Hi all,
You may well remember my running issues on my 59 with the new engine. Well instead of mucking around further as I had to get the car going for an end of year school formal I threw my 600 Holley on to replace the 4Jet I was having trouble with. All problems went away
and it was smooth driving for a few hundred miles. I parked the car up a few days ago and
tried starting her up this morning when it did finally go went a few metres and stalled. Now have fuel leaking from baseplate and that shaft I zoomed in on.
The Holley was on my old 394 for about eight years with no issues but was sitting unused for the engine change about 5 months or so. So trying to get her going again to get it to the assessors from when a car hit the rear fender.
Any ideas on what has happened here?

Cleaned the needle and seat on the front bowl was a bit of crud in the carb filter so I’ll do the rear bowl tomorrow.

Thank you.




Thank you.

 

If you had the Holley on another car for 8 years it's probably due for a rebuild. It's not uncommon to have to crank a carbureted engine for a few seconds before starting to refill the fuel bowls. I always give my 71 3-5 seconds of cranking before I step on the gas pedal to set the choke and activate the accelerator pump.

 

It is likely dirt on the other needle and seat

 

 

Would I just take all the plugs out or is there some way to dry the fuel up in the engine?

Four rear plugs dry a bit dusty and four fronts are wet. Black soot when attempting to start up and the other day when I nearly did start it sounded awful like running on half the cylinders.

 

John - I have minimal experience w/ Holley. Appearance of your spark plugs (black, sooty & wet), coupled w/ leaking fuel suggests a rich A/F mixture &/or your float(s) (primary & secondary) need adjustment. Did you measure your vacuum and adjust your A/F mixture (idle mixture screws) after you installed the Holley on this engine? Does your model Holley have the primary & secondary fuel float bowl level adjustments with a sight glass? The car might well have stalled from a flooded condition.

What model Holley carburetor is it?

 

BTW - I'd begin with a brand new set of spark plugs set to the proper gap. There's a great deal of black soot all over those plugs. Yes, you may be able to wire brush clean them & that's an option, but the electrodes are very sooty (from a rich fuel condition).

 

Hi Norm,
This carb is the Holley 600 cfm with vac secondaries no sight glass on this one. Having it apart today there were two floats one either end.
I did not measure vacuum or adjust mixture screws as it was working on the old engine for many years and I should have thought more of it and done just that being a new engine.

funny thing is she worked like a charm for a few hundred kilometres parked it up for a few days and came back to this as soon as I started it up.

Agree on your point re new plugs I just cleaned the lot I am not 100 percent happy the ceramic is very discoloured so new plugs coming up.

I am going to let the fuel evaporate over night out the plug holes then use compressed air to blow out the residue. The oil has discoloured a little from the greeny run in oil that is in so I will dump that out tomorrow and put fresh oil in.

When I started it yesterday morning for the first time after sitting for a few days it almost started then when it did it was an awful racket like some cylinders were not working and she was bucking a bit. Plus the black soot out the back.

 

You mentioned you disassembled the carburetor. Did you rebuild it with a kit, or just blast out the internals with carburetor cleaner? The needle & seat, accelerator pump cup and power valve are all parts that wear and new ones are included in a standard carburetor rebuild kit.

x2 on replacing the spark plugs if they're super sooty and discolored.

 

Eh, you should always re-establish the A/F mixture ratio on any carburetor when swapping it over from one engine to the next. The A/F mixture is adjusted per "that" engines specific performance. Therefore, ensure you adjust your A/F mixture (idle mixture) screws to the highest achievable vacuum (or RPM) - vacuum gauge preferred. Then, set your curb idle screw. Not sure how to evaluate/adjust the float levels on your carburetor.

 

John - I forgot to mention you should ensure your vacuum lines have no leaks, are all connected or plugged & are connected to the proper ports. Leaks in the vacuum lines will not provide the required (sufficient) amount of air required to burn the fuel resulting in a rich mixture condition. Albeit, double-check your vacuum lines.

 

Olds64,

yes pulled it down only a little to clean both needle and seat sets and cleaned with carb cleaner. The power pump kept vacuum but the accelerator pump?
Didn't look at that too thorough though.
No kit put through I just apart to inspect and clean.

 

Yes seems to be far too few vacuum line connections compared to the 4 Jet I’ve just plugged some up. Not good enough so I’ll revisit them tomorrow.
Thanks.

 

Fuel pump pressure??