Power after cold start?

[K Sykes]

1980 SC, Fuel only EFI, MSD Ignition - I have been wrestling with one last thing in the process of going to EFI (MS2). My car starts right away when cold, but idles low ~300 rpm. I have to go up a pretty steep hill, with a stop sign at the top (car is on the slope if you make a legal stop). The car runs fine out the driveway and 2/3 up the hill in 2nd gear and around 3k rpm. I leave early mornings for the airport, so going up in 1st at 5k isn't an option. When I get to the top, the car barely has any power, even wide open. The only way I can make the hill is to double clutch into 1st and then it will chug up the hill. After that it runs fine.

I have added an idle control valve that is wide open on a cold start, moved the mixture around and finally added MSD to try and get more spark, but at this point, I am stumped. Some theories I am tossing around and wanted some input on are;

1. Can still open up gap on plugs more to take full advantage of MSD (+blaster coil and Magencor 8.5 wires). They are currently at .04 as that is the widest my current gauge goes.
2. Run a slightly hotter plug. I have NGK BP7ES, was thinking of going to a 6 heat range?
3. Could a clogged CAT act this way? I was thinking of a pre-muffler anyways, but I thought a clogged cat had more effect at high revs?

It idles at 950 when warmed up and is well behaved otherwise. Any thoughts?

[DRACO A5OG]

Well, on my 190e, I had severe piston leak after head re-build which would spew oil out the exhaust, after a week of this the cat clogged and she bogged down and labored up hill.

Removed cat and punched a hole thru the ceramic component inside the cat, installed, problem solved and more HP. Will suffer on next Smog but I will deal with it when that comes.

If I may recommend, if there a Pelican buddy close by that has a by-pass you can borrow, may give you some results. at night, take a drive and look under at the cat, is it glowing red? that would be another sign of a clogged cat.

[K Sykes]

So problem solved, and it was none of the things I thought.

I got inspired by all the backside valve adjustment threads and articles and gave it a try. Car runs better than it ever has, including cold. I have never done anything that has as profound of an effect on how the car runs. Must have had one that was too tight and wasn't sealing?? Not sure, but runs great now.

The whole backside thing was pretty easy, only hard part was the .0025 gauge is THIN and hard to "push" on. Other than that pretty easy, just time consuming.

Suspect I need to re-tune all my EFI mixtures given how far the valves were off, and had been for a while. I had a couple tune-ups from a local "Name" mechanic and suspect he was not hitting the valves as well as he might.

Any rate thanks for all the other posts that inspired me to give this a try.