Troubleshooting

[boogiedude]

i have the original carb from this year(32? 34? ) sorry i'm drawing a blank at this moment, long day

[boogiedude]

So i've gone and checked the points, they stil llook good and the gap is still correct, so how do i check if the low-speed jet is clogged? and how would i remove it? should i just pull the carb out, shoot some compressed air through it along with some carb cleaner to see if everything is flowing properly?

[manoa matt]

Eric,

Remove the idle solenoid. The idle jet is on the tip and can be removed. Your fuel draining out sounds exactly like the problem we had with Ernestine's car. After replacing the fuel supply and vent rubber lines AND elimenating the flying saucer that is in the tank vent line up over the rear axle it cured the draining/siphoning issue.

Do you see any of that white chalky crap in the fuel filter? I got a few spare new condensers that you can have. Did you get that fuel pump installed (correctly)? Your timing should be right on 10 deg BTDC. The dwell was at 50, it should be at 55. It takes a dwell meter to correctly adjust the gap.

I'm still on vacation and will be back on Monday. Give me a call and you can swing by and pick up the condenser. I'll let you borrow my timing light and dwell meter.

Matt

[boogiedude]

The white crap hasn't come back, but i pulled out the carb and opened up the top of it and there was a good 2mm of brown sediment in the float chamber. I cleaned all the jets with carb cleaner and wiped everything down. That kind of helped. It runs better but not perfectly. I'll go check on the idle solenoid and the idle jet.

I have the pump installed correctly(i think?) it runs and it has plenty of juice so i would assume i got the actuating arm where it's supposed to be. As for the fuel supply lines, I replaced them all a couple months ago but never did the vent lines so I guess i should go get some tubing and do the vent lines

[majicwrench]

Boogie Dude,
Pull out the idle soleniod and the idle mix screw, and blow thru passages with one of those cans of compressed air (my wife gets em at a sewing shop) and/or carb cleaner. Got your safetly glasses on, right? If you have debris in the bottom of the float bowl, some will find it's way into the idle jet. Am pondering why so much stuff in float bowl, methinks a better/different brand fuel filter may be in order.
Keith

[boogiedude]

I'm thinking the same as far as the filter goes. I got it from napa, but I guess it didn't hold up as well as it should have. Actually scratch that, it's about 5-6 months so old I guess it would be time for a new one anyways. And I already pulled the solenoid out and sprayed in there, but I'll pull the mix screw too.

What I am yet to understand, is why it shoots that puff of gas/air out of the carb

[rlux4]

Have you checked your valve timing and clearances? If you have an intake valve that's not closing on the compression stroke it would allow backflow. It would also cause lack of power in that cylinder. Have you done a compression test?
Ron

[manoa matt]

Those symptoms of power loss and puffing out of the carb sound like a blown head gasket. I have a good way of confirming that without removing the head.

Before you pull that idle mixture screw out, screw it in until it stops and note exactly how many turns it was.

[majicwrench]

Boogiedude,
If you are refering to "that puff of gas/air" that shoots out of top of carb when you blow air into idle soleniod, you are seeing air/gas shooting out of the air bleed on top of the carb. This is perfectly normal. Air and fuel mix before they get sucked into the carb throat.
Keith

[boogiedude]

Yes, but it happens a ridiculous amount. It's to the point where if I press the gas any faster than a snails pace, it will puff out of the carb and often times stall the car. And it lasts longer than a normal cold start used to. It will literally take anywhere from 15-30 minutes of driving before it will stop for the most part. But no matter how long i wait, if I try to drive under 2000rpms it will bog down and puff out if I try to give it more gas.

It's really quite a safety hazard. It puffed out on my way out of work while i was crossing a 2 lane highway and I was basically stuck in oncoming traffic until i could ease it out

[So Cal Mark]

you could have a bad accelerator pump in the carb if the problem eventually goes away, but if the problem is always there you might have a flat lobe on the exhaust cam.

[boogiedude]

Well matt and I worked on it this weekend, on saturday we gapped the valves and got them all to spec, and it made a tiny bit of difference. Come sunday we checked the timing and found that it had somehow reset itself to 0 , so we got it back up to 10, and changed out some of the vapor lines and voila. Problems fixed.