Also, I posted this Edelbrock advice in an adjacent thread, but it applies equally to you. Some of it you have done already, I think, like get the gaskets for splitting the carb and replacing the accelerator pump. Anyway, here it is:
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OK, now some other things you can do when you get around to it. I assume the carb is a 1406, which is most common. If it's different, some of the following parts will be different.
1) Get the gaskets for splitting the Edelbrock open here:
http://www.jegs.com/i/Edelbrock/350/1499/10002/-1. This allows you to take the top off the carb. Eight screws is all, and not much to disconnect to get the top off. No fuel disconnetion. Note: Don't lose the little clippy things on the linkages.
2) Check the adjustment of the floats per the manual here, as shown on page 8:
http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive_new/mc/carbs_acc/pdf/carb_owners_manual.pdf. These are always wrong, new from the factory. If yours are right, I will be surprised.
3) While you have the carb apart, change out the primary jets to one size smaller with these:
http://www.jegs.com/i/Edelbrock/350/1425/10002/-1. The carb is set up rich at the factory to work with anything you bolt it on, because most people won't tune them properly. The secondary jets are OK.
4) Put in a new accelerator pump piston while you are in there. They wear out in a couple years and that causes stumbles in transition.
http://www.jegs.com/i/Edelbrock/350/1470/10002/-15) Put the carb back together. Replace the primary metering rods with these, which should be real close:
http://www.jegs.com/i/Edelbrock/350/1441/10002/-1?parentProductId=6) When you do that, install new step-up springs. Put in the 8# springs from this kit:
http://www.jegs.com/i/Edelbrock/350/1464/10002/-1?CAWELAID=1710905649&catargetid=1784155608&cadevice=c&&cagpspn=pla&gclid=CJai6NHAl7oCFYkWMgodrSkAYg7) Take the fast-idle cam off, remove the plate behind it and replace it with a .095" thick 3/8" clearance washer, and put the fast-idle cam back on. This plate is the secondary defeat when the choke is on, which is all well and good except that the failure mode is to leave you with no secondaries, which you will learn when you are passing somebody, which can make life interesting in a hurry. Take it off, then don't dump the secondaries before the choke is off. The eninge will stumble.
Now, these parts are all cheap, and it's not hard work, and you should learn to do this stuff anyway. Also, put a rag in the bore of the carb, or tape it over with painter's tape, before you start removing the screws to pop the top off the carb. Learn from this advice; the other way is to drop a screw down the intake, and that's a much more difficult education.
The other thing you should probably take care of is to put the thermostatic air cleaner and heat stove setup back on the truck. This will help a lot in cold weather -- anything below 40 degrees actually -- and isn't hard to do. Get the thermostatic air cleaner like in my pic above and the heat riser pipe at a salvage yard. You can clean them up and paint them, and put a chrome top on it to make it look pretty good:
http://www.chromeandbillet.com/proddetail.asp?prod=10111&gclid=CKnmuo3Il7oCFZFFMgodPgoACw. Then you need to have the pipe hang down to where it can pull heat off the headers. You can cut the bottom off the stock tube and then use some of this to bend it around, it's the right size to mate with the stock tube.
http://store.carropacific.com/flexibleexhaustrepairkit18x112idwclampflexibleexhaustrepairkitperformance.aspx. This will cause the engine to warm up sooner in the winter, carburate better, give more mileage and better performance.
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