New car just went up in flames :O
 

Hey guys, so I just got my 83 Z/28 a few days ago. It has a 383 Stroker, holley 750cfm 4 barrel carb, and an edelbrock torker intake. I drove it on the road for the first time today (also first time driving a manual by myself on the road :P). I drove it to the DMV to get it registered, and it ran just fine. Drove it to downtown boise for work. I arrived at my first class (I'm a travelling Karate instructor lol) and she was runnin just fine. Had a little trouble starting it up but I got it going and noticed it was idling at like 380-450rpm. I limped it around the corner to my next class and figured I'd just let it cool off and then check on it after class. I came back out after the class, started it up and took off. Seemed to run just fine. I took the freeway back to Meridian (about 10 miles) and started to have some issues as I got back into town. At the light directly after the exit ramp, it started sputtering and died for a second and fired back up as I added gas. I know this wasn't my sh*tty manual driving skills, as the clutch was fully out and I was moving in 1st. Anyways I drove about 5 more miles to swap license plates with the guy I traded with. It died about twice at every single stop sign (again, definitely not because of my driving :p)
I pulled up to the old owner, told him it was running like sh*t, he popped the hood and d*cked with the carb for a few minutes, and the idle was right back up to where it should be and sounded healthy. It then died again when I was backing out of the parking lot and died again while I was pulling out into traffic. Then of course, it died again right in front of a police officer (luckily he just waved and went around :) ) I started it back up, reversed back into the neighborhood entrance, waited for an opening, and went. As soon as I gave it gas it started shooting smoke out of the hood and a little bit of fire. We popped the carb off and luckily we had the fire put out pretty quickly so the intake wasn't damaged. This might seem like a noobie question but this is the first carbed car I've owned so I'm not really sure what to do with it. Will a new carb solve the idle/fireball problem? Thanks :)

Re: New car just went up in flames :O
 

Sounds like it might have had a "triangle of death" air filter shaped object on top of it?

Get a real air filter.

The intake is a crap relic from the Stone Age. I'd strongly recommend getting rid of that as well. A Performer, Performer RPM, etc. would be FAR Superior to it in every possible way. If I had bought that car, I'd have already picked up a new intake on the way home; it's THAT BAD. (no on second thought, it's worse than that)

Beyond that, sounds like it needs tuning. See the Holley Tuning sticky at the top of this forum for a how-to. My thanks to Apeiron for creating that from several of my posts answering questions like this, so I don't have to keep typing it over and over again. ;)

Re: New car just went up in flames :O
 

Agreed on the intake, I made the mistake of swapping my performer out for an old Torker 1 on a 355. It looked cool but that's about it.


Carb is probably fine other than some fine tuning, also check the timing and make sure the dizzy clamp is tight.



lol, triangle of death.

Re: New car just went up in flames :O
 

yep, had that big triangle tampon in a cage thing. So you guys just think new filter + tune?

Re: New car just went up in flames :O
 

Also, forgot to mention that just about all of the rubber in the carb was toast. So it would need a rebuild. The guy said it was just tuned but it seemed like it was choking the motor when I gave it anything more than 1/2 throttle.

"Just tuned" - means next to nothing.

From your description, it sounds like the carb was either flooded, or lean. Flooded is easier to do (little piece of junk getting into the float needle/seat is all it takes), but I wouldn't rule out lean (poor fuel delivery, as in weak fuel pump or some other fuel system issue).

If you hadn't said you're new to carbs, i would say get a rebuild kit and go through it, examining all the parts carefully as you disassemble, cleaning everything thoroughly before reassembling. But, a carb that has been hot enough to melt soft stuff could very well have other heat-related damage that won't be fixed with a rebuild kit.

What do you know about the fuel system? Pump type, brand, location, filters, etc.

Had the car been driven regularly before you got it?

Re: New car just went up in flames :O
 

I have no idea. It was his weekend car before I bought it. It's just weird because it ran and perfectly when I test drove it and for the first day I had it. It just started running like sh*t on the way home from work.

Re: New car just went up in flames :O
 

Like five7kid posted something getting into the fuel bowls can cause something like this to happen.

I'm guessing the engine temperature was okay?

The triangle air cleaner will melt and drip into the carb so that may be what you are seeing and not stuff from the carb itself.

To see if the floats are stuck you can remove the sight plug from the side of the fuel bowl right after the car has been running. See if gas just barely dribbles out. If it pours out then the float is either set too high or the needle seat is leaking. If you don't see any fuel even when you bump the car then it is set too low and you could be starving for fuel.

I hope there is a fuel filter in there somewhere....

Re: New car just went up in flames :O
 

There is a giant fuel filter in there. And yes, the giant tampon filter did completely melt into the carb. Engine temp was just fine.

We took the carb apart and the floats are ok. When we took the carb out gas just poured out of it. I haven't even tried to start it yet. As predicted, all of the gaskets are lunched (although to be fair, the main seal was before and it is a very old carb) and the power valve as well. I ordered a rebuild kit, a buddy is going to help me throw it all back together hopefully on thursday so I won't be driving my mom's Kia Soul to work anymore :driving:

Re: New car just went up in flames :O
 

How old is this carb? Before you re-install back on to your car check to see if the throttle base has the power valve check ball. Older carbs, pre-92, didn't have this and without it you can damage your power valve when the carb backfires.
https://forums.holley.com/attachment...8&d=1340226242

If there isn't one there then get the check ball kit P/N 125-500 http://www.holley.com/125-500.asp

Here's a "How To" article http://www.automedia.com/Holley_Powe...ht20011001cb/1

Re: New car just went up in flames :O
 

UPDATE!

We rebuilt the Holley and put it back on, and after some tweaks we were able to at least drive it home but it still choked at anything higher than 2500 rpm. After we parked it and popped the hood, we noticed fuel still pouring into the carb when the car had been off for 30+ minutes. That explains why it was using 4 gallons of gas to drive 10 miles to work.

About 10:30 the other night we found an Edelbrock performer 750 on craigslist for $200, talked the guy down to $160 and put it on yesterday and now all is well.

Re: New car just went up in flames :O
 

There's definitely something wrong with that Holley. Was there sediment in the Holley's fuel bowls? I had a fuel line (post filter) start to go bad and it left small pieces of rubber in the fuel bowls.

Just keep and eye on the new carb as it might start acting up if you are getting stuff into the fuel bowls.

Re: New car just went up in flames :O
 

The fuel bowls actually looked clean when we did the rebuild. The fuel filter looked fine too. Although quite a few people have told me that Holleys tend to do this kind of sh*t for no discernible reason.

Re: New car just went up in flames :O
 

I've never had a problem with a Holley that I couldn't find the reason. I've been messing with them since the mid 80's and most problems have been due to worn out or dried up parts.

Glad you found a carb that works and you are back up and running.

Re: New car just went up in flames :O
 

might want to change that oil asap if it was dumping fuel in there like that. check how over full your oil is and try to light your dipstick on fire lol