440 Help Needed

Hello,

I have posted about this car before:

Dialing in a Carter AVS

Its a 70 charger that is using a 440 from a 68 C-body. I was told it was an HP motor originally so I am not to sure if it has to 906 heads or the 915(?) heads from 67. It has the stock rotation assembly with some aftermarket pistons that has that lighting bolt on the piston skirts. It is running the factory iron heads, with iron exhaust manifolds with the factory iron 4 barrel intake. I do know the cam specs:

Comp Cams 21-224-4 (XE274H-10)
Hydraulic valve adjustment
Gross Valve Lift: .488 intake, .491 exhaust
Duration @ .006 tapper lift: 274 intake, 286 exhaust
Valve timing @ .006:
Open: 31 intake BTDC, 77 exhaust BBDC
Close: 63 intake BTDC, 29 exhaust BBDC
These specs are for cam installed at 106.0 intake centerline
Duration @ .050: 230 intake, 236 exhaust
Lobe lift: .3250 intake, .3270 exhaust
Lobe separation: 110.0

I originally had the smaller 440 AVS carb on it and no matter what I did your eyes would water standing next to it. From the thread above it was mentioned that is an indicator that it is running really rich at idle. So I thought it was due to the carb being too small so I got a new holley 750 CFM with vacuum secondaries. it helped a little but not much. I have a member on here helping me with this but he suggested I ask for second opinions.

He mentioned that I need more idle air by pass to help close the throttle blades that was exposing to much of the transfer slots which is why I am getting this eye watering issue. So I tried an idle air by pass and nothing changed. This was done by plugging into the PCV port with a manifold with drilled holes to meter additional air into the engine. Again nothing changed.

So I verified the timing mark on the damper and that is spot on. The ignition is still running points, and the dwell setting is within spec.

I checked out the Holley carb and everything appeared to be working the way it should. however I still need 25 BTDC on initial to even get it to run. So the next step was to do the compression test. I followed the procedure he gave me and came up with these numbers (PSI):

1: 200
3: 190
5: 185
7: 175
2: 200
4: 195
6: 195
8: 175

Now I am being told that these numbers are two high for an iron headed engine to run pump gas. However, I do not know if these high numbers are are the cause of my idling issue.

The engine was rebuilt. it was slightly bored, both the heads and engine were decked. Again I am not to sure on the pistons that are in it, but according to something called the "Wallace Calculator" there is a good chance the compression ratio is over 11.0:1. I do not know the combustion chamber size, so the next plan of action was to remove a head and measure the combustion chambers volume as well as cylinder volume at BDC.

Now does this high compression on an iron headed engine seems like its contributing to my idling issue? am I on the right track? am I missing anything?