budowski

Hey guys

Picked up my first Camaro last night. Test drove it a few times prior, started up fine everytime, drove it without issue. Decided to buy the car and drive it back ~45 minutes to me house. About 6 miles away she died in the road and I had to have it towed. It is the stock quadrajet carb.

I am getting spark - when i spray some starter fluid down the carb she will turn over and start until that fuel is spent. I disconnected the fuel inlet line and pulled the filter out at the carb (the small spring loaded carburetor filter, its dirty)- I am getting gas there when I turn it over. By the way do these cars have a mechanical pump and an electric pump near the tank?

Anyway, Im thinking there is something up with the carb - its pretty dirty. Im going to clean it down thoroughly with carb cleaner today. There is a diaphram on the left hand side that controls the linkage for the rear plates. This all seems pretty loose/deteriorated - should the rear plates open when the pedal is pushed all the way down?

New to these cars so any tips are appreciated. I am familiar with carb motors - just finished rebuild an AMC 4.2 - but these have a lot more vacuum/smog components to deal with. Thanks!

danryanm

The rear plates are the secondaries, and they are vacuum operated so they will not open until there is enough load.

budowski

got it, thanks for clearing that up.

I got it running - cleaned the carb as best I could and installed a new carb fuel filter. Hit the carb fuel port gently with some compressed air.

Running a bit rough still, checking for vacuum leaks/rot hoses, cap/rotor, plugs in the morning. Im thinking about replacing the EGR valve also.

Damon

The filter on the stock QJet fuel flows from the INSIDE OUT. All the dirt should be on the inside, where you can't see it. If it's dirty on the outside that usually means one of two things:

1. Installed wrong (backwards or without the overload spring behind it)

2. It's plugged solid and fuel has been bypassing it for a while now. That is to say, it's been sending unfiltered fuel into the carb for some unknown period of time.

budowski

The inside of the filter was caked with fine layer of rust dust. I made sure to install the new filter and spring in the right direction. I think the gas tank has accumulated rust over the years and gunked up the carb. Perhaps this will be #1 on my list to replace.

Thanks for your help.

-=Z28=-

iTrader: (3)

Bingo! Sounds like a dirty fuel system. From the tank to the carb. I personally would start at the carb, and work your way back to the tank.

Did this car come sock with a carb?

budowski

As far as I know yes stock with carb. according to the VIN it was the 305. Was this the last year for carbs?

MY87LT

iTrader: (2)

1987 is the last year for carb'd F bodies. Btw, don't forget to replace the mechanical fuel pump.

budowski

Now that Im getting good fuel, I am troubleshooting some surging issues when driving up hills. Also, rough idle at times in Park.

Replaced some cracked vacuum lines around the carb and the EGR. I opened the cap on the dizzy and there was some build up I was able to clean. However the top of the distributor was very rusty.

I picked up a new cap/rotor/wires/plugs and will replace this weekend.

I want to check the timing however I cannot for the life of me find the tan/black wire EST connector. My emissions sticker is gone so Im not 100% sure if the spark timing is on a carburetor 305. Can anyone verify this for me?

naf

iTrader: (7)

timing on the 87 LG4 requires unplugging the four-wire connector to the distributor.

budowski

ok that makes sense, thanks.

also, In light of sounding like a totally newbie, whats the best way to check timing with a standard timing light? I can barely see the marks and hold the light at the same time with the water pump and such in the way. Is there a trick?

naf

iTrader: (7)

Hit the mark on the balancer with some white paint.

budowski

I was able to paint the balancer groove and found a way to get the light pointed down near the water pump to check the timing. I unplugged the 4 pin connector and it dropped to around ~800 RPM and showed right around 0 degrees. That seems about right no?

I found another cracked vacuum line near the EGR. Is it ok to replace those hard vacuum lines with regular vac hose of the same size? That stuff has gotten really brittle.

lastly, Im still getting a noticeable shake and poor performance when going up an incline or highway speeds. I think this is because the choke diaphragm is bad - if I push the lever in with my finger over the vac hole it still backs out. The choke is not snapping shut properly. Does this sound related?

Thanks for the help with all of my questions, its greatly appreciated.

naf

iTrader: (7)

Timing is fine around 0-4 with est disconnected.

You can use regular vac line or buy the plastic line and use some heat to bend it.

New vacuum break or choke pulloff. This will make cold starts difficult too.

budowski

Got a new vac break from quadrajetparts.com - easy to install, cleaned up all of the linkage and plates. Choke behaves much better now (read shuts/opens properly), started right up after sitting for a week.

I also ordered a new fuel filter WITH gaskets this time. I didnt use a gasket last time and in order to get things to seal up I over tightened the inlet crushing the end of the filter a bit. I think this was the cause of stumbling issues at higher speeds - lack of fuel. If this rain will let up Ill get it out for a test drive.