I grew up driving FI cars, not carbed cars, so I don't have a lot of experience with different carbs.

With my Q-jet, if I drive my car every day, I can go out in the morning, tap the gas to set up the choke, and crank it and it'll fire on the first rotation. Dream come true.

Since it's parked for the winter, I go out and start it about every month to get the fluids moving around, and recharge the battery. The float bowl is dry when I go to fire it up, so I have to crank it a bit.

With my last car (FI), it would fire right up after a month or more, no big deal.

Is this phenomenon normal with a carb, ie, fuel evaporates from carb float bowl very slowly, ie, a month is ok. Or do I have a SLOW leak from my float bowl? (well plugs).

Thanks

 

Evaporation is fairly normal, if you run the car without the air cleaner on in cool weather, after shutdown you can often see thick clouds of fuel vapour condensing above the carburetor. That's why the charcoal canister collects vapours from the fuel bowl. It's also the reason the Qjet has the bowl insert, it's to reduce the volume of fuel in the bowl so there's less available to evaporate.

Even if the bowl isn't completely dry the volatile compounds vaporize first and what's left behind isn't always so eager to burn.

 

ok, that sounds right. So this is normal, nothing I can do to "fix" this then eh?

 

As long as it's evaporating and not leaking out of the well plugs in the bottom, it's normal. You've probably epoxied them though.

 

Well, exactly, I have no idea if they're evaporating or leaking out the bottom, that's kinda what i'm asking. Since it fires up after sitting overnight, (or a few days), no problem, I didn't think it was leaking.
I was just curious if it evaporated, vs an FI car which...doesn't.
Nah, I never did epoxy them, I figured i'd wait until it posed a problem. Next time I have it apart i'll hit it with JB weld.

Cheque is in the mail naf. Thanks.

 

Hope you're using a gasoline stabilizer additive.

 

Whats that?
My carb is worse give it about 3/4 days and it is dry and so is clear fuel the filter

 

Stabilizer is an additive that you can put in gasoline that will be stored for a while to reduce the volatility of the solvents to help prevent them from evaporating and leaving behind the gum and varnish that clogs things up and doesn't like to burn. Stabil is one brand, but there are several others.

 

http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/ast.aspx

Doesn't stop the leaking. I was responding to his statement that he only starts it once a month.

 

Hmm, good idea. Well it's almost spring now, so I won't bother for this season, but I'll definately do that next year. Can't believe I didn't think of that.

And i'll have to epoxy my well plugs just to be on the safe side.
Thanks guys