my car is a pain in the *** to start.. every time i start it. Its easier to get running in the summer, now that its 40-50 degrees outside its even more annoying, i have to stay on the gas for 3-4 mins before itl idle on its own

while im trying to warm it up, the rpms will rise and fall, rise and fall, from 2300 to 500, and it keeps doing that until its warm

im pretty sure the carb isnt tuned right or something, i dont know crap about carbs, so i figured id ask here, maybe you dudes could help me figure out what i need to adjust here ill try to get the numbers off the carb tomorrow if that will help any

i tried to search, found a little info, but no solutions

 

Is your choke working?

 

It has to be your choke that is wrong
I had the same problem on my camaro also. when it was cold here in cali well a while back i would suffer in the morning trying to make it warm up as i was going to school. So i has the choke fix and had it adjusted and never had anymore problem until this day

 

could be, i havent messed with the carb in fear of screwing it up, id rather it be hard to start than not start at all, lol, thanks a lot ill check it out tomorrow, ill post back if i dont figure anything out

 

alright i went and looked at it today, and it looks like there is something else that is supposed to be attached here


that is the choke lever right? like i said dont know **** about carbs, except on mowers, so youll have to forgive me for my ignorance, lol

heres another view...

 

Your choke has been removed, along with the secondary vacuum break.

 

time to hit the junkyard or install a manual choke.

 

damn, another reason to hate the PO... alright, well thanks for all the help guys, gonna go to the junkyard and see if i can find a truck with the same style carb

 

Truck or car doesn't matter.

 

Wow you are missing not just your choke itself but other things that connect to your choke from the inside of your carb to the top flage (flappy part on the first two small barrels)
If you would like some picture so you would know what to get. Let me know I will take some pictures of my carbs choke and you can compare it with yours since they are the same.

 

yeah man thatd be great, id appreciate it, i did see a few pics of others, but couldnt quite see everything

 

Okay I will post picture once I get home from work. I though I could of posted them with my phone but it is not working.

 

ok thanks a lot man, oh wow yeah, i didnt even notice i was missing that butterfly piece, damn, now that i think about it most other carbs have a piece over the smaller holes too, what are the dangers of driving with my carb ****ed up like this? cause this is my only ride until i find a new steering assembly for my truck, after realizing all of this i wonder how it runs as well as it does, or even running at all

 

You only need the choke while the engine warms up. Loss of the secondary vacuum break is more of a problem.

 

Here's a link to my Carburetor... I just took some pictures... hope this helps..


http://img691.imageshack.us/g/1006669f.jpg/



IMO, these electronic carbs are a PITA to work on... no more carbs for me, gonna do a FI conversion...


1987 Firebird Formula

 

Dude, everything is gone, see the plug at the back of the Intake, all of the vacuum lines are either gone or the ports are plugged...

To OP, how is your fuel consumption... my car running in good condition I was getting 10-12 mpg, hence, why I am going with an FI conversion, I take it it will pay itself off in a few months, if not one month, lol.. I was spending about 400-450 on Premium per month...

 

Here are the picture i took today. I am pointing at the rod that you missing that connects to the butterfly thing not sure how it is call.
Let me know if you want any additional pictures

 

cool thanks to both of you for your pics, im gonna go to a few yards saturday and see if i can find anything, if i find a carb like mine i might just buy the whole carb just to have parts, since the yards here only charge about 30 bucks for a carb

KNBlazer, i dont know my exact mileage, but i know i eat up about a third of a tank driving to texas about 45 miles from here

yeah ive been looking at tpi setups to get cause i want to convert it back to tpi, but im low on cash all the time so i cant really get one right now, i still have all the wiring, fuel pump, and my ecm from the old tpi setup, but none of the bigger stuff like the intake plenum, injectors and all that, and im guessing ill have to find another ecm, or burn the one i have, i dont know how that works

 

yw... dang I was going to suggest buying the hardware from the junkyard and the choke pull off and the choke thermostat from the autoparts store, but I just checked and you're looking at around 75 bucs for both... hopefully you'll luck out at the junkyard and score a carb....

 

Even with a vacuum break and thermostat you'd still need to find a choke plate and linkage, those aren't parts-store items. I'd just replace the whole carb, unless you can find someone who has parts laying around.

 

It really makes you wonder...why the heck did someone remove the entire choke system on the carb in the first place?

 

Also note that it's a mechanical q-jet. You'll want to make sure the distributor has been swapped out for a mechanical version as well-it should HAVE a vacuum can on the side for advance. The original was computer controlled and won't be receiving any signals now for advance.

I'd pick up a decent mechanical q-jet AND a rebuild kit. Rebuild the one you pick up and just swap them out. Bet you'll find one that's in better shape than that.

 

Either because it wasn't working and they didn't want to fix it, or in some misguided attempt to increase air flow through the carb.

 

The carb you have on the car now is what is known as a "spare parts source".

Buy a complete carb, rebuild it if you have to, and keep the one you have for parts if needed in the future. Or, buy a professionally rebuilt carb.

 

I actually like this idea, especially since you dont' have any emissions stuff on it... you can get a decent Edelbrock, which should help out with a few extra ponies...

 

An Edelbrock doesn't fit the manifold without a spacer, and that'll eat up some hood clearance. I wouldn't expect an Edelbrock carb to have any more power over a properly-tuned and working Qjet, either.

 

Summit makes an excellent remanufactured Quadrajet for the 305/350. It's what I'm running on mine right now, I just didn't have the time or facilities to do the rebuild myself when I needed it. I pulled off an Edelbrock 600 when I put it on, and it made a huge seat of the pants difference in acceleration, in favor of the Q-jet. I've rebuilt Quadrajets before, and if you aren't familiar with carburetors, I would not recommend it as a first time learning experience. They're pretty easy to screw up.

For a distributor, you should have the old style HEI with the coil in the cap. You'll be able to tell, it is noticeably larger than the seperate coil and cap version found on our cars. If this hasn't already been swapped, do so immediately, it will make an even bigger difference in driveability and fuel mileage than you can possibly imagine, especially if you like to put your foot in it a bit. While you're at it, pick up a distributer recurve kit from Petronix or the like. Another help with mileage.

Also, don't forget about the Torque Converter lock-up. If you're CCC Quadrajet is gone, so is the lock-up. I went with the B&M kit because I had just changed the trans fluid and filter, and didn't want to have to drop the pan again. There's another 2 mpg or so on the highway.

Long story short, I'm getting ~20 mpg around town and 28-30 at a highway cruise. When tuned, not even FI will beat a Quadrajet for efficiency.

Just my $.02

-Levi

 

Yep. Either way, not really too smart.

I wish more people had the desire to fix or modify a car properly instead of butchering them up and causing more problems. At least the OP is gonna correct the silly mistake made by the former owner so kudos to him.

 

wow, i didnt know anyone else replied to this, thanks for all the suggestions, thats actually what my plan was, i found another quadrajet like mine for 30 bucks on craigslist, guy says its complete and working, im gonna clean it up a little, and then get someone to rebuild for me, and i was just gonna swap them out, it does look like im gonna need a new distributer though, im pretty sure its the one from before the swap

*edit* i just went and looked, my distributer is good, it has the vacuum on it