Rebuild or repair the Q-jet on my 1976 Electra?

Hi all, I'm about to return to the US to continue my travels, this time heading to Texas and perhaps on to LA, however, there are issues with the Q-jet on my 1976 Electra. It had started leaking a while ago so a friend helped me put a gasket kit into it and that got me out of trouble at the time, however, just before I put it into storage again I was finding the engine dieseling when hot and fuel economy was down from around 14mpg to around 11mpg. As I'm returning to the US in about a week, I'd like to get this sorted.

I have two choices - have the carb professionally rebuilt (it has been suggested to me to have the original rebuild, rather than do an exchange) but I'm told that could take 3 to 5 weeks turnaround rather than the 7 days I thought it would, which is not practical, or have a Q-jet knowledgeable mechanic go over what we did and set it up correctly.

The car is currently in Hahira, GA and I will be driving it to Atlanta initially. The friend who is currently looking after it is willing to pull the carb and post it, if someone can suggest a reputable rebuilder with about a 7-day turnaround, or, if someone can recommend a good mechanic with Q-jet experience in that Hahira to Atlanta area, I'd take it to them.

Suggestions, please.

Thanks, Stephen

 

Stephen, I have a Q-jet that came off my '75 Electra 455, was rebuilt by none other than Jim Weise, and used only a short time before I went to FAST fuel injection. Interested? Shoot me an e-mail: sbrmd@aol.com

SBest regards,
Steve.

 

Yes, I am interested - will email you in an hour or two. Stephen

 

NEVER swap out or trade in your original unit for a commercially "remanufactured" carb, they are pure JUNK in every respect.

I don't know any "professional" q-jet builders in this industry with a less than one week turn-around who's efforts are going to get you a good end result.

The 1975 model is quite different from the 1976, and I ALWAYS recommend rebuilding the original carburetor vs replacing it with something else.

Not trying to take away a sale here, but each q-jet was calibrated exactly for the application, so you will never get the same end result replacing it with something else.......FWIW......Cliff

 

Thanks Cliff for your input - I appreciate it. My mistake was that I had picked up incorrect info in my head about the turnaround time, otherwise I would have planned this much better. I don't intend to let my original carb go - I'm only going to be in the US for a month this time, so am now just looking for an interim solution.

 

Considering the age of the vehicle and carburetor for sure it is time for a complete/correct rebuild, with good parts. You will NOT find "good parts" or even the correct parts in any of these currently available over the counter kits, nor will those kits have all the components required anyhow.

No idea of anyone in that area who could do the work anyhow. I make very few recommendations these days for that sort of thing anyhow, considering that at least 30 percent of what we work on here was just "rebuilt" elsewhere and is full of crappy parts and "hacked" up some.

We run a LONG backlog, no big secret there, so folks that use our services plan ahead. We do offer quick turn-around for Marine carburetors, and correcting issues with freshly "rebuilt/restored" carburetors that don't require cleaning, plating, etc.......Cliff

 

It turned out that the Q-jet air-horn was warped to the tune of about 1/16" from the over tightening of two of the 4 screws that hold it all on to the inlet manifold, so air was getting passed the gasket. Once that was machined flat and the floats correctly set, problem went away. I've just driven 500 miles and the engine is performing beautifully - no more dieseling even though the day temperatures are in the high 90's (and fuel economy has improved too)!! It does make me wonder what would happen to economy and performance with a full rebuild and dizzy re-mapping!!