8 Carbs may have been a bad idea...help

i have 8 97's on my hemi and i'm trying to get it going for the first time and here is what happened
1. got the linkage hooked up and plumbed fuel with regulator
2. hit the switch to turn on the pump and my regulator was messed up and i hit them with 7 lbs---alot of leaking. I tightened up the fittings which tightened up the needle and seat fittings too (hope that didn't mess anything up)
3. i got another regulator and took it down to 3 lbs. still a good deal of leaking
4. took it down to 1.5 lbs and i have 2 carbs that dribble out of the emulsion tubes and the other tube also.

These are all brand new rebuilt by a guy who only rebuilds strombergs. He is out of town and if I open up the carb no warrantee. Anything I could do short of opening them up? Is it probably the float or the needle and seat? I wanted to run the car this weekend for a show. I guess I could move those to the front and use blockoff plates and block the fuel? Sell the whole setup and buy something that I the carb idiot can work on. Maybe an electric motor instead of the Hemi......

Oh yea forgot to say I have hit around on the carbs with everything I could find that wouldn't leave a mark.......kind of like torcher

 

plastic mallot on the tops of the float bowls to see if you can get the needles to seat. could be an incorrect float setting as well....

 

are you running ALL 8 carbs live?
meaning your supplying all carbs gas, or are you only running 2 or so?

 

Take them off and drain the gas out of them.
Then try gently shaking to make certain the float is loose. GENTLY.
Then try putting them back on with the lowered pressure and see if they work.

 

anyways, where exactly are they leaking from?

 

Do you have a good clean filter on the car? 97s are sensitive to trash in the needle and seat... well, all carbs are.

Good to meet you this weekend man, thanks for the deal on the shirt!

 

I tried the mallet approach and now I think I'll try the shaking approach. They are leaking from the emulsion tube? and the other tube that sprays the gas. I am running all carbs live for today. That will probably change later today after I throw one against the wall.

 

Stromberg 97 carburetors do leak, but presumably you are seeing something abnormal. If they are leaking all over and from everywhere, then they might just need a little time for their gaskets to soak and swell. Some people, when rebuilding carburetors, just take the new gaskets out of the box and put them in without pre-soaking them, counting on the first gasoline taking care of that. With one or two carburetors that might be OK, but with eight it’s probably a little overwhelming.

Float valves should not be sticking in eight newly rebuilt carburetors, so I would not be pounding on them with hammers or taking them apart. If they don’t stop leaking by themselves soon, then take them back to the guy who rebuilt them. He probably made some small mistake, like using the wrong float setting, but did so to all eight carburetors. He will undoubtedly recognize the problem and fix them correctly and quickly, without messing up your warranty.

 

Yea I've got only 2 carbs still leaking. I let them sit over the weekend thinking the gaskets would expand after getting wet but those 2 still leak like hell so I think I'll just build some block off plates and call it a day. Maybe I should call it a give up until the carb man gets back in town.......

 

Hopefully you'll become a master of these carbs - I think you'll have to be able over come the problem of being able ot take them apart. They aren't that complicated and having them redone by a competant person lets you start with a nice piece. Do you have a couple gasket kits or rebuild kits on hand for the misc parts? Those have a diagram. Take one apart and learn it. to hell with the gaurantee. IF the guy that did your carbs was cool - he'd help you learn them. That way you wouldn't be buggin him al the time!

 

Not that it will fix your leaking situation, but what size Hemi are we talking about here?? Are you running a cam?? Just curious. That's about 1320 cfm of flow all at once. Depending on the manifold you're running you may consider switching to progressive linkage unless you're running a pretty serious cam.

Offy 8x2?

 

I am running 4-97s on my SBC. First time I fired it up, I was leaking big time. Here are a couple of suggestions:

1) run a fuel pump that puts out no more than 4 to 7 psi

2) use a GOOD fuel regulator and gauge that reads to 1 psi or lower

3) check your needle seats for dirt or other debris

4) you can switch out the standard needle seats for "S" type gross inlet that stromberg is now putting out (contact Mad Max here on the HAMB).

These carbs are pretty basic and easy to work on.

Good luck!

 

Can you post a picture of your set-up? I'd love to see it.

 

x2

 

which ones are leaking? the ones nearest or the ones the farthest from the regulator I've heard of wierd fuel pressure problems developing from running that many carbs off of one regulator. I know someone who did this a long time ago, and he had to split the fuel supply into two regulators with four carbs per regulator. I don't know why it worked,but it did. any one have any idea why it would?

 

That's what I'd do. It works great on 6, should be fine with 8 with the correct jetting. They seap fuel, that just a fact. But they should not leak from the tubes. Check your floats, float levels and seat assemblys...

 

is everything hard line or rubber hose? did you purge the fule line before you hit the fule pump to make sure there was no dirt/ rubber in the lines?

 

That is the first thing I would do, and I use the Grose Jet inlets on all the 97s I rebuild. They are a drastic improvement over the stock needle and seat.

You should also have a quality regulator, such as a Holley that will regulate them down to 2 to 3 lbs of pressure. If you have a really big (as in high pressure/GPH) fuel pump, you may have a problem with pressure spiking even with it regulated down. The only real fix for this is a regulator with a bypass back to the tank. Don't use the cheapo dial type regulator...they suck.

If you are running an electric fuel pump...and it sounds like you are...you can pull the tops off of all eight carbs, turn on the fuel pump, and check the float levels. If the bowls are empty, then fuel is going to spray everywhere, so have some fuel in the carbs before you attempt this. If you have a float set way too high or way too low, you should be able to see it immediately. I don't see how this could void the warranty, because you aren't changing anything...just inspecting.

I'm not a fan of progressive linkage, but I know some people are. Personally, I'd rather block off a couple of carbs than run progressive...but I'd really rather not do that either. It takes work to get a multi-carb set-up working properly...if it was easy everyone would do it.

 

Sometimes it seems only having one carb is a problem! Eight of them at once? Damn! My advice stick it out, become an expert and enjoy when you get them sorted!

 

There was a really good thread on here about fuel pressure problems, make sure you have the right holley regulator, the low pressure looks just like the high pressure. the only difference is the spring, I saw mentioned too about running a t off the incoming line pressure with an orifice in the T , to constantly bleed some pressure back to the tank through a return line. This stops pressure creep behind the regulator, and allows a more steady fuel pressure. With eight carbs demanding fuel at once it could be causing the regulator to behave strangely. Does anyone remember the dry lakes car being restored with all the carbs? It's on here but I can't remember the name of it, the fuel delivery system and linkages on that are just a work of art. Someone find it so i can find the link, I was going to say get a hold of them and find out he distributed fuel to all those carbs, I still say split the fuel line and run four carbs per regulator. what is your line pressure? if it's above the spec for the Holley regulator you'll also have problems. where are you measuring pressure and is it while the engine is running? or is it static pressure? you might not be getting an accurate reading if the gauge is away from the main line, or you might be reading low pressure with a lot of the needle valves open, yet the pressure rises when they close except for a couple. See what i'm saying? in other words with that many carbs the presure is in flux depending on which ones are demanding fuel and which ones aren't.

 

I have a better analogy, think of how a water system in your house works, there is high pressure at the street, then it's regulated down before it comes into the house, if you turned on the water in one room, then people in different rooms turned the water on and off, the pressure in the room you are in is going to fall and surge, now think of your neighbor behind a different regulator off of the street, the water in your house isn't going to have an effect on his pressure. All of these carbs are going to cause the pressure to fall and spike as needle valves close, the carbs that are demanding the least amount of fuel are going to be the most affected. If you split this setup into two or more regulators, I think you are going to have much better fuel pressure control. hope this helped.

 

I'm not the authority on carburetors, but I don't think this is accurate. All the butterflies would have to be completely open, as in W.O.T., for the set-up to deliver the full CFM to the engine at once. With the throttle cracked it should only be delivering a fraction of the available CFM.

Hemi's as a general rule like a lot of fuel. Now whether or not it will work well depends on a lot of variables, like the CID of the Hemi, cam selection, timing advance, etc. But with proper jet and power valve selection, and by tuning the idle circuits with the adjusters on the base of the Strombergs, a well built Chrysler Hemi should be able to handle 8x2bbls.

Also, I believe that Stromberg 97's are closer to 150cfm, so that would make 1200cfm total.

Pushrod Mike, do you know what jets and power valves the "carb guy" put in your Strombergs? Also, I'd suggest closing off all the idle circuit screws (tighten them until they bottom in their seat) in the bases of all 8 carbs. If you still have fuel dripping from the emulsion tubes after that, then you have bigger problems.

 

Agreed! I was thinking worst-case...

Was thinking 97's were 165 cfm. Oops!

 

Cool I'll try tightening up the screws. The jets are .043's I think and I'm not sure about the power valves. I'm running a Weiand Drag Star intake and progressive linkage. Here is a picture of the setup before I plumbed it for fuel.

Maybe I'll just see if I can't get it worked into the Bass shop schedule....I think that would be best.

What do you say Brian?

 

wwwww.maxie.com

 

Looks pretty cool.

 

Not knowing the rebuild quality, I agree with Max..All the floats need to be adjusted. All the little holes in the emulsion tubs need to be clear and Max mentioned the crushed ends of the ET. Make sure all the emulsion tubes are the same, some have two holes and some have four holes just before the discharge tip. I would try running four and progressing the other four. Not knowing the build of your engine it is hard to say..
Good Luck..
Duane.
Power valve gaskets are really important..

 

damn, totally off subject for this thread, but I had to say, your avatar brought back lots of memories

 

I had this saved on my computer- CFM of various Stromberg carbs.

Model 40- 170 cfm
Model 48- 170 cfm
Model 97- 155 cfm
Model 81- 125 cfm
Model LZ- 160 cfm

 

I guess the easiest thing to do would be to disconnect the carbs from the regulator/pump and hook up a temporary gravity feed. Do they still leak? If not then you know the problem.