Yes. The carburetor is calibrated for the air flowing out of the crankcase, and through the PCV valve. The hose is simple 3/8" fuel line. You can get that anywhere.
Me----->:spank: I will be home in an hour and I will try, if it is that simple I may be to embarrased to post anymore...
You probably can if it is re calibrated. The PCV valve air flow is meant to be there. Without PCV, pressure builds up in the crankcase, and can blow out seals and gaskets. Unburned fuel vapor can also contaminate the oil faster. Why would anyone not run a PCV on a street car? I've seen guys do this before. Why?
I am sure Cliff is right on the money. Q-jets are application specific. They need to be calibrated to your engine combination. Not having the PCV hooked up isn't helping for sure. It will be interesting to see if it makes some difference.
You've got quite a custom setup on that engine...so all the calibrations of that particular q-jet are out the window. I know that with no choke flap installed, cold starts will be a major hassle since the air will have no restriction down the primaries, and the mix will be too lean. When I was having trouble with my q-jet, I had to adjust the flap precisely in order to meter the incoming air until the bi-metal choke coil warmed up. I'd convert to an electric choke if your intake has no stove for the divorced choke...looks like it doesn't. If you can start it up, and holding your hand over the primary barrels (where the choke flap used to be) smooths out your idle, you're running too lean.
Well I would like to give everyone an update but I seemed to have lost the only set of keys... DO'H!!!! :af: :af: :af: :af: :af: Only I could loose a set of keys to a car that doesnt move..
Just throwing this out there as something to look at. My car wouldn't start well and on the times it would start it would kick and jerk for a couple seconds and then die. When it was actually running bumping the throttle would either make it smooth out for a couple seconds or backfire up through the carb and instantly shut off. The second thing I noticed was that the engine would get very hot very fast. Within a minute or two of fighting with it the engine would be too hot to touch. In my case the distributor was way off and my timing was actually retarded by roughly 10 degrees. I spun it counterclockwise a little bit and the engine actually ran, but rough. I then shut it down and spun the distributor some more and the car would start and run long enough for me to time it right. That solved almost all my problems. If you touched your distributor while doing the carb swap, even if you just bumped it with your arm, you may want to check out what I described.
That sounds dangerously close to what is happening to mine, I am reluctant to move the distributor since the builder did such a nice job of getting everything set up so well... BUT I tore into it anyway because I was curious, so all doors are open for experiment. When/If I find the keys I can give it a shot. What did you change before the problem? Was it a carb swap?
My car came that way. I tried to get it running right and took care of all the usual stuff like fluids/filters, vac lines, caps, grommets. The problem was still there so I figured it was ignition or carb. I ended up swapping the points distributor for an HEI unit and installed the new unit in exactly the same way the old one came out (made marks to line up vac can nipple and rotor tip). The problem was a little bit worse after the swap which told me the ignition system may be some of the problem. I figured I'd do the timing to at least get that part of the project as close to done as possible and that's when I discovered how far off the timing was. Once I got it timed there were no more problems (other than the choke being a bit off and the well plugs leaking)
So the Qjet may need some sort of timing modification to work? It was running very well before the swap, I have been pretty carefull of knocking things but anything can happen. That is correct, I have been fighting a contant battle of various bugs that come along with a 40 year old vehicle since I bought her. But sometimes the biggest problem is me trying to tinker with things. I have a bad habit of jumping in without seeing how deep the water is. And I found my keys!! Left them at work somehow o No:
I have a real hard time believing your timing is off considering it hasnt been changed since that engine was professionally dyno'd after the rebuild (not even, what, 2k miles ago??). Just sayin... And if you start messing with the timing and an unfamiliar carb, you just introduced 2 variables into the equation which can greatly complicate diagnosing things. Your timing sure seemed spot-on when the E-brock was still on there.
There's the test. Put the E-brock back on and see if the problem goes away. If you use a carb that you know works it'll either confirm or rule out the carb being the issue.
At home for lunch today, hooked up the PCV tube to the Q-jet, 2 half pumps on the pedal and vroom to 1500 rpm!......And then it shuts off . Tried that same process about 10 times, each time could not get the motor to idle or rev, just dies. Next step since I need to take the carb off anyway is to put the Eddy back on and see if she even wants to start again. I have faith it will, but I want to be sure. Also going to follow Cliffs advise and spec it to 'recipe' 3 Should be able to give a carb swap update before the end of the day...
Still sounds like a fuel supply problem to me. Either the float is getting stuck, the needle/seat is clogged, or you have some other vacuum leak which is leaning out the mix until the engine runs out of fuel & dies. If you haven't touched the distributor since the dyno run, then your timing should still be okay. Easiest way to check is swap the carb with the Edelbrock you were successfully using earlier, and see what happens.
Thanks Lemmy, The distributor has not been touched, do you think the bushings on the primary throttle shaft can be letting in unfilter air? That is a reccomendation that I havent done yet. I dont even know where to start looking for other vacuume leaks, I keep re-tracing my steps and I dont remember missing anything..
If you grab the primary throttle linkage, and you can rattle it up/down and side-to-side in the holes of the baseplate (throttle linkage swings open closed real easily), then you need the bushing fix. A true test is getting the car idling (which I realize is hard to do at this time), and spraying some carb cleaner onto the throttle linkage. If the RPMs increase, you've got a vacuum leak there which is impossible to tune out. Time for the bushing kit. I have 3 complete q-jets, and two others I've had on the engine over the years which are sitting in boxes. All 3 of the complete cores needed the bushing fix, and I am certain if I check the other 2, they will also need the same treatment. I've done 2 cores so far, and the performance is 100% improved.
Looks like I will be adding a bushing kit to my parts list. Are the secondary bushings not prone to failing? Does the Q-jet have secondary bushings?
Greg sells a kit for the secondaries, but no drill bit for them. They're slightly larger than the bushings for the primaries. I bought a set of secondary bushings just in case I need them. Unless they're really worn badly, you won't need to do them. Realistically, the primaries are used on the Q-Jet all the time, where the secondaries only open when you've got the hammer down, so the wear & tear is a LOT less on the secondaries. They stay closed most of the time. Plus, the primaries have that throttle linkage hanging off them, so there's a lot more weight on them, which accelerates the wear. Doing the primaries will fix 98% of any vacuum leak problem from the throttle shafts.
