Thanks, Ed.
Admittedly, the really large jets I was running was to compensate for the change I made to the horizontal discharge tubes before I had ever run the carbs on my engine. I drank the "Hot VW's" Koolaide about getting every possible horsepower gain from the engine way before I even had an engine, so when the article said "you can get 10 - 12 more hp with this kit", I went for it, little knowing that, yes, it gives you a bit more boost, but all of it on the top end while making the rest of your driving (at least in my case) less than a great experience. Getting to something more drive-able from that point went slightly beyond my understanding of what's going on in a carburetor and how it all inter-relates, so I was lost. Give me a basically working carb that needs to be jet-tuned and I'm OK, but when the basic working structure is flawed to begin with I simply didn't know how to proceed (without spending a bundle on parts that didn't fix the basic problem). In the past, every time I did carb tuning it was on something that had been running, but needed tuning after something else on the engine changed - usually something pretty minor. This went beyond my experience.
What Blackline did for me was two things: (1.) they made sure I didn't screw anything up when returning the carbs to stock from the horizontal tube debacle (and finished the reversal by removing a couple of lead port plugs I installed as part of the kit) and (2.) set them both up based on the specs of my particular engine; displacement, valve size, intakes, exhaust an, most importantly, what the cam is doing. That, in itself for someone who never had stock, working carbs in the first place, is priceless, so for the few hundred it cost me to get there it was money well spent.
The rest of this week is supposed to be gorgeous weather and I intend to be out there, in my car, enjoying it!
Oh, and if any of you guys are in the Salt Lake City/Murray, Utah area, please let me know of a really decent restaurant that I can get a gift card from to send to Dave at Blackline. He deserves it.