i'm havin some problems with my 304, its only pulling 6 on the vacuum gauge, its blowing gas out of the #2 cylinder at the exhaust manifold, i have to set it at like 15 BTC to get it to run, its blowin grey smoke out the exhaust, and when i pulled the new plugs i just put in, they are covered in gas, like a strong smell, i just replaced the intake manifold gasket and rebuilt the holley, does anyone know if this is possibly valves or what, and y would it just start?

sounds like:
the holley (not as great as everyone thinks) is dumpin
fuel (stuck needle?)
and
fouled out plugs.

change 'em plugs and see how it runs.:rasta:

Start at the begining. What was going on before you worked on it. It sounds like something went wrong in the carb rebuild.

The first thing you should do is verify that it is a tunable engine. That means a compression check. If the compression is good, read your vacuum guage again. Does it puslate rapidly at 6 inches? A pulsating vacuum guage usually means a valve, valve spring problem. Very lean and very rich conditions will also cause low vacuum conditions, as a severly restricted exhaust or intake will. If the cam timing jumped, you could also get low vacuum problems.

Second, is verify the ignition.

Third, is throwing your Holley away.