c3c4c6

Hi,

I am trying to get a 1971 convertible drivable after 9 years of storage. I have been working on multiple things, but thought it would be best to have 1 thread per area. I had some issues getting it started, but it now starts but runs rough. Here is what I have done so far on the engine. It would not start at first so I will start there in case I missed something

1. fuel line connected to the fuel pump was rubber and disintegrated.
- I installed a new section
2 had gas at the fuel pump, at the carb but not in the carb.
- took the fuel filter out and just blew it out with a compressor. It did not look bad, but wasn't sure if it was full of crap from the disintegrated fuel line.
3. Still no start so I hooked up a compressor at the carb where the fuel line came in and blew it out.
- this seemed to help. It starts pretty regularly, but the idle is pretty rough
4. did an oil/filter change

It now runs, but still pretty rough. Because of the fuel line leak/rupture, al of the gas is now fresh. There may be a little left over residue in the tank, so I don't know if I need to add dry gas or something like that just in case.

My issue now is the rough idle and hesitation when I give it gas. I also notice that I have white smoke coming out of the right tail pipe and pretty consistent and not much of any smoke coming out of the left tail pipe. This concerns me. I hear an occasional back fire out of the left tail pipe though. I am not sure how to proceed from here. The engine was rebuilt before my wife bought the car, but I don't know by whom and what they actually did. I also saw that there was a piece of the carb that is broken off. It is a white plastic suction piece that controls a linkage that goes to the larger 2 barrels. I was ignoring that for now since I assume that was only used when giving it lots of gas, but maybe it is related.

I don't have a compression tester, but would that be a good place to start? I never drove in it much before it was put away because I had an 88 that I drove and never appreciated the exhaust smell from the carb, but I think it is now time to get this back up and running.

Thanks for any help.

cv67

bet the diaphragm in your fuel pump is gone, may be getting white smoke from fuel in your oil btdt.
Sitting plays hell on those if it were me toss a pump on dump your oil

c3c4c6

Sorry, but what is an "oil btdt" and what do you mean by dump your oil. I just did an oil change.

Thanks!

Kubs

For number 3 here, do you mean you blew air into the carb via the fuel inlet fitting? Not good. You could have sent more crud into the carb that can clog ports and jets.

The white diaphram on the side is the choke pull-off. It will prevent the secondary air valve from opening until the choke is fully open.

Also, did you check the timing? You probably need to clean the points contacts and set the dwell after that much time sitting.

Rescue Rogers

When the old gas dried out in your carb it probably clogged all the tiny air and fuel passages. You need to rebuild the carb. The broken part could be part of your accelerator pump, i dont know, you should post a pic of your carb. Your idle jets could be clogged as well, hence the rough idle. The previous owner could have put a big cam in it unless it was your car previous to storing it and you know how it ran before.

I would start with rebuilding the carb or borrowing a known good one to see how it runs while you rebuild yours. If its an edelbrock its easy to rebuild and clean the ports with only a few parts. Holley and quadrajet are more labor intensive, more parts but can be done if you follow the directions

c3c4c6

Yes, that is exactly what I did. I first just blew out the carb from the inside, but there wasn't any change so I tried the gas line fitting. I was afraid of that, but I needed to get the car back in the garage.

I see the normal choke and it works the smaller barrels on the carb, this is a similar function but runs to the 2 larger barrels. I will take a pick and post it.

I think you are correct in the choke pull off. I just googled for that and found this... which is what it looks like.

c3c4c6

Rescue Rogers - Thanks - I will take a picture of the carb and post it. I don't know what make the carb is. My wife had the engine rebuilt (before I met her) and I doubt there was anything crazy done with a big cam. It did run decent before it went into storage.

I would love to attempt the carb rebuild. I have done it many times on small engines so with the help of this forum and you-tube, I hope to have decent results. Tuning it afterwards will certainly require help. I belong to a corvette club and there are some carb'ed cars in the club, so I hope to get help from one of them if I can't figure it out myself.

I had a 71 pontiac lemans while putting myself through college so am very familiar with points/condensor/dwell/ etc. I was wondering if it made sense to also get all of this new:

points
condensor
cap
rotor
plugs
wires

anything else? That should not cost me that much and after 9 years I would expect some of it to be at least oxidized/dried out/cracked/etc.

Thanks again and I will post a pic tonight.

Big2Bird

Yes. (I had a 73 Le Mans).

c3c4c6

big2bird. my lemans was a complete pos. It was hit so hard (before I bought it) that I could stand right behind the passenger side rear wheel. Every panel on it was dented except for the trunk lid and the roof. It only cost me $250 and I ran it for 4 or 5 years.

I will pick up the tune up parts and snap a pic of the carb and post tonight.

Rescue Rogers

Replace all your belts and hoses as well. Better now than on the side of the road. Make sure the lower radiator hose has the spring in it or recycle it from the old hose. It will be you supply to the pump which will be under vacuum

c3c4c6

RescueRogers - Thanks!!! The hose to the fuel pump is the only hose that i replaced already. It was totally disintegrated. I have a storage lift so getting under it is pretty easy now that I can at least start it and move it.

Tiger Joe

its probably a quadrajet carb( since that was stock) you will need to talk to Lars on here, he is the man with qjet carbs. if you unsure of your abilities to rebuild, you can send to him for a rebuild.


my car sat a lot longer than yours (30 years) but every piece of the fuel system that was rubber I replaced.


That included:
rebuild carb
new fuel pump
new rubber lines- not just the one at the pump, but the one at the tank too.
I even replaced the metal lines and filter between the pump and carb.


pretty easy to check for fuel in oil- pull the dip stick and see if it has more on the stick that what you originally put in.
Another method I have heard, pull dipstick, put a lighter to it. oil with fuel in it will light immediately, just oil will not.


you can also pull the plugs on the right side and check them. can tell a lot about a cylinder by what the plugs look like

cv67

btdt=been there done that

One day I wll buy some commas period and what not.

ENCSDOUG

Here's a little trick my mechanic told me about. He had a customer who was stationed overseas for 3 years and stored he's old mustang in the back. The engine ran rough also and he dumped the old gas and put some new gas and added a can of seafoam to the tank. After running the engine for a half hour or so the car smoked and the engine settled out and ran great. You might have to change the plugs afterwards depending how much gunk was in the carb, tank and lines. I would try an $8.00 can of seafoam in the tank 1st and if that doesn't work, as others recommended, rebuild the carb.

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/s...ese2-_-seafoam

Rescue Rogers

I agree, you need something to attack the inside of the carb.

You can also buy sea foam in a spray as well to soak the carb with, its not as good as running it through the carb but it will helps more with the valves and any deposits in the throat and ij the compution path

c3c4c6

Is this stuff for real. I saw this on Youtube with real junkers and it looked horrible when running that through the engine. I think my wife would kill me if I did that to her car. If this is for real, I will have to do it when she is not home and hold the neighbors don't tell her about it.

I was wondering if the car was rebuilt with an electronic ignition, but I just checked and no. It still has points and condenser. I will have to pick that all up for this weekend.

I just checked and it is a number matching car. Pretty stripped though. The only options I see that it has is:

1. power brakes
2. power steering
3. optional hard top (but it is no longer with the car. I can see the scratch marks on the rear deck
4. am/fm radio.

So, pretty base car. I forgot to take a pic of the carb, but I will guess it is the rochester quadra jet.

Rescue Rogers

I would have the carb rebuilt or rebuild it yourself depending on how mechanical you are. Yes the sea foam products smoke alot and if youre worried about upsetting anyone the rebuild route is better and would probably have to be done anyway. A cure in a can never solves everything plus you have deterioration with age

Devs77

When I recovered my dad's Vette the engine hadn't run in a long time. I used Sea Foam to get it started, but that was more of a band-aid to get it on a truck so I could get it home than a long term fix.

IMO, you're going to have to go through the car system by system. Start with safety related items like brakes and tires. Once it's safe to move, then move on to drivetrain items (full tune up with cap, rotor, points, plugs, plug wires, etc). Then the fuel system. Filters, carb rebuild, etc.

Once it's safe to drive and will actually move, the sky's the limit. I'm going through the same process with mine and so are several others on the forum so keep us posted! If nothing else, we can all support each other as the process goes on. Good luck and have fun!

c3c4c6

Unintendedvettancy

I figured it was a well traveled road with many in this forum. I plan on having fun, but I think I will get the "while I'm at it" disease. My first goal is to get it drivable and I need to keep that in my mind. I also don't want to do something now that has to be redone later.

Looking at a lot of pictures in here, do most people look for GM products or just get to what is easily available. For example, I see that there are GM radiator hoses, and it looks pretty cool to me to see theGM on the hose. Does it make sense to get these GM hoses, or do I just get them from my local parts dealer. Is the cost that much different?

Thanks

Tiger Joe

when you start talking about things like belts and hoses, the decision between repop stuff that looks original vs new aftermarket is going to depend on what you want the car to be


Do you want to pop the hood and it look like it just rolled off the showroom floor back in the day? or are you content to just look "new"?


you'll probably pay 3x or more the cost for original looking belts and hoses than you would for aftermarket replacement.


For example- I just ordered a restoration battery for my 68. basically the modern battery made to look like the original 68 delco. will cost me over $300 all said and done. a stock replacement battery from advance was around $100.


for me-I did buy reproduction radiator and heater hoses. I did not buy repop belts though.