Haha, yea thats happened to me a few times too, career path wise..... yup, just ordered a vacuum/fuel pressure combo gauge. I have no idea of the carb settings, this is the first car I've owned with a carburetor I'm tempted to convert to one of those Holley sniper EFI conversions... well maybe on the next project car I'm also clueless to the timing setting. I had a timing gun in the past, but haven't seen it in years, don't think I'll find it now
Finally had some time to work on the car I had 2 phenolic spacers ready to go, a 1" and a 1/4" (in case the 1" one was too tall) Too my surprise I couldn't straight swap it with the aluminum spacer on the car. The spacer on the car has the studs setup to mate the Offenhauser intake manifold to the Holley carb. The Offenhauser stud pattern is different Also the front 2 holes in the the intake are smaller, it's not balanced with the rears. And the adaptor covers up the front 2 holes a little bit as well So the questions is: Should I even be using this intake manifold on a SBC 350? I researched a little online and saw this manifold on some smaller engines, like a 283 and 327. (have not been able to confirm if it should be used on a 350, maybe someone here might know) Seems not ideal to have the adaptor plate restrict the 2 front holes. But is it usable? (I'm not building a high hp track setup, just one for weekend drives) Since I was forced to keep the existing aluminum adaptor, my only choice was to use the 1/4" phenolic spacer. And now the top of the air filter is touching the hood. I'm gonna go now and remove the heat spacer and revert everything back to the way it was. Hopefully adding the Holley fuel pressure regulator with a return line, will be enough to fix the over rich condition and vapor lock. Will update again shortly (if life doesn't get in the way again) Thanks for reading
Looks like you may have a square bore carb on a spread bore manifold. Not the best setup. Shouldn't cause a hard start or vibration though. Edit, unless you have a vac leak.
Don't know how old your holley is , but if it doesn't have a power valve blowout preventer & you've backfired the carb a few times ( being that you've had a hard starting issue) you may have a blown power valve . If this is the case , it will foul your plugs & make the engine run rough . Floats too high / needle& seats leaking , accelerator pump check valve leaking will all cause gas fouling / rough running .
Some HEI modules will quit working when they get hot sometimes. Takes a long time for them to cool off and then they start working again. Ask me how I know. I thought I had vapor lock, too. And it still is in hot weather sometimes when the engine sits after shutting down. Your old module may be acting freaky when it is firing. This fixed the "no fire" issue, though. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/msd-83647
Hi 2OLD2FAST, my carb's a 4160, the list number says 1850-15. And manufacture date code is 0108, which should translate to 10th day in the year 2008. So it should have the blow out protection. I'll order up some new bowl gaskets and a rebuild kit, then take it apart to check the needle and seats thanks
Just check the site plugs to see where the float level is & if they're holding , no need to tear it down..
Finally made some progress after working on it intermittently on and off Got the new fuel lines in. Think my original pump is a bit weak, even with the fuel pressure regulator turned up, I don't see more than 7psi. Right now needle jumps around alot from 4-7psi. I changed out the spark plugs, they were really fouled up again. Previously I used the gap setting on the spark plug the previous owner was using, but after checking on line, 0.025 inches is much too low. I've now set it to 0.035 inches. Everything should start fine. But I must have messed up something. The car cranks but fails to turn over. Looking around the engine bay I found 2 loose wires to the distributor. DOH! The wires to the Tach and Batt had come loose, I probably pulled them down when resting the carburetor on the side when changing to a lower spacer. I've plugged in the 2 wires. Previous owner used black color for both I traced out the tach wire back to the dashboard. So I know which wire is which now. I figured it should start now, but nada... Now I'm wondering what else would make it not start. There is fuel in the carb. So only spark is missing. I wanted to double check the wiring so I took off the cap to the distributor. And I notice the B+ and BATT are connected by a copper stripe. Am I seeing that right? (I marked up a stock photo below) Looking online the BATT wire should have 12V when the ignition is turned on. (checking with a voltmeter mine shows 12V when ACC is on) So B+ is getting power from BATT and no where else??
I changed out the cap, rotor, coil, and module with a Summit distributor refresh kit. Also used the heat transfer paste under the new module. But the car still doesn't start. It cranks, but never fires up I've doubled checked the sparkplug wires on the spark plug side as well, all the connections are good. Now I'm wondering if it's an electrical problem, as the previous time when I went to start it, the 12V+ wire going to the distributor was loose and fell down, and lying on the engine. So 12V+ was making contact with the engine (ground) when I was cranking it. I have tested the wire with a voltmeter and do see 12V+ when the key is in the On positions. So the wire still has power (no blown fuse for that wire). I'm wondering if something might have shorted out. But I haven't found what... I've check the fuse box, and all the old style fuses are not blown (I'll replace this with a blade style fuse box eventually)
With 2 cents to give, take this advice for what it's worth. Stop what your doing and think about it for a bit. Your taking a lot apart, making assumptions and it doesn't sound like your being methodical in diagnosing the problem. -Got the new fuel lines in. Think my original pump is a bit weak, even with the fuel pressure regulator turned up, I don't see more than 7psi. Right now needle jumps around a lot from 4-7psi. Maybe it's simply your fuel pressure regulator that's the problem? Disconnect it from the fuel line, get a two liter bottle to collect the gas and cycle the pump. Now connect that high quality over priced part and see if the same volume of gas flows out of it. Is there adjustment to the flow is the next check. If not, why not? Sounds like your getting universal or random miss firing accompanied with starting issues. First instinct is blame the carb, followed by the ignition. Not saying it isn't...just that for all you've done, it doesn't seem to be working to solve the problem.
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