Ok, so my car won't start on the first turn over, no matter what I try with the gas, or if its a cold start or a warm restart. It starts as the starter turns the engine over but as soon as I let go of the key, the revs drop off and it stalls. Afterward, the 2nd try turning the ignition will start it up but it idles at about 1000-1500 rpm and I have to give it some gas to get the rpms to drop down, which they then drop to 500rpm. Someone suggested I pump the gas once before turning it over, didn't help. I tried 2 pumps, still no go. Is there someone wrong with the engine or is this normal? Sorry in advance if it's something obvious but this is my first carb car so I'm not exactly sure what to do.

 

The only time I ever experienced the 2nd issue, that of high initial rpms and tapping the gas knocked it back to normal was on my 79 Trans Am which was a carb. I forget what I did to fix it, but it was something up with the linkage or the carb itself was sticking or something. Dunno if that helps you any though.

 

Try adjusting the choke mechanism, and is this carb fresh, as in new or a rebuild? The needle and seat may be stuck, or the floats could be bad, theres lots of things for carbs, there old as hell, why don't you throw that in the trash and get efi. Carbs aren't any good for todays gas prices, they're either tuned for mileage or for power, not both.

Right now on my dads '68 GTO were running a three circuit 1050 dominator on his 461 pontiac, and it runs great, you just have to adjust the air bleeds. and the intermediate and idle bleeds, its complicated, you don't just take out a screw driver and twist the screws for the idle mixture, but you need to tune it off vacuum. Maybe you need to buy a book on how to tune your carbuerator, you can learn a lot. If you have a rochester, they're great for part throttle, and still work pretty good for full throttle, but they're still horrible for mileage.

What carb do you have?