Replaced points/condenser a few weeks ago. Engine still had a slight miss to it. I also noticed a "SURGING" vibration.
Took car out today and ran it up "well over" the speed limit after letting car warm up and seeing if I still had the vibration at high speeds as well.
Well, after a short period of time (about a half of a mile or so), I let off and slowed down to turn.
Car died when I came to a stop.
Seemed like it was flooded. Cranked and cranked. Nothing. Held pedal to floor, nothing. Sat for about a minute or less and tried again. Sputtered some and died. Waited again. Held pedal to floor and she fired.
Ran rougher than a cob.
Only about 4 miles from home. Had to put it in neutral to keep rpms up or I rode the brakes with gas pedal down some so it wouldn't die.
Got it in the drive way and it was running real rough. Pulled into garage, car died.
Got out of car and you can smell the raw fuel like crazy.
Haven't torn into it yet. Pretty late now. Any suggestions?
Could I have stretched the springs out on the ignition?
It has a 350 in it with a holley 600 cfm carb.
When I was setting the points a few weeks ago, the car backfired thru the carb twice. Could it be a power valve? I hear they are easy to blow.
I have no real knowledge on a Holley carb. Grew up on Q-jets/Carter.
Car ran fine though after backfire. Just when I ran up the rpms, it was like it went out of time.
I want to change to a pertronix ignition or something other than points, but for now and being close to winter here in Ohio, I want to wait until I have some extra cash.....
Thanks in advance for all your input.

it sounds like a power valve to me. is your firing order correct, also check ur timing, when i was playing with mine it would flood like crazy when i drove it until i got the timing and vacume set right. i would go with a new petronix H.E.I distributor there pretty resonable and thats what i run and it holds up well past 7,200 r.p.m. also points style ignitions give out at about 5,500. how high did u rev it?

Are you seeing any fuel on the outside of the carb? You may just have some crap stuck on your needle seats and be flooding the carb.

Sounds to me like just trash in the needle and seat,it is easy to remove and clean/inspect.First thing you should do is run the car for a minute then kill it and take 'sightplug" out of side of front float bowl.If correct you should have to shake the car for any gas to come out...this is also how you need to adjust it if you replace/clean needle an seat.Most holleys will have gas coming out of vent tube on top of carb when flooding.IMO a stock HEI distib.. can't be beat for reliability..unless you plan on running 6500 very often.I put a pentronics points conversion in my dads show truck and I have trouble with the timing being inconsistant...does work pretty good though and has not let me down yet.If I could,I would run an HEI instead..but its a tunnelram thing.If your timing was correct and it ran fine after you put in points then I would not mess with dist. until you figure fuel problem out first.I would replace plugs also.Hope you get it fixed..let us know.

The car was running fine before I drove it. Wife drove it about 50 miles or so to work and back. Like I said before, it did have an intermittant miss when holding it at a steady rpm like at 55 mph., but when you are accelerating or WOT, it ran great.
I had the vibration "surging" that was driving me nuts trying to figure it out. So I took it out on a 4 lane highway and ran it up to about 125 or so I guess. The speedo is off due to the tires, so it reads fast and was buried when I let off the gas.
I did not hear of any kind of a backfire or anything of that nature before it died when I was slowing down to turn.
I'm not sure if the "miss" isn't just because of the exhaust.
I am running headers and "Purple Hornies" from Summit.
Maybe I do not have enough backpressure to keep it from not missing. I don't know. I know it has to have some backpressure to run right. Do I have enough?
The car has a 327/350 (I haven't decoded yet) and a small cam. Was told it was close to 300 h.p. Holley 600cfm carb.
I'm going to try and work on it tomorrow some maybe.
I'm going to get the pertronix ignition for my wife for Christmas, so points will have to do for now. But it is also almost winter here in Ohio.

Plug wire find it's way to a hot header perhaps?

Took plugs out and replaced them. They were fuel fouled. Started car up and let it run for a bit to warm it up. Outside temp. is about 35 degrees.
I could tell right away it was running way rich.
Turned up idle screw quite a bit to keep it running and retarded the timing some. I know I had it advanced a bit too much yet.
Car had a hard time wanting to idle. Running rich. When I revved car up to high rpm it was fine or if I raced engine, it seemed like it had plenty of power and no backfire.
So I'm thinking I may have blown a power valve or something.
Any ideas...
I have a 600cfm Holley and I don't know squat about it....
Guess I'll be looking for some reading material....
ANY suggestions or comments is APPRECIATED!
Thanks

So I'm thinking I may have blown a power valve or something. Any ideas...Guess I'll be looking for some reading material....ANY suggestions or comments is APPRECIATED! ThanksAs others have suggested, I agree, its probably the power valve blown due to the backfire.

The power valve is screwed into the primary metering block, the front plate. Get yourself a 1 inch high soda can and place it underneath a bottom fuel bowl screw to catch the fuel draining. You should get a tune-up kit for the carb before starting. Use the LIST XXXX number from the airhorn, if 600 cfm and vacuum secondaries, could be '1850'.

Remove the other three bolts, remove the bowl with float and the block to main body. The power valve is the "mushroom" on the block. There ahould be some numbers stamped on the flange signifying the amount of vacuum needed to open the valve, e.g., 65 = 6.5 in./Hg to open. Use a 1 inch wrench to replace it. Tighten all screws firmly, but not like a gorilla.

Follow the instructions from the kit and finish off with a new air filter element. A plugged/clogged/full element will make for a rich fueled engine.

Use a vacuum gauge on intake vacuum and tune for a maximum reading.