ok if you've been following my post on this engine I have new info. I installed carbs from a 73 135 that runs good. With those carbs the motor runs great. I can retard the timming as much as I can and I don't get backfires. I can slow it down to 500 rpm with the timing and its smooth enough to troll with. if I set timming to 4 degrees it runs about 800, but this is with air box off and running in neutral in a tub. I can live with that but its easy to make it run slower just by retard a little more. With these carbs my exhaust water is clean and clear none of the oily globs like i had with the stock carbs and the spark plugs look much better on the new carbs <br />So the question is what's wrong with the stock carbs. idle jets on both sets of carbs are size 30 79 carbs are 1 3/8 venturies 73 are 1 5/16. high speed in 79 are 65c in 73 size 73c. its obvious 79 carbs are dumping fuel in motor to make it idle way too fast. The float levels are just a little higher than level with body. Don't have a gauge but I'm going to get one could this make the carbs dump fuel in the engine. I checked the floats and they both float fine. They are fiber and not cork. When I pump bulb on fuel line it gets hard so I think needles and seats are ok and the needles look fine. They are rubber tip with no signs damage.. I need some ideas please, not sure what to check now. The 73 carbs do have adjustable jets but I didn't mess with them. With the 79 carbs it idles about 1500-2000 r's at four degrees, burns with filthy exhaust and blackens lower spark plugs after 15 minutes.. Thanks again for all the help...