I had my original Holley rebuilt by the factory. Before installing it on the engine, I made sure all the screws were tight, some of them even had Locktite on them. I just installed it recently and for the first few times I ran the engine, it worked fine.

Now it's leaking like a seive at the carb gasket, because even at idle and for a half hour after shut off, there is a steady drip of gas into the secondaries, which is flooding the carb. I don't why the secondaries would start leaking.

Is the secondary float adjustment off and should I pull the carb off and retighten all the screws? Maybe something hung up in the carb? I can't understand why the carb would perform perfectly on the first few start ups and now it takes a dump on me. Anyone want take a shot at this? Thanks, Patrick :cry

 

Patrick, Before you do anything complicated try tighting the bowl screws. Your gaskets may have taken a set and loosen everything up. Make them snug not too tight or you will strip the main body.
Ed

 

Thanks Ed, I'm going to do just that. I'm also going to take the carb off tomorrow and check the screws the hold the carb baseplate to the carb body. Everything else is loose, so they might as well be loose too. The leak seems coming out from the gasket too. Patrick :cheers:

 

When you say it drips into the secondarys, where is the drip comming from? If it is not dripping from the upper venturis, but just runs out from the lower area of the carb onto the throttle plates, it sounds like a typical case of Holly-itis. If is has original bowls on it, you will be unabled to check the float level as it is not adjustable from the outside. More than likely it isnt the problem anyway. What happens is that fuel leaks into the rear metering block and out onto the throttle plates, and causes flooding and hard hot starting. The metering block is warped, and there is nothing that you can do about without dissasembling the rear bowl and repairing or replacing the gaskets and the plate. This should have been done by the re-manufacturer. It is such a common problem that there is no excuse for not doing that at the time of rebuild. A loose baseplate would have absolutely no effect on fuel retention in the carburator bowls.
However if it is comming from the upper venturis, that would indicate a float or valve seat problem.

[Modified by wombvette, 8:34 PM 1/4/2003]


[Modified by wombvette, 8:39 PM 1/4/2003]

 

Patrick, The screws that hold the bowls and the metering plates to the body are the ones that are suspect [ 4 scres on each end of the carb]. The base plate will not cause your problem. You can do this without taking the carb off the car.
Ed


[Modified by ED DINAPOLI, 9:59 PM 1/4/2003]

 

I had the same problem on mine. The metering blks were warped and I purchased new ones. After $400 plus dollars ran fine for 1 1/2 yr and as I put the car away 2 weeks ago I saw a drip on the side. I am tempted to run a Holley 600 and hang on to stock carb as I am fed up with rebuilding. :mad
This is the only part I hate about this car.

 

i use a jig to press these metering bodies straight because of the cost and the older ones are no longer available. :chevy

 

Wayne and Clem, the drips are coming from the venturis, but it also leaks down at the baseplate. I tried clamping off the gas line and running the engine until it quit and the bowls were empty, then opened up the needle valves wide open and restarted to blow any dirt out, tried this 3 times, but it didn't work. When I shut the engine down, both the primary and secondaries continue to drip gas from the venturis. Also, when you goose the accel rod, you should see a strong straight shot of gas going into the primaries. All I get is weak, curved spurts of gas, which hits the venturi, instead of going straight down the barrel.

I called the Holley Tech line and they said try and readjust the floats, they might be too high. He said they do their flow tests with mineral spirits with a consistency of gasoline. I'm thinking the floats may be stuck or set too high or maybe they have the wrong jets in the carb, I don't know.

At this point, the only step I can take next is to pull the carb off the engine and check the floats. Since I have to pull the float bowls off the engine because I don't have float sight screws, how much should I bend the float tabs down to lower the gas level?

If I continue to have no luck, I live close by Jerry MacNeish, who rebuilds Holleys and is highly recommended by John Z, and I will have him take a look at it. Thanks. :nopity




[Modified by FXT, 9:43 PM 1/9/2003]

 

Jets don`t cause flooding like that. Indeed it sounds like there is a float problem. If it is under warrantee, I would let them handle it. If not, remove the bowls and set them to factory specs.