Anyone in the Spanaway-Tacoma area know how to tune Holley carbs really well? I just installed a Holley 390cfm 4160 model and need to tune it to my 12a. Any help would be appreciated. The car runs and idles, but idles too high and dies when I let off the gas pedal. Thanks, John.

 

wow...i figured someone would have commented by now...

anyways, a little more new info...
I backed the idle screw off in an attempt to bring down the idle. the idle never dropped a bit and I had screw almost all the way out! I'm new to Holley carbs and not sure what do do next. ANY help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

Was the carb new, sounds like an idle circuit is plugged/dirty.

 

fresh off the shelf

 

what rpm is it staying at? my guess would be the idle circut may be flawed we used to get holleys back all the time with defective idle circuts and metering pumps at work.

 

I concur with the idle circuits being flawed or clogged. Try putting some compressed air through the bleeds and run some compressed air through the metering blocks and passages after removing the float bowls. Best idea would be to return the thing if it is fresh off the shelf and exchange it (if it is flawed from the factory).
Kettlman has been MIA from the forums for a bit but locally he is pretty knowledgeable about setting up a Holley.

 

Had on on my 7 years ago. would not run out of the box either. ended up drilling out air jets in the metering block to get it to work along with rejetting and rejetting. It was nice in a straight line, but bad in the corners ( like a holly). I have heard the edllebrock works pretty good out of the box. Maybe keep searching the web. try racing beat or google australian too.

 

it idles at 3k. ill try a few of the tips given. by chance could my timing be a culprit? its stock setting

 

spray some carb cleaner in the idle jets let it soak for a few secs then blow compressed air in. if this car is a daily drive or you like the twistys id go with and edelbrock better float desing then the holleys. plus the edelbrocks are easier to tune, all you have to do is is remove two covers and replace the metering rods/pumps it like a 30 sec job for the whole operration. i can take a pic if the edelbrock if youd like to see it for refernce on how easy it is to tune