Nailhead Carburetor advice

Discussion in ''Da Nailhead' started by papag825, Jun 11, 2018.

  1. papag825

    papag825 Active Member

    Hello my friends, looking for some advice on re-building vs. restoring the carb on my 65 electra 225. The car sat garaged for sometime before I came into possession of the car but once new fuel pump, lines etc were plumbed in she started right up. I have the 401/445 wildcat set up and it has a blip in the idle that I cant seem to get rid of and occasionally will falter from a dead stop.
    Don't know whether its better to replace with a new carb or rebuild old
     
  2. Houmark

    Houmark Well-Known Member

    Does it have the Carter AFB on there now? I changed mine out for an 750cfm edelbrock with manual choke, and a open lid K&N filter, and out of the box it runs good, and the plugs read good.. Has been on the car for a couple og years without problems..
     
  3. 66electrafied

    66electrafied Just tossing in my nickel's worth

    I'd check the distributor tune and the electrical first before the carb. Cutting out or a blip sounds like points or a failing coil, not a carb issue.
    A quick way is to get a vacuum gauge and hook it up (learn how to use it if you don't know) and see what the engine tells you. Rule #1 with an old car, never take anything apart until you've run the diagnostics and proved what's wrong, you'll find you're invariably wasting money if you sub out parts that you think are wrong.
    They ran 2 carb types in 65, the Carter AFB or the Rochester 4GC. With modern gas both types would have issues with the accelerator pump which would cause a hesitation or a bog on acceleration. Unless they're really gross and cruddy looking inside or physically leaking raw fuel, I wouldn't worry about it.
    If it's the AFB, I'd recommend rebuilding it unless the base plate is rotted through. Nothing beats stock, and the AFB is the easiest to do anything with. Plus, you know how it ran and that it ran, so you should improve it. A remanufactured carb is a crap shoot; sometimes you get lucky and get one that works or you get one that has "issues". This is the thing; no one ever writes on the core box just what went wrong, so they just dip it and throw a kit into it and that's that. You're better off taking your chances with rebuilding your unit.
    If you have the Rochester 4GC you can try to rebuild it, but they are finicky. I've done a few, but for some reason they were never 100% right, there was always something. Usually for me it was bad needles and seats. (they used generic ones in the kits that are too tall so the whole drop and shut off levels are haywire and impossible to set up) In that case, get the Edelbrock and try your luck with setting one up. Remember that most are tuned to SBC engines which have different fuel needs than the Nailhead, so it may not be 100% out of the box.
     
    Houmark likes this.
  4. telriv

    telriv Founders Club Member

    I REBUILD AFB's


    Tom T.
     
    SpecialWagon65 likes this.
  5. dryhoze1

    dryhoze1 Member


    I’m interested

    I need (2) re built
     
  6. 64 wildcat conv

    64 wildcat conv Silver Level contributor

    Do check out your engine before committing to carb work as others have mentioned. If it is the carb (sounds like the accelerator pump to me) I would suggest replacing it with an Edelbrock 750 #1411 with electric choke. You can rebuild a 50 year old carb but all of the parts that wear will not be replaced. Nothing runs as nice as a properly tuned new carb, in my opinion. Search for my postings for correct jets and tuning info for the 401. There are other posts that should tell you how to connect the transmission kick down to your car.
     
  7. telriv

    telriv Founders Club Member

    dryhoze1,

    No problem. I'm doing 3 dual quad sets now.
     
  8. John Codman

    John Codman Platinum Level Contributor

    An issue with older carburetors regardless of make is the throttle shaft wearing out or wearing the base plate. If this is the case, there will be a vacuum leak and the engine will never run properly regardless of whatever else you do. Knowing Tom, I'm sure that he will address any throttle shaft wear issues as a part of the rebuilding process.
     
  9. telriv

    telriv Founders Club Member

    Yes, I re-bush when nec. Being 50+ yrs. old they mostly all need to be bushed.
     
    300sbb_overkill likes this.

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