I could use some help getting this engine dialed in. Here is some background.
350 w/ seal-pro flat tops .030 over. Engine was squared, balanced and deck honed before assembly. #6 heads with a competition valve job. C/R right at 10:1. Comp XE268H cam advanced 4 deg. 3:42 Gears/350 turbo with 1800-2000 stall. The engine only has about 300 miles.
Idle is 750 rpm w 8-9 in Hg
Initial timing is 18 deg
Total mechanical + initial 40 deg all in about 3k. and no pinging. (This does not seem right to me and has me questioning the accuracy of my timing light.). If I hook up the vacuum advance the timing seems to go off the charts but still no pinging??????
Pulled all the plugs yesterday and they were all very white making me suspect it is lean.
Car pulls pretty strong to about 3k and falls flat on it face. It just seems to run out of breath. No stumble miss or backfire.
The carb and intake were on the engine before the rebuild and I suspect that the intake in particular may be part of the problem. EDlebrock ST2P intake with a Edlebrock performer 1406 Carb. I will do some carb tuning tomorrow. Not sure what jets are in it now.
Any thoughts?

 

Deck honed? Not sure what that means.
Do your basic tuning. Then throw the 1406 in the trash and buy a 750 of some sort. Did they actually degree the cam or just arbitrarily advance it? Check it then retard the cam back the 4 degrees it was advanced, you don't need that with such a small cam and 10:1.
Next double check tdc on your balancer to verify your timing. Too much up top can make it nose over as well, without hearing any pinging.

 

A large part if it is the SP2P. They were built for mileage and nothing more. Falling flat at 3000-3500 is their trade mark. I'm curious where you took your vac reading to only have 7-8" of vacuum. If that is a true straight manifold reading that should have one heck of a choppy idle.

 

Honed with deck plate is what I meant to say.. I used a SA Gear timing set with 4 deg key way machined in. I have verified balancer to be 0 @ TDC. I agree, the carb and intake are wrong. I respect what you are saying but hate the thought of pulling the front of the motor. How big a difference do you think the 4 deg adv. cam timing is making?

 

Idle is a little more choppy than I would expect for this cam. Have checked for some vacuum leaks but not found anything yet. I am checking vacuum at the bottom (lower below throttle plate) port of the carb. Looking for a good street intake. Something that still has some low end grunt. Any suggestions?

 

God, the SP2P was too small for my 8.5 to 1 350 with 307 heads. Get a RPM intake and a 750 carb like the Street Demon.

 

Some of the base plate ports are ported vacuum, not manifold. Try a port directly off the intake to be sure. I think you'd be happiest with a standard Performer intake.

 

It could be off even further but you won't know till you check it. You can get a good idea just by checking it from the pushrod up top. Just put a dial indicator on the top of #1 intake pushrod. At .050 lift you should see somewhere around 4*btdc on your balancer.
I totally disagree with Smitty on the intake, sorry. A regular Performer on a small block like yours is a total waste of time and money. The RPM will work well with your compression and cam.