Purchased a remanufactured Rochester 4 barrel (piece of crap) as I was going to stay stock but after 2 days of trying to get this thing to work correctly I put the old one back on & it works better then the new one but it needs a rebuild & I do not do rebuilds on carburators been there, done that & they don't work when I am done with them. Car is a 61 Olds super 88 holiday coupe. Prefer an Edelbrock but will listen to suggestions. Want something that i can put on with minimul adjustment/fabrication.

 

That is surprising that your original carb works better than a rebuilt carb. Are you sure it is the correct carb? I believe you have the Rochester 4GC on your car (square bore instead of spread bore like a Q-jet). Does your carburetor have a mechanical Throttle Valve linkage going to the transmission? If so, this will probably prevent you from running an aftermarket carburetor.

 

Has the mechanical valve linkage. I will check to see if they sent me the right carb, might be why I couldn't get the dang thing to work correctly. Could not get it to idle under 850 rpm no matter what I did & it wouldn't fast idle when cold (And I have a shop manual). Put the old carb on, motor idled at 550 rpm also did fast idle but there must be a problem as it is a bit erratic as it will jump to fast idle occasionally & also pops thru the exhaust. This car sat for 16 yrs in a garge (concrete floor) & no one touched it, so I would imagine the carb is probably varnished up. I am in the process of getting it back up & running again. Replaced all the rocker arms & lifters (15 of the 16 lifters were froze up) & it was running fairly decent but was having some problems with the carb so ordered a reman & things went down hill from there. Guess I will have to take this one back & try another one. Can't seem to find anything aftermarket that will work maybe I should go back to Mopars I have restored a bunch of them. This is my first GM since my first car=57 Olds super 88. Thanks & all help is greatly appreciated.

 

Send the original to Daytona Parts Co. for a rebuild. Well worth the money.

http://www.daytonaparts.com

 

I agree with Dave, have your original carb rebuilt by a shop that knows what they are doing, do not try to adapt another carb. The Slim Jim trans linkage setup is tied into the carb and is very tough to modify.

One other thing to check- make sure you don't have any vacuum leaks. I had many problems with idle speed and quality and they all were caused by old leaking vacuum hoses.

 

Either Daytona or Don Monroe in Washington State can do a quality rebuild on a 4GC. Holley's Pro Shop used to service them too. My best rebuilds came from Don or Holley. I got a couple from Daytona that leaked worse than the ones they replaced. They made them good but I don't think a newly remanned part should act like that.

Whatever route you go make sure the rebuild is done with ethanol-compatible gaskets. Otherwise you'll be doing it again in a few miles.

4GC can be finicky. If they have the wrong gasket for application between float bowl and throttle plate they will do all kinds of hateful things, like too-high idle, too-low idle, buck, surge, you name it. Amazed me GM stuck with the things long as they did.

And as I have found with a couple of them, that sometimes they're just bad and no amount of fiddling will make them work right.

 

Thanks folks all info is much appreciated. contacted daytona parts & am waiting a response. I did notice that there is leaking at the bottom gasket of the original carb which I will just about bet has never been touched from the info I received on the car. rocket I found out about the high-low idle bucking & all the other problems with the rebuilt one & the original is starting to have these problems that is why I purchased the rebuilt figuring that would be the best route to go was wrong on that one. Occasionally the car runs perfect, correct idle, no popping, spitting or surging. I have restored numerous Mopars & never had this much of a problem with the carburator as I usually would just purchase an Edelbrock carb & be on my way. I am finding out I can't do that with this car have to stick with the orignal carb even tried looking for an aftermarket intake so I could put on a different carb haven't been able to find anything going that way. Keep throwing info my way as I can use all I can get concerniong these motors/cars.

 

You can use an Edelbrock or other AFB style carb, you just have to set up the transmission rod for it. For that you need special factory tools to set the length of the rod so trans will work properly and not burn itself out.

Dave Holt in CO made a limited run of those gauge tools and a lot of us with early 60s Olds got them. He may still have some. dlh61olds@yahoo.com was last email contact I had for him, but he's often on AACA Olds forums if you want to look for him over there as dlh61olds.

Here's a trick- 61-64 Pontiac Catalina/Ventura and Grand Prix also used Slim Jims but with Carter AFB carbs. If you can scarf some linkage off one of those cars it will make the setup simpler.

 

That is cool. I didn't know that.

I had a 64 98 with the Slim Jim. I tried to put an Edelbrock carburetor on it but I couldn't adapt the throttle valve linkage to the Edelbrock carb.

BTW, toyolet23. You seem like you are mechanically inclined. Have you tried rebuilding the 4GC yourself? A carburetor kit would probably be less than $25. You could always try that on your original carb and get a refund on the remanfuactured on you bought.

 

Olds64 I am mechanically inclined but cannot rebuild carburators. I have tried several times & always manage to mess them up so I don't even try anymore. Do have this car running decent but still have some popping thru the exhaust at high idle but have also noticed some leaking at the accelator pump. Returned the rebuilt carb & have received an answer from Daytona parts price runs $400 to $450 with an approximate turn around time of 7 wks for the rebuild. Am going to try one more of the rebuilt/remanufactured carbs from United & if i can get one that runs decent I will then send mine in for a rebuild if not I will try & nurse this one until the end of cruisin season.

 

You might check Kanter or Fusicks as well. They probably sell rebuilt carburetors. You would just have to pay a core charge and then send them your old one for a refund. They have decent prices and great customer service.

 

Not sure about Kanter but Fusick 4GC rebuilds are Daytona.

 

It's just a bummer that the 4GC rebuilds are so expensive. $400+ will buy you an aftermarket Summit carburetor and some other goodies. Too bad about the Slim Jim TV linkage.

 

I know you have had some bad luck with carb rebuilds but it is really not that hard. I ran into the same thing you are regarding the ridiculous cost of carb "restoration" - a lot of that is due to replating and cosmetic work. I bought a kit and rebuilt mine for about $40. This is the second 4GC I've done in my lifetime (the first one about 35 years ago!) and they both came out good, better than ANY quadrajet I ever worked on! Check out my Starfire thread: https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...-progress.html

The carb rebuild starts on post 57. I would at least give it a try before spending a fortune, if it doesn't pan out you still have other options.

 

Don has a good point. Carburetors can be daunting; however, they aren't too complicated. The most important thing is to work in a clean area and make sure you lay out all the parts neatly as you disassemble the carb.

 

For a good perspective on what all is involved in rebuilding a carb, take a look at my "show & tell" on the rebuild I did of a Rochester 4 bbl. Here is the link:

http://graylady.webng.com/carbrebuild.htm

 

Update. Found the problem concerning the carb. Part of the fuel line had been replaced at some point in time & they used one of the original fuel line clamps that did not close completely, sooo I was sucking air big time(now I remember what the popping thru the exhaust means). Car is running sweet but I have had a anti freeze leak that I was having trouble finding, well today I found it. Passenger side between the 2 freeze plugs v shaped hairline crack. I am begining to think this car doesn't like me had a Mopar like that as soon as you think you are about ready to move on somehting else major pops up. I am about ready to go back to Mopars never ran into this with any of the Mopars I restored. So my next ? is. I have another engine & trans 1964-394-2 bbl. Figured I would use that block & all the goodie parts from my original block but was wondering if I am going to run into any problems with the swap, water pump is different fuel bowl is set up different. Also did some reading on the process called stitching to fix the current block. Would like to run this for the cruisin season & was also wondering about a product called irontite which supposedly seals cracks. Motor does need a rebuild but figured I would do that come winter & would still like to wait but would like to find something to hold it until winter. Buying a 8 lb radiator cap tomorrow as that should help. Leak is just a slow drip, drip, drip & only on the outside of the motor. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

You can try the stop leak, it may help.
I've seen some do what they call hammer weld. A middle weight hammer and a punch. They go up and down the crack until the metal is mushed together. They do not hit it hard just enough to move the metal together. Then the stop leak should help.
i have seen it done, it does work.

Gene