I post this holding my breath, whatever that means.
After getting some advice from the guys at
The Forums I went and checked the connections on the distributor, and made sure the choke wasn't stuck, and then turned on the car.
It started right up, and then idled beautifully. What's up!
I let her idle for a good long while just listening, waiting for something to go wrong. But it never did. So I went inside and put on some shoes and took her for a spin.
She drives amazingly well. No more hesitation in 2nd gear WOT. If this thing feels like it did today when I go to the track I'll be thrilled. I have to say, it's funny to have a car with such variable driving characteristics. Fickle old thing.
Another point of virtue, which I'm not sure if I should point out or not, is that it was over 90 degrees today. I drove around the block like 4 times, at pretty good revs and the temp. needle didn't even go north of NORMAL until I stopped and parked in the driveway, and then it just barely went up.
I'm thinking the coolant system flush and descaling I did made a difference and it's now working as it should.
Either that or I just didn't drive it long enough to overheat. We'll see.