 degree tdc on timing cover. Popped the cap off and yup sure enough the rotor is in fact pointing to the post for my #1 cylinder. So what in the world is going on, right?

WELL as I was looking at my brand new Cardone distributor I thought hmm, maybe since this is a cheap distributor the gap needs to be much closer, so I set my magnetic pickup gap at .005 you read that right, .005 I mean I could barely get a piece of paper to slide in between the gap after I set it. Insanely close, but I did double check that it would still clear and watched it rotate around a few times after setting gap.

I didn't expect it to work, but I continued resetting engine to start up again. I reset my idle set screw. I ran it all the way out, then ran it in until it was BARELY touching. Then I lightly seated my fuel mixture screws, and backed each one out 1 and a half turns. I double checked yet again I was at TDC on my #1 plug, double checked again rotor was pointing at post that ran to #1 plug, turn the key on and turned over the engine.

Immediately it tried to fire off but did not quite want to fire, so I advanced the timing a little by turning distributor counter clockwise until it finally lit off. Now don't forget my timing light is broke so I did what I know works and advanced it until I could hear pinging and shut it down. Tried to fire off engine again but could hear it was too advanced so I retarded it a tiny bit at a time until the engine would turn back over. Locked down the distributor and then fired off the engine.

So now the engine starts and wouldn't you know it, it's running as it should at 800 rpms, at an idle, something it had never ever done.

The only and I mean ONLY thing that I had done this time that I had previously never done was set the gap on my distributor super SUPER close. Hours and hours and hours and hours wasted.

I said all of this because it was the last thing I thought of that worked, and had I thought of it sooner I wouldn't of done things like second guess fuel pressure of a new mechanical fuel pump, or start modifying a brand new carb drilling holes in the butterflies.

So PLEASE, if you are experiencing issues similar to mine double check the basics!

Engine at TDC #1 cylinder on the compression stroke
Rotor pointing to #1 post
Firing order correct 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2
Carb setup for initial start up (I like mixture screws 1 & a 1/2 turns out, Idle set screw lightly touching)
CHECK YOUR DIZZY PICKUP GAP!

If all of this is correct you should be good and should not have the same issue I had, which was engine only running at a high idle of 1200 rpms, and engine dying when put in gear.

Sorry it is so long, but if it helps a single person it's worth it.