Poor life choices - C4 content

I just ordered a set of 20mm spacers. I spent a bit more to have them here this week, as I'll be out of town the following week.

Pete:

Do you have a vacuum gauge? Even if it is a cheapo HF gauge, it might tell you a lot, engine warmed up, idling...

Holy berkeleying yellow and bronze are not complementary colors

Do Not Change The Color of Those Wheels, Add A Wide Stripe that Color. Yea That's Bold.

that's a good bit of Metal I'm sure you cleaned it Before Install after this picture. check it every week or so for a couple weeks (1000 miles) if it becomes less good.

Dusterbd13 wrote: Holy berkeleying yellow and bronze are not complementary colors

No, they truly aren't. I think I need to add some red...

In reply to Pete Gossett:

Purple. Barney purple.

In reply to Dusterbd13:

One of my Facebook friends suggested that too, but I'd be better off just buying one of those special-edition purple & yellow ones from the 90's.

Back when I had my green Corrado I added red diagonal stripes up the B-pillar, so I guess this really isn't too out of character for me.

Pete Gossett wrote: I changed the oil for the first time since the rebuild today. I know metal flakes are to be expected, but does this seem within reason?

Never, and I mean NEVER look at the oil from the first oil change.

It's ~going~ to look sparkly metallic OMG craigslist scary. Don't look at it. If the SECOND oil change is scary, then worry.

But NOT the first.

It's hard to tell how much crap is on the magnet without also seeing it clean, but even a well broken in healthy engine will have at least some paste on the magnet, especially in an engine where every wear point is ferrous metal on one or both parts.

I ordered a 12-24 Helicoil kit from Napa today, and it should be there for me to pick up after work tomorrow. It's going to be a busy week though, so I'm not sure I'll get much time to work on the Vette.

SWMBO's co-worker is bring his Hyundai over this afternoon with an intermittent problem where the RF caliper locks up completely. I'm thinking hose, but they plan on keeping the vehicle, so I told him we'll do some investigation today & decide what other "while we're in there" parts he needs to order.

As I'm learning more about Holley carbs, I've discovered something & have some questions.

The carb GTXVette sent me is a center-hung float, but has a secondary metering plate instead of a metering block, and thus no secondary accelerator pump.

The carb Ovid_and_Flem gave me is a double-pumper(also with center-hung floats), but does not have a power valve in the secondary metering block. It's cast solid so none could be installed.

In reading more about Holley carbs, I've realized that some double-pumpers do indeed come with dual power valves, so I was researching a bit about it just now. It seems like the secondary PV is use primarily for low-load fuel mileage, but I'm curious if the lack of having one could at all be related to my miss?

As I understand it (and I'm not that familiar with these carbs) with no power valve on the secondary side it will either be rich at part throttle when you're deep enough into it to have the secondaries partway open, or lean at WOT. I think you could test this by disconnecting the secondaries from the linkage and wiring them shut, let it run on just the primary side.

In reply to BrokenYugo:

Hmm...disconnecting the secondaries may be a good troubleshooting test regardless.

Pete It is not related, at that rpm it hasn't fully come into the mains/at that rpm on aceleration the Shooters are still Helping. Secondary's don't need to start opening Untill about a third of the feed is used,if your not under load a third of the pedal will max out the Rpm

and just a Sliver of light at the rear butterfly's.

Oh and a metering Plate is Non- adjustable....a metering Block can have the Jet sizes changed. Neither uses a power valve.

In reply to GTXVette:

Since the miss is constant at steady-state cruising, I think that rules out the accelerator pump circuits, correct?

Hi Pete,

Can you try some "old-school" diagnostics? (You'll need another person (who can follow directions!))

1. Rule out some basic electrical issues. Wait for dark, have your helper start the car, put it in gear, hold the brakes and rev(power-stall it). Caution! Not enough to launch thru the garage wall! Look under the hood for arcing or a blue glow around the spark plugs, plug wires, and distributor cap. It's a really effective method for finding weak spots in your ignition system because the ign. system under load will start breaking down and since it's dark you'll be able to see if the electrons are straying. You could have a plug wire breaking down and arcing or a bad cap with a hairline crack that you can't see.

2. Wait some more until it's light (or you can do this at the same time, just have a good flashlight). Have your helper do the same thing, powerstall it while you look down the carb. Do you see fuel as a fine circular mist coming from the nozzles in the venturies? Or do you see fuel droplets? This test will tell you if the main circuit is getting a proper vacuum signal and will isolate the main from the idle and accel. circuits. Be sure and check both primaries and secondaries. If you see a good, uniform spray pattern, good. If you see droplets, something is haywire in the main circuit (jetting, power valve, vacuum signal, etc.)

3. Warning - my opinion only! Toss the double-pumper! You don't have enough engine to warrant one. For what you built a good 600 CFM vacuum secondary is plenty of carb! And for the naysayers, take a look at most circle track cars. We get 450+ HP from a 500 CFM 2-bbl!

If you try this, let me know, maybe we can narrow down what's going on.

Cheers,

Mark

In reply to B757Captain:

Thanks for the tips Mark! I've pondered checking the plug wires after dark, but haven't had a chance(or helper) to try it.

My biggest concern with a carb is finding one suitable for autox, since I'll be seeing at least 1G sustained, and probably 1.1-1.2G instantaneous(and in constantly changing directions). From what I've read a Holley DP with road-race floats, jet extensions, and the off-road needle/seat and vent tube, is the way to go.

Even worse 2BBL's are rated at a higher vacuum reading therefore 500 CFM, 2 BBL = 353 CFM by the 4 BBL vacuum setting.

The car in my avatar has a 406 CID small SBC with a 750 Holly sitting on a victor jr. I use power a valve block off and larger main jets 78 front 82 rear in jet extenders the only place I have ever had a stumble is in the stop box turning and breaking on the course is flawless there is no reason your Holly with a little love can't work great. There are a lot of ajustments you can make on Holly carbs there are different cams for secondary tuning. A lot of your comments lead me to believe you have a ignition problem.

Just a after thought my car makes so little vacuum I have to run a vacuum pump to make the brakes work so if I were you i wouldn't worry so much abut how much you are making as for distributor advance ect. i do not run a vacuum advance initial is set at 12 deg total advance is 36 deg at 3500 rpm

Thanks and good luck

Woody wrote: That's a bold choice.

WHAT CAN BROWN (AND YELLOW) DO FOR YOU? UPS, BABY!

In reply to danvan:

Thanks! Your car sounds like a ton of fun.

I discovered yet another tidbit about Holley carbs today - apparently just because it's a double pumper does not mean it has idle mixture screws on the secondary metering block. I then called Holley to find out whether this carb should have them, and they told me it was produced either way.

I did get the hole fixed, reassembled it with the original 66 primary jets, and...it's still blowing black smoke so badly I had to vacate the garage and air it out for an hour. Not sure what's up with that yet.

In reply to Pete Gossett:

Something in back of my mind. You are still running the c. 45 psi efi fuel pump albeit with a fuel pressure regulator dropping it down to 5-6 psi according to fp gauge. Accurate? The black smoke makes me wonder if it flooding at low rpm under load. May be off base but just a thought.

Missing under load, black smoke...

If it starts pinging you'll have the HEI module slow death trifecta.