OK... I'm a newbie, so please bear with me. I haven't had a "real" car since my '78 Smokey and The Bandit Trans Am... and I'm sure there could be some debate over that also. Had some issues with the '54 Bel Air last week, and would like to understand what happened. Set up: 350, 350 Turbo, Edelbrock 1406 (600 cfm), Edelbrock 8134 Feed w/ inline filter * * This is the blue and red filter, but mine has what looks to be a Summit pressure gauge comming out of it (liquid filled w/ the turned metal face). I haven't seen any of these Edelbrock filters with a port for the pressure guage (when searching online). Anyone know the model number for this? Looks like this, but w/ a guage port in the center of the filter body. http://performanceparts.com/part.php?partID=98923 Anyway... car has been running great since I got it in March, but things went like this last week. Day 1 - Went for a 15 mile run w/ no problems. After returning to pick up wifey, we headed out again. About 6 miles from home I opened it up a bit on the service road... and when I let off, it just started loosing power, and quit by the time I got to the intersection. Got it running long enough to pull into a parking lot - but extremely rich... lots of black smoke, and had some fuel coming out of the carb by the boosters. Fuel pressure seemed high (7), as I believe it was in the (4-5) range previously. Drove about 5 miles at highway speeds and stopped at a gas station, still black smoke, and would kill itself if idling. Fuel pressure read (0)???? Took her home. Day 2 - Let it set overnight, started hard, same Day 3 - Read some threads here about vaccum leaks, so tried the troubleshooting step of squeezing off the hoses to see how it would affect idle. Well... to my surprise the first squeeze of the pvc hose on the front of the carb changed the black smoke to white... then after a minute every thing seemed ok. Drove her about 5 miles, fuel pressure @ (4.5)... I'm happy. Day 4 - Started her in the morning, fuel pressure @ (9)... still running great, but smells a little rich. Took her for a 5 mile drive... fuel pressure reads (0)... but again still running good. Started a few more times during the day and back up to (8-9) again, but no black smoke. Is this possible, or do I have a jacked up pressure gauge set up? Could a bad pump produce these readings? Did the float stick initially.. or what could have happened when I tried the vacuum test? Thanks in advance to any HAMBers that take time to reply. This site is incredible, and I've already met some great people here in Austin because of it.
pressure guage is possibly bunk, and the p.c.v. valve probably got a good gulp of Oil under hard acceleration. Swing it by-I'm here all day and I can help Ya out.
The Jalopy Journal
