When I got my truck I was told all it needed was a fuel pump to run, which turned out to be true. I put a new fuel pump on and it fired up. The timing was off, so I got that straightened out and have been driving it since (not heavy ) while doing a bunch of other work. That was 3 years ago. I haven't touched the carb again until this week. It has a Holley 2300 500 cfm carb that appears to be fairly old. I got the tuning manual from the Holley website. Fuel level in the bowl was spot on. I connected a vacuum gauge and adjusted the mixture screws equally for best vacuum and ended up at 19 on the gauge. A very small adjustment was needed to obtain this. Reset the idle to approximately 500 rpm and double checked that the timing was still on (it is). I'm happy with the idle, very smooth when warmed up. The plugs that were in it were Champion RH18Y. I replaced them with Autolite 437 plugs last night before making the adjustments noted above.
The fuel economy has always been 10 mpg and the truck will stink up my garage very quickly if I let it idle inside. It does burn a little oil, typically a puff of blue smoke on start up. I haven't seen black smoke, raw fuel smell or anything else to indicate a real rich condition. I don't know any history on this engine and really don't have much frame of reference, but it seems like it's a little more sluggish than it should be. It has a T18 and 4.11 gears. I don't run it much over 60 mph, which should be around 2500 rpms.
My question is, should I dig into the jetting and power valve or look somewhere else?
It leaks oil and is in general pretty ugly. I intend to pull it someday for a refresh at minimum, but now is not the time for that. I'd just like to keep it running as good as it can in it's current condition.
Any thoughts?