My 383 stroker has been running extremely rich lately. I assumed it was a blown power valve so I proceeded to pull the main fuel bowl and oops.....That's gonna leave a mark on the wallet... Then after pulling the bowl off, what the hell... This bowl is so f'n degraded it no wonder the inlet area broke. The secondary bowl and the rest of the carb are perfect. Anybody ever seen anything like this before? Does ethanol do this to zinc castings? At least the power valve is OK. That oughta save me some cash
Holley had a bad batch of carbs with faulty plating a while back. They might just send you a new one if you contact them.
I've owned a lot of Holley carbs. and I have NEVER seen that. As landseaandair stated, get in contact with Holley.
thats a alloy defect call Holley almost looks like it was painted , if it was ethanol the secondary side would be far worse as fuel sits in it longer
That is diecast cancer (intergranular corrosion). I've seen it in several diecast models over the years. It's caused by contamination of lead, tin or cadmium in amounts that exceed approximately .005 percent by weight in the alloy. Exposure to moisture and heat expedites the corrosion. I'm sure the batch that the bowl was molded with has all flaked and fell apart. You just happened to get the bowl.
If you do a google search on this "Holley fuel bowl flaking" you will find that this problem has been on-going for about 5 years due to inconsistencies in the casting mixes.
There is a presence of moisture in alcohol. So, it increase the chance of corrosion, but from what I've seen in diecast models in a dry, temperature controlled environment, it happens anyway.
Not caused by ethanol. I have used 10% in my Holley for over 20 years without problems. I even leave the gas in the carb and tank over the winter and fire up and burn what is left when spring comes. That means about 5 months of downtime in this region.
I contacted Holley and they are going to replace the carburetor. That works for me. Good customer service.
Well Holley came thru and made it right. I think that full replacement of a 9 year old carburetor is more than fair. I would have been happy with a new float bowl. On top of that the new carb is the polished version.
It was those traditional old Ford pistons they melted down to cast them. (Kidding! I'm just kidding!)
Nope, I think that was pretty well explained by some of the responses here. Post #9 seems to be most likely. Melted down pistons worked for Burt Munroe.
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