77 Estate Wagon 350. I've rebuilt q-jets before with a pretty good success rate, though it's been awhile. I put a kit in this one today and now it acts as if the float level is way high or the needle is sticking open. Few seconds after it fires up in procedes to leak/drip fuel from about anywhere it possibly could. This is double bad as it's my go to work ride for the new few weeks. I've checked the float height at 13/32's from the casting body and back a bit from the tip of the float. It moves free and give all signs of working. Any thoughts? Thanks..
Try lowering your float level 1/32 and see what happens . While you have it open make sure there is NO trash under the needle . If 1/32 does not cure the problem try another 1/32 . Just make sure everything is tight also . Good Luck !
I did lower the float level some. Took several tries. I also think the upper air horn is warped, or the middle body, or all of it. I used a very slight ammount of silicone to seal it. It's not leaking for the moment and runs decent. Keeping my fingers crossed.
DO NOT EVER USE SILICONE SEALER ON A CARB. Silicone (RTV) is not stable around gasoline, it turns to jelly then migrates to places you don't want it. There are tools to un-warp carb bodies. Basically, rigid plates you bolt the pieces to so as to reverse the damage. Very expensive to buy, probably not too bad to make. Most folks just use the warped pieces and hope for the best.
Yes, yes the silicone was a very, very, slight ammount. I don't believe it was enough to push out and get anywhere it shouldn't. This was a last straw effort after removing that carb top about a dozen times. Lesser of two evils. The 2nd evil is not being at work Monday morning. A generic reman from the parts stores is $400 frickin bucks, and my past observations of the quality of them left me with a less than high opinion. Jegs has a generic performance q-jet with the angled chevy style fuel inlet I could adapt for noticably less than that, and likely higher quality. But heres to hoping it stays as it is now, even though it STILL has crappy cold and warm starts. :beers2:
Best ways to fix it are find someone with that unwarping tool or what I have used that works well is use two airhorn gaskets stacked together. IT works well. Also the Quad shop sells an extra thick gasket for this. I rub both airhorn gaskets well with heavy(50) motor oil as well and this always stops the leaks.
Nice to know I'm not the only one to ever have this problem. Thanks for the input guys. So far so good on my 2nd day driving. Hope it holds up.
Does the choke work? How is the coil adjusted? Is there a functioning heat riser (EFE) valve? Do you have the choke pull-off set to spec? Does the pulloff leak? (or leak excessively--some have a designed-in leak)
Evening of day 2 gives a very, very long crank time. I think the fuel bowl was empty, as it suddenly after 12-15 seconds of total start time decided to fire up and ran fine. Choke does work and seems to act as it should, hot air tube is intact, coil is set, I believe the pull-off is right. Those leaky plugs on the base of the carb had been epoxy'd previously, wonder if it's worn through and leaking again? Could my low float level do this? I lowered it a bit trying to get the leak to go away. It runs fine otherwise, no sign of leaning or lack of fuel.
No, I didn't, and am aware of it'd needing to be done. Time and budget constraints though. Last one I had done took over a week, had to mail it off.
