If you attended BPG this year in C-bus, you would have noticed a guy pouting around because he decided to mess with his carburetor to get the last 5% of performance out and made matters worse. The situation was so bad that his car went from a 14.3 in the quarter mile, to besting a 16.5. Running the car anymore was out.. well, that sorry chap was me ou: My story goes that 2 days prior to BPG I tried to add a bigger needle and seat to my well performing quadrajet to try and fix a 3rd gear WOT fuel starvation issue. It didn't work, in fact I was pouring fuel from the vent and thought a better idea would to put back my old needle and seat. A mistake, but I digress... I ended up with a car that had symptoms of the dreaded Q-jet bog at ALL times under load, it would simply not recover. I convinced myself all weekend that all I did was swap the needle and seat, and that nothing else could possibly be wrong. But here is what I found.. 1: My float level was supposed to be set at .25 inch, under inspection it was found that my float was danger close to rising above the fuel bowl before it sealed. 2: I USED THE WRONG GASKET!!! I had some spare quadrajet gaskets laying around and didn't think it would be an issue.. D'OH! 3: My secondary main bleed well tubes were clogged.. with bits of shop towel that I used to clean the gasket surface with. Since then I have had a slow and steady rebuild of by beloved quadrajet (even though I was inquiring about a Holley from a few individuals). And with the patience and parts from Mr. Gessler (I reeeealy owe him a thank you card) , I have come out successful :beers2: Shawn and I took it for a ride today trying to adjust my secondary air valves, and I was laying rubber without even knowing it. :3gears: Lessons learned: LISTEN TO THOSE WHO ARE GRACIOUS ENOUGH TO GIVE YOU ADVISE!! I apologize for the caps but I am hoping that will stick in at least one persons head. I had many long chats with our Buick brethren and used that advise to get back in the game. Don't mess with a good thing. My car was running tops, it sure would have been nice to make a few more runs before I got greedy. Think outside the box. Just because you think you swapped part for part, doesn't mean that another mistake could have happened. Sorry for the long post, but this is my confession booth. My hope is that if another member has a similar problem that they can use the confessions of a novice to remedy their problem. Now some pictures of the rebuilt carb, 8th times a charm! (New metal fuel line is on order)
Justin, Glad you got it figured out. Float level is pretty critical on the Q-jets, and the gaskets as well as other parts can differ from one model of Q-jet to another.
Oh lord it's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every "Buick" way....:TU: Good post! I definitely agree that your car can teach you things....Patience, meekness............ Scott
Glad you posted up the whole story Taulb. It was certainly a frustrating ordeal, but you staid with it and came out on top, so kudos to you! The fellas at bpg (Larry, John Chamberlain, Alan Wander just to name a few) were definitely awesome in the amount of knowledge and "skull crunching" they did to help with the problem. Now....ON TO THE 13's BABY!!!!:thumbup:
I really cant give thanks enough to the guys who had to listen to me rabble on about the issue. 13's eh? Kil Care test & tune is Thursday :idea2:
