it kinda lives

[original72]

well after many hours and many mistakes.... <described below> finally fired up the 440 today..... after about 8 back fires thru the carb and 2 that made the carb catch on fire..... due to 2 reasons.... first is the firing order..... i thought the distributor turned clockwise.... guess what... WRONG..... and second was it was 180 out...... after both of those fixed it fired up and ran fine..... and yes i know since it is a holley i need to change the power valve as it is toast..... just happy after all the time and trouble that it is coming all together...... now to get the trans shifter linkage modified to work with the headers.... dropping it off at a fabricator to get it modified.... look for pics to come in the middle of the week.....

Bill

[cudaken]

 Brother I have just went thougth what you said. I was ready to sell the whole F--king thing for $15,000 and have $12,000 in the 440. $15K was with the 69 Charger. Just drove mine 80 miles and only part of my Cargier S/S wheel feel of during a power slid. I was feeling a little DOH and guess there was a reason they did not use S/S wheels. Nothing melted, blew up or burned and took second at a car show as well.

Keep the faith and throw money at it! Worked for me so far.

                            Cuda Ken

[Chryco Psycho]

the Pwer valve may still be OK they dop not always fail with a backfire 
congrats on getting it running 

[Ghoste]

The newer ones (since 92 according to the Holley website) have some kind of check ball to help protect them in a backfire.  I don't know how effective it is but like CP says, they don't blow out quite as easily as Edelbrock advertising leads one to believe. 

That much I do remember about Holleys Neil.