Made some progress today, had a fire yesterday. Turns out that sporadic dead miss is ... you guessed it, plug wires roasting on header pipes. New Moroso wires today. Still burnt thru two plug boots, this is like killin' ants. Got more boots and socks coming, so once we get good spark, we'll start in again.

If it was mine, I think I'd stick with the q-jet. It came on the car new. Neighbor (owner) had some good luck with an Edelbrock carb on a Camaro, so we'll see.

Interesting comment about 16-18 degrees advance. We took a ride this afternoon and it just acted like it was cryin' for more ign lead, I thought. With those smog heads, I was thinkin' it might have room for that.

Thanks so much for the q-jet tips, I knew about the wells and such many years ago and simply didn't remember! Had a Firebird 400 in my teens, tried a big Holley on it once, put the q-jet back on two days later.

So the Nova's tucked away 'til next week, neighbor's already asked, can we build a 383?

Sure, I said.

To be continued......