carb rebuild prep/tips

Bill - The spec's on the 2150 for a 400 are here: http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/1982-engine-emissions-diagnosis.html.  But that's a 179 page document, so you'll want to open it in another browser tab and then search for what you are looking for.  Or download it and use your own pdf app.

Christopher, there's certainly no reason to apologize.
I'm just trying to help you get help.  

As Bill points out the vacuum pulloff should hold the choke plate open a certain amount once the engine starts.

WIthout a baseline it's hard to say what adjustment to make.
Maybe you're just not used to smelling a vehicle without a Cat?

I thought his signature said 351M? I went to your link and all I could get was one page. I was just going to grab the carburetors section, but couldn't access it, tried the whole thing and got just the contents, 381 Kb.

It does.  But the closest info we have is for its big brother, the 400.

My truck has a cat, plus it runs ok once warm and started, and stinks less during that phase of operation than it did pre-all this work. Ironically, before january, it ran better despite hugggeeeee vacuum leaks. Altho it had been tuned well to run despite all that, I know. I do continue to be surprised that my '55 ford runs way better - why on earth they moved from manual chokes to automatic chokes I do not know (and dare I say I enjoy that smell lol). But I digress!

I've been reading up a bit on the link that Gary posted. I'm on the fence about trying to fix this myself. Per that link, having to open the throttle wide open to start could be anything from a stuck/improperly set float causing flooding to an external screw/choke adjustment. The former is out of my skill set whereas I may attempt the latter.

If I do attempt anything, I may not touch the idle based on what I'm hearing and reading. I have no way to read the rpms. It may be set acceptably and I am simply not used to it. Brand new, I can't imagine that it would have been designed to sound like a WWII bomber was flying overhead - rather the choke might be the primary issue(?).

This is frustrating but I'm heading in the right direction. And I got a compliment on my truck at the landscaping facility I was at yesterday, so that gave me a little boost.

Just providing a general update since its been a while. My mechanic has been great, slowly tinkering on my truck for weeks when the area isn't at risk for burning down to to forest fires. Based on the advice and feedback from folks on this forum, I asked him to do some tests that I just don't have the ability to do (at least with my skills ).

He removed the exhaust upstream of the catalytic converter and was able to determine that the cat is clogged. It also must have been replaced at least once because it's welded in place. He has a guy to put a new cat in today for a good price. That should fix the poor high RPM response.

He also performed various tests that isolate various ignition components. Aside from a new distributor cap, nothing else on my engine seem to be the problem for its incredibly poor driving performance as of late (I tested and replaced plugs, wires and coil). It even died on the highway on him. He was not happy about that lol.

Basically, it was acting like it was starving for fuel at startup and then flooding later on. He said the carb is the problem, which I just paid "experts" to rebuild for 300+ dollars .

Peeved at wasting time and money, and wanting to keep my trucks original carb, I asked if he'd pull it and let me take a look at it on my workbench. It was a great learning opportunity to disassemble the carb 1st hand. It was missing the wire that holds the float tang to the top of the needle and had a couple of minor issues. I got to watch my mechanic install it and turn the engine over after re-rebuilding the carb myself! It actually ran pretty well without getting finetuned!!

Anywho, thanks everyone for the wise words of assistance!

Excellent!  As someone is wont to say, these trucks are like onions.  You peel the layers of problems off and cry.  But pretty soon you have enough to have a bunch of onion rings!  

That’s great!