RedRokkit

Ok first - the car: best I can tell it was a lg4 Camaro, but the motor was swapped, its an unknown "rebuilt" "350", performer intake, unknown heads & cam, came with a holley 1850-3 on top. bought after swap from dealer auction.

it ran ok but I noticed that the carb baseplate was wet so I looked and the primary boosters, not the secondarys, were dripping and running out the throttle shafts so I bought new primary bowl and metering block gaskets and a new 65 power valve that was in it. took the primary side apart, took the little red straw and sprayed carb cleaner in every hole in the bowl block and main body pri side. reassemble and now it POURS gas out of the primary boosters no matter what I do WTF?

F it time for a rebuild..... so I go down to my local reputable hotrod shop for a kit and end up buying a freshly rebuilt holley 1850-2 for cheap, and it does the same thing!!!. pours gas out of the boosters, squirter, and shoots out of vent tubes. This is the fourth rebuilt carb Ive bought from them and all three previous ones have worked perfect so I trust them.... I repeat - W T F ! !

so I take Mr rebuilt carb, remove the primary bowl and visually verify that the brass float moves and contacts the needle and seat and blew thru the fuel inlet and raised the float by hand and the needle & seat sealed to "shut off flow" easily, plus the needle and seat looked brand new, - I hope I explained that good enuff....

so I bought an inline mr gasket regulator adjustable from 1-6 psi installed it and it still floods......WTF!!! again

bought new fuel pump and guess what ..... still dumps gas!!!!!

when I replaced the mechanical pump it had a 2 port pump, so I bought the same.... but I noticed my 84 TA has a 3 port pump..... so I looked around and sure enuff I think I see a fuel return line that isn't connected just kinked and bent shut.... WTF!!!

WHAT TO DO NOW GUYS????

Solved......post #10

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Measure the fuel pressure.

Sounds like your regulator isn't regulating, and the carb is getting hit with WAY more FP than the needle valve can handle.

Remember, carbs work off of fuel VOLUME, not fuel PRESSURE. As long as the bowls are kept full, then it's all good. Meaning, if the bowls could be kept full at .0001 psi, then .0001 psi is all you'd "need". In reality, most of the time 3-4 psi is "enough", as long as it doesn't go away during extended high-speed operation; to assure this, 5-6 psi is usually recommended. Anything above 7 psi is just asking for trouble... specifically, the trouble you are having.

Jonesyfxr

iTrader: (2)

It's gotta be either fuel pressure or a bad needle and seat.

Ethanol causes carbs to do exactly what problems you're having. It eats the rubber gasket parts and causes the same flooding issue you're having. If you do replace the needle and seat, make sure it's made of Viton....not rubber. Viton isn't affected by ethanol.

Good luck!

RedRokkit

Gold Star for you!!!! I stayed up until 4am troubleshooting....results as follows....

I went and bought a cheap "dead head" Fuel pressure gauge that works with carb or efi - I cant run it "inline" until I get a proper fitting, for right now I have to disconnect the carb to use it, so I can only check pressure while cranking - so I first hook it up like so: pump -> filter -> gauge, crank it over and the needle pegs 12.....kinda high for a brand new 2 port airtex mechanical pump.....so I said F it and got a 3 port pump and reconnect the return line and get an inline adaptor for my gauge and run the line as so: pump->filter->afpr->fp gauge->carb.......and it still floods! WTF!!!

Pressure is at 5 psi on the gauge.....so I try to lower the floats and something hits me, the carb doesn't flood if the site plugs are removed.....WTF? I did nothing but remove the site plugs and the carb quit flooding..... if pressure was the cause wouldn't it puke gas out of the site plug hole? and as soon as I even place my finger over the site plug hole while cranking it floods WTF?

help

Jonesyfxr

iTrader: (2)

plugged vents?

RedRokkit

Fuel shoots out of the bowl vents sometimes so I doubt it but hey its worth a check.......

RedRokkit

oh and funny thing is I put on the Holley 570 street avenger off my TA on it and no more flood so Im thinking its the carb not pressure....the 1850 carb dumps fuel if I put the site plug in......bad metering block or bad main body allowing vacuum or pressure to empy the primary bowl thru the boosters? and if it was fuel pressure too high wouldn't the secondary boosters leak too?FAAAAK!!!!!

MY-92-RS

iTrader: (3)

adjust the floats properly after u make sure needle and seats are good.. I like to base line my float bowel adjustment by remove said float bowel invert it and adjust until float is just above level while bowel is upside down reinstall make sure not to tear or loose o-rings final adj float level to edge of sight plug ... DONE ..

RedRokkit

that is exactly how I bench set the floats because I cant get the motor to run to do it right...........needle and seat are new and visually spotless......I lifted the float by hand while blowing thru the fuel inlet and it sealed airtite.... it still pours thru the pri boosters while cranking unless Iremove the pri site plug screw, then no more flood.... no gas comes out of the site plug while cranking so i think that eliminates high fuel pressure i think.......it is almost as if gas is being sucked or pushed thru the boosters and it wont stop until the bowl is empty.....even after i stop cranking the boosters pour for a few seconds until the pri bowl empties

RedRokkit

SOLVED!!!

the problem was 2 fold some cute little bugs had made a home in the primary vent tube partially blocking it.... and secondly not replacing the gas cap with a vented one pressurizing the tank making the fuel pressure run high enuff to make the carbs drip at idle which started this mess in the first place.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Well, I gotta admit, I didn't see that one coming, maybe I should have asked you to hold your carb up closer to your monitor and zoom it in. I'll take my lumps for not guessing about the bugs... my powers of ESP must be diminishing as the aliens take over... (even though I'm often accused of being one of them)

RedRokkit

HA! ur awesome sofa....yeah Holley should really update their flood troubleshooting to include pressure, floats, needle & insects...maybe even update the tuning sticky, which ill be starting for the second time tomorrow.

funny thing is this carb had been rebuilt and was sitting on a heated garage's shelf at MMG when I bought it, and looked spotless inside and out. Im gonna advise he boxes or wraps them in plastic from now on.

bestracing

Wow! That's taking "There was a bug in the system" quite literally.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Not really a bad idea... I didn't "write" that, actually. Rather, Apeiron took a handful of my posts, where I had written largely the same thing over and over and over trying to tell people how to do this, and sort of mashed them up together. Which really, he did a DAMN FINE job, overall; did a phenomenal job of getting the most important details into it; I just think if I had known that it would end up as what it now is, I'd have written it more, ... ,,,, .... coherently.