Hi guys! new to the scene. picked up a beautiful 1987 trans am that sat for 10 years for my first project. Tried to get her running and noticing fuel around the gasket which I'm presuming will be the gasket perishing, she cranks but won't fire although she does seem to want to run. believe there is also a issue with the choke, seems to not move unless poked at if that makes sense? maybe primary choke pull off as well?

I am by no means a mechanic so please excuse my ignorance, just a bumbling brit who wants to learn! if it is also any help I'm using a 60 ah 540 cca battery as well since that was what was already in there.


any help would be apricated, will I be able to switch the carb from its 17087306 to something else or looking at rebuild?

Thanks from across the pond and will greatly appreciate the help!

 

That's probably the right carb, or at least close. 1708 = computer-controlled Q-Jet; 7 = 87; 306 = the specific vehicle/engine application. For a couple of years the application numbers were squirrely but that one seems to largely pass the smell test.

Depends on which gasket. They're just paper, so fuel permeates through them, even under the best of circumstances. In any case, the way the Q-Jet is made, gaskets mostly can't cause a failure. I wouldn't worry about that too much until other things are sorted first.

That is as it should be. The choke should be held closed at temperatures lower than 35°C or so. Once the engine starts running, there's a vacuum diaphragm that should crack it open a bit, then of course once it warms up it'll stay open on its own.

That makes no sense.

First thing to do is, pour an ounce or 2 of gasoline down into the throttles, and see if it will start and run for a few seconds. If so, you have some kind of a fuel delivery problem. Sounds likely that that's your problem. Once that's determined definitively, the next thing to do will be, to figure out why fuel isn't being delivered.