acliad

iTrader: (1)

Hello, I have a 1984 z28 with a freshly rebuilt 350 in it. During break in, I used an older Quadrajet off a 72 pickup, and it ran pretty well. Now, for the problem. I have never had this carburetor running right in this car. When I got the car it had a bad engine in it. I have spent many hours searching here, and google, for a solution to this problem.
As the title suggests, I'm running too rich. Right now, I only have headers on it and no exhaust hooked up. There also is currently no O2 sensor. I rebuilt this carburetor and I have the float level and the lean mixture screw, to the best of my knowledge, correctly adjusted. I have NOT messed with any of the plugged adjustments.
Also, my "Choke" light stays on when it is plugged in, and the choke doesn't open. My voltmeter shows I have 12v to the wire, and the choke opens fine when I jump it off the battery. If the choke is wide open, it runs much better.
This is only my second carb I've rebuilt, and I'm completely stumped. I'd appreciate any help.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

When you say you've never had "this" carburetor running right, are you referring to the carb that came on the car? If so, it's computer controlled, and needs the information the O2 sensor provides. If you don't have an O2 sensor, the computer will default to full rich mode.

As for your choke, you can have some voltage to the wire with no load and a blown choke heater fuse, but it'll go basically to zero when plugged in. Check the fuse.

acliad

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for your reply five7kid. Yes, I was referring to the electric carburetor. That's is actually exactly what the choke wire is doing, I'll check that out and get the o2 sensor hooked up today.

acliad

iTrader: (1)

Alright, slow weekend but I got some stuff done. I got the O2 sensor in and checked the choke fuse. The fuse was okay but the relay was bad. O'Reilly's had to special order so it wont be in for a couple days. The carburetor situation didn't seem to improve though. It still runs rich until the choke is open. Also, if my understanding is correct, it should "fast idle" until the choke opens. It doesn't do this. If I let off the gas pedal it just drops to about 400-500 RPM's and dies. It WILL idle if the choke is open though. Is there anything that could cause the open loop to run rich and the closed loop to run right, or do you think the carburetor is just running rich and the open choke is 'masking' it?

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Get the choke operating correctly first. Is the choke light coming on? How did you determine the choke relay is bad?

Is the SES light coming on?

acliad

iTrader: (1)

Ok, to answer your first question, yes the choke light is on. It comes on with the key and stays on after starting the engine. I decided to pull the relay out because it was the last thing (other than a bad wire) in the circuit I could see from the wiring diagram. I took it off and shook it, and it rattled. I took the outer case off and there was a piece of the copper strip broken clean off.


The Check Engine Light comes on for a split second with the ignition but then goes off and doesn't come back on.

(If its relevant) If its been setting, say overnight, and I turn it over, it will fire right up, run for maybe a second, and die. That is, unless I give it some throttle. The vacuum thing looks to be working too, the choke will crack open right after the engine starts.

acliad

iTrader: (1)

Update. Today I got the choke relay in, and that fixed the choke problem. I'm still experiencing all my other problems though.