I just purchased a 78 vette last weekend, knew it was running kind of rough and came to find this fourm in my reasearch on quadrajet carbs. It made my day when I learned about Lars and his talents with carb's especially the quadrajet's not to mention the fact that he also happens to live in the same state. I emailed him asking for his assistance and was greeted with a prompt reply asking for the carb number. He promptly envited me to bring my car to his place for a rebuild.

First off my vette was running rough at idle and the idle was around 2K and would not go any lower. First thing he did was check my timing and found that there was barely a timing curve and then pulled my distributor.The springs and weights were rusted out, the posts that the springs attach to were severly worn and the distributor shaft was all gummed up in the distributor housing. He tried pulling out the shaft by spraying it with lube and working it back and forth but could only get it out about half way. Then came to find out that he noticed that the shaft was also severly warn down by the gear. He then told me that my distributor was shot. Luckily for me he just happen to have another which he also put brand new vac advance, springs and weights on.

Second he then pulled off my carb and told me it had come off a monte carlo and was a refurbished and or rebuilt job. The jets were loose inside, had been ground on by someone, and the air bleed valves were soldered shut. The float height was not even close to being set right and he told me the primary jets were way too lean. He said something about a whole ten steps???

Third he also correctly routed and checked all my vacuum lines as to not compermise all the emission junk on my 78. Yes I am in an emission controlled county here.
Lars is one of the most considerate, thoughtful, and willing to help out persons I have ever met!!! THANK YOU very much Lars!!! Besides being a master tuner you are also an exceptional Person!! Here's to you Lars

 

So when are you coming down to Sacramento, California Lars?

 

My only problem now is that my vette is burning up way to much gas. I burned up almost a 1/4 tank on the way home and I know that had nothing to do with me "hot roddin it" and romping on the gas all the way home!!!

 

We are all lucky that there are still people in the world that know what they are doing in their areas of expertise and are a gentleman as well. He helped me out a few weekends ago as well and has been a fountain of knowledge for the forum here.

 

sometimes you gotta let those horses run... lars is da man!!!

 

I first met Lars back in 2001 when travelling through CO on the way to a new duty station. He is without doubt one of the best people I have ever met.

 

Wow for all that work I hope you filled up his empty bar.

 

It was the first time in my life that I have ever bought beer at nine in the morning.

 

As many of the guys here know, it was certainly not the first time in my life I've been drinking beer and tearing apart a distrubutor at 10 o'clock in the morning...

Working on your car was fun! It's always interesting to see all the problems on these cars and getting it all sorted out. Your car was another good example of how a "rebuilt" carb means absolutely nothing in terms of having a carb that's set up right for the application. It also demonstrated how many of the HEI units are in pretty bad shape - your car was not an exception.

Just as we do on the Tuning Tours, we went in and diagnosed the ignition system before ever touching the carb: It's not possible to tune a carb around a bad ignition curve. Once we found and solved all the problems with the distrubutor (we couldn't save it - we threw it in the trash and installed a spare from my parts collection) and got the curve right, we then went in and set the carb up. The car really woke up, and we actually got some nice throttle response out of it. It's fun when the car responds to the little changes and tweaks - you could actually hear the difference in the way the engine sounded by the time we finished up.

Thank you for the beer and for trusting me with your Vette... if the mileage is too awful bad, let me know, and we'll lean it out a tad at cruise...

 

Lars, how much longer will it be berore you start doing carbs and dist again? Please hurry.

 

I never stopped doing distributors - I have a Sun machine that I run them on (points-type only - no HEI or PerTronix conversions), so the dismantling of my test car has not affected distributor rebuilding.

I have limited test capability for carbs and can set up carbs with certain limitations. E-mail me for info:
V8FastCars@msn.com
Lars

 

There are not many people in this world who are both an expert and a gentleman, Lars is definitley both! After 20yrs in law enforcement I'm highly skeptical as you can imagine and I dont throw out compliments too easy but when it comes to Lars and what he is/does , all I can say is what a great guy! And this after just one day at a NJ tune for beer session and my experience on this forum, kudos to the master. Boy I wished I lived anywhere near his place I'd gladly stop in for a beer at 0900.
ESU

 

Funny how Lars tunes the engine and suddenly MPG goes WAY down.
Also noted is that the fun factor increases much more than the mileage decreases.
That's getting the most fun per gallon.

 

Lars, any chance you can recommend a good carb tuner in the Atlanta area ?

 

Sorry, but I don't know any out there. You can buy me a plane ticket for less than what most shops charge for a setup...

 

*rubs chin*

If you aren't out here some time before January or Febuary, I'm dragging your hiney out here. I'm sure you wouldn't mind, of course. Getting out of the snow and in to the moderate San Diego weather would probably be a very nice weekend for you.

 

Lars comes anywhere in Cali, and I'm there. I only hope he comes to Santa Barbara County, Lompoc or Vandenberg AFB, soon.
Dang, I sound like a follower of the band. Lar's is comming to town!

Remember "Bye Bye Birdie" We love you Lars, oh yes we do, we don't love anyone, as much as you. Oh Lars, we love you.

 

Oh, my gawd. Can I get sick now...?

 

I'm down for another SoCal tuning for beer tour. I'm sure there would be no problem finding 8-10 cars to participate. I have a Lars tuned 75 and 65 with one more waiting in the wings.

 

Eat your hearts out guys, Lars is heading to Seattle this weekend for a tuning session. I have been lucky enough to have my car included in the tuning session. I'm sure we'll have a good 'ol time and a few brewski's too. Really lookin' forward to this event.