Hi Guys,

I'm hearing a faint "popping" noise as I accelerate through second gear on my Cutlass, and am trying to determine lean/rich condition. I thought "popping" was a rich condition, but now I'm not so sure. I also smell gas when the secondaries open sometimes, but can't find a leak. Starting to think there might be a restriction somewhere in the line, or the pump not keeping up.

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dont suppose you have 2 plug wires crossed? maybe a bad coil? something along those lines? plug doesnt actually look bad to me.

 

Plug is on the lean side.

 

I would if it is a holley carb get slosh tubes for the secondaries. The gasoline goes to the back of the secondary side when it is upon aceleration and it needs a longer feed point to pick this up.

 

Plugs look fine to me. Where is the popping coming from? The exhaust or thru the carb? Is that the only time it does it? How's it run otherwise?

 

I was sort of thinking that, the white on the top lead me to believe it's running lean.

Unfortunately, it's an edelbrock carb.


The popping is out of the exhaust. I can only hear it if I'm next to a jersey barrier or going under an overpass and it's usually at night where it's quite. If I rev the motor in park or neutral to say 4k(estimate), let it wind down to 2k(estimate), and rev it back up to 4k It'll pop on the way back down to idle. Not sure if related or not.

I just wanted to see what others thought of the plugs, I don't want to burn a hole in the piston by running lean...

 

Definitely on the lean side!

 

The plugs look good to me but maybe a tad on the lean side. Popping through the exhaust is a lean condition but only shows when letting off the accelerator. I haven't heard it while driving normally but who knows. Is it surging?

The only time I've usually heard any popping through the exhaust is when headers were added or the exhaust freed up a lot like with bigger pipes without jetting up the carb. None of this is written in stone though as every engine combo might react differently.

 

Whoa!? You know what!? I remember reading that somewhere. The last owner did put a dynomax muffler and new exhaust throughout the whole car. It was mentioned the carb was never touched. Hmm. I wonder if I should get the calibration kit for the e-brock carb I have then.