Blue71vette

how do you straighten warped holley metering blocks

Easy Rhino

How badly warped are they/is it?

If it's only a few thousands, sanding them on a flat surface may suffice.

If it's more than a few thousands, I'm not sure.

Powershift

Bridgeport milling machine: do it yourself or pay someone who has one.

The "quality" Holley rebuilders have this equipment. Eric Jackson is one of them.

Or buy new ones.

Larry

PAmotorman

you use a press like this. machining them removes the fine line projection you see around edges which are the seal as it cuts into the gasket to form a seal.

PAmotorman

you use a short straight edge to check the flatness as you go

ghostrider20

Eric Jackson at Muscle carbs straighted mine. Used a press.

Critter1

Yup, I made a fixture like that decades ago. Mine doesn't look nearly as professional though. In fact, it's ugly, but it worked.

LouieM

All these years and I've never heard of such a press. Learn something every day, or at least week.

PAmotorman

I consider it a day lost when I don't learn something new.

cv67

interesting...op Holley has a rebuild service bet they could get it right

MikeM

Don't they throw your old metering blocks in the can and use new ones?

Scott Marzahl

I had good success using a plate of glass and various grades of wet and dry sandpaper using a figure 8 pattern to straighten mine out but milling is the ultimate way to go.

MikeM

I am confused. If you mill or otherwise resurface, you not only remove the raised areas that seal the gasket but you now have a whopper jawed metering block.

Which way is it?

Critter1

I think the Clem is right. (as usual)

The original issue is that when the body is warped, the power valve well area isn't sealed and under vacuum, it pulls fuel over through the accelerator pump passage in it's center. That causes the engine to run way rich.

I've patched these up in an emergency by using two gaskets instead of one. I did that to a friends 66 for a temporary fix but it lasted for 15 years that way.

I've also installed the metering body backwards with a small block of wood in the center between it and the main body. By slowly/gently tightening the bowl screws, you can bend the body back to it's original shape.

I remember a company years ago that made a metering body gasket with a small "O" ring in the center to seal the accel pump transfer passage. I've never used one but I suppose that it might work.

MikeM

All the warped ones must have gotten fixed. That used to be a big hiter around here a couple years ago. Everybody had a Holley that wouldn't run right.

Biggest thing I ever saw wrong with a Holley was the guy working on it. The carb would sit dry for awhile and the gaskets would dry up. Then along comes Harry Hamfist with his giant screwdriver and cranks the screws down to stop the leak and bends the metering block instead of installing new gaskets or letting the old ones swell back up.

There may be other reasons. I think this was the main culprit.

Critter1

Yup, that's exactly what happens. Over torqued bowl screws.

Another issue was the thin cork gaskets that Holley originally used. Now the current gaskets are some new slightly thicker material that doesn't squish as easily.

Holley shows the bowl screw torque as 20 INCH lbs.

PAmotorman

it got worse when holley used hex head screws on the float bowls and the people working on them started using a socket and a ratchet to tighten them. these people not only warped the bowls and metering bodies they pulled the threads out of the main body

MikeM

I think over the years, I used about ten Holleys. Never had a new one but all of them were near new or otherwise unmolested except by me.

Never had a one of them run bad or show signs of metering block warpage. They still sitting on the shelf awaiting new gaskets, and then ready to put on an engine without fiddling with smashing the part in a press.

I never owned one new enough to have the hex screws, only the slot head screws but I often wondered how Harry would react with the hex screws when he saw a leak..

tbarb

The new Holley metering blocks have a reinforcement that's much better keeping them flat.

larrywalk

With some selected support pieces, squeezing gently in a vise should work. Then again, it it's only out a few thousandths, new gaskets should seal well enough.