My father bought a Chrysler 300G with the stock crossram setup. We picked it up on Friday from a
guy in Rocky Point, NY. It has a ’71 440 block with some cam on it and solid lifters. I’m looking for the paperwork to learn what kind of cam is in there. It does have the 413 crank for the cast iron Torque-
Flite. It has the 440 source electronic ignition distributor. My question is how can I adjust the idle
speed and mixture on the carbs? It has the original carbs from ’61. Should we go to Edelbrock Performer AFB carbs? I’m trying to get it to idle and not die when I put it in gear.
The first thing I’d do it to follow the FSM procedure exactly, to the letter, except that possibly, because of the cam, it may require more than the 725–750 RPM specified idle speed. In general, a mega cam with long rams is not a great combo for street use. Be sure you have enough spark advance at idle. Again, this relates to the cam. If you find that you need so much spark lead at idle that it detonates, the distributor will need to be reworked (shorter advance curve limit). I suppose you might be able to make new AFBs work, once you hack up the air
cleaner retainers (bases) to fit, but be sure that you retain the original dashpot, otherwise stalling will be even
more of a problem. See, with 30˝ ram tubes, it takes a (relatively) long time for any change in vacuum signal to reach the carbs, so the dashpot, referred to as “ant stall unit” in the FSM, is mandatory. I also did some tuning
on these using Uni-Syns (multi-carburetor synch devices), even Edelbrock sold these. They are all over eBay,
now made in—you guess it—China. If you buy ’em, be sure to get setups for the 47/8˝ AFB air horn. You might need to go this route, as well as carb mods, again, because of the cam. Have fun adjusting the valve lash. (Not.)
