antweave

I got a 850 cfm edelbrock on my stock 455. The egine was build about 3 years ago but is hardly driven just because it is a project that is lacking funds. Before going to the body shop the engine ran fine warm or cold temp cold start and at idle. I took took the car to the body shop and the entire time the painter had the car it has starting issues he would run the battery down trying to start the car. I finally got it home and tried to figure out what was wrong. It took an excessive amount of time to get started like 15-20 minutes. After finally getting it started i would drive about 5 miles and bring it back to the shop and turn the engine off and restart, it would stall like the engine was cold very hard to crank. I think the body shop dust killed my carburator heeeeeeellllllllp. As some of you may have read I am a newbie

76olds

Hard to crank?? 15-20 min dam you have a good battery !! Sounds like a timing issue. How did it run for the 5 miles any pinging ? Pull a couple of plugs have a looksie.

antweave

I have to plug up my battery charger most of the time to get it to start due to the excessive pulling on the starter. Another factor that I singled out no issues with old gas from the ethanol in the gas it has fresh gas in it at all times

coppercutlass

The dust wont kill the carb so to speak . Its sounds like it's a tune issue. I went to fire up my cutlass the other day ., about 32 degrees inside my garage and it took sometime to start it but not 15 minutes . I have no choke and it does not like to start under 40 degrees so you have to throttle it just right. I have ran edlebrocks in the past and they clog very easy specially when gas sits in them for a long time. I have had jets get clogged up with small particles of aluminum corrosion. I used to keep my car in a shop that did media blasting and I used to run an edelbrock and never had issues . Parts can go bad from just sitting. Sounds like something is going on inside the carb.

76olds

X2 sitting to long with the low grade fuel will gum things up , I keep fuel stabilizer in my tank simply because mine sits alot and stored all winter.

1964f-85

Time for a carb rebiuld, get a kit, it only takes a few hours to clean out all the passages!
Also check your alternator, once running it shouldent need the battery, make sure your still putting out juice.