urotu, as far as being a new problem, no i dont think it is, but im not sure. the engine is in a 79 nova which belonged to my brother for the past 15 years, he had the engine built (spent an ungodly amount of money on that) and i just purchased it from him 3 months ago. having said that, ive been going through everything and am finding out he half assed some things that i am now correcting. i didnt quite understand why he put the cheapy edelbrock on it, i guess it was a matter of money at the time or the fact that he just wanted to get it up and running. i agree with you guys on troubleshooting from simple to complex, but i didnt know exactly where to start. thanks for the suggestions and i hope you guys stick around to help out. john