As soon as I drop the cash for a new set of tires, my carb goes to shit. Fired it up this morning to run out to the shop to try to finish up the sanding & buffing. Car runs like complete shit and keep cutting off on me. Get to the shop and the carb is leaking at the base where the butterfly shafts and some of the choke linakge is. I suck at rebuilding carbs and no one around here seems to want to touch anything on this motor since they don't even know what it is.....I don't really have time to wait for someone to do that anyway, this is my only car and I need it on the road! Now the question is, can I just go to the parts store and get an aftermarket holley for it and call it good? If so, what CFM range should I stay within? If I can't do that, what am I to do?
There are different base patterns, square bore and spread bore. There are replacements available for each reasonably priced. Yours should be a spread bore, unless its a 2 bbl
SB327, Our friends at Northern have the Edelbrock Factory Rebuilt Performer carbs that will bolt on in place of the factory AFB. Here is the link:http://northernautoparts.com/ProductModelDetail.cfm?ProductModelId=3894 You have been around here along time, and know that these folks are great to buy from.
Carbs freak me out. I've never had good luck working on one. I actually think the parts store I work at part time keeps that carb in stock. The part number sounds very familiar. Seems like all the carbs are square bore, so i guess I'm going to have to run an adapter. I'm sorta worried it might make the carb too tall to clear the hood....Might have to run a lo-rise air cleaner.....I've got the old carb off now and am in the process of finding a ride to the parts store.
If it's a squarebore, I'd go with an edelbrock or carter (practically the same thing). That's what I used on my Riv before it was wrecked. I ran a 625 cfm carter on my stock 425 and it ran great. Probably could have gone bigger, but it was your basic factory stock replacement deal. If it's a spreadbore, get yourself a nice tuned q-jet.
Ok, they had NONE of the edelbrocks in stock, they told me they did and after I got a ride up there all they had was an empty box.....Would just an off the shelf quadrajet get the job done? They had one of those, but I have no idea what it's intended use would be....
Just Got This Guys Number From Another Daily Drivin' Buick Guy...this Guy Is Good With The Buick Carbs .. I Didnt Read Much Of The Post But See If This Helps .. P J Carb Joel ...562 696 3386 In So Cal ... Stick With The Buick Stuff..it Was Made For It ..
Look at the intake. If it's a squarebore (which it most likely is) it'll have 4 equal sized holes for both the primaries & secondaries. If that's the case you need to run a carter or edelborck. The q-jet intake will have two small primary holes, and 2 big secondary holes.
Parts store can't have one in the next day or so? Thats how I got a fuel pump for a 235, they had 'em in Albany but not local, so they ordered it in and had it the next morning -
Just got in from fucking with this shit for the past 4 hours in the parking lot where the car is. No one had anything other than holleys so I grabbed one of those, and an adapter, but still no dice. Runs rough as shit and dies out when I let off the gas. The adapter is not what I need, but i didn't realize it until I was trying to put the shit together and I'm pretty sure it's letting air leak in. It looks like the holley carb would fit perfect if the bolt holes lined up.....I'm selling all my old car shit and buying a late model... at least it looks pretty sitting in the parking lot....hope it's still in one piece when I walk back up there in the morning (had to stealsome hoses from my truck for the car so i can't drive it up there!).
when you had the carb off, did you notice the holes/passage in the gasket surface on the intake manifold? you need to plug those holes! i'd betcha a dollar that's what the problem is. BTW, got the flake a couple of days ago, thanks! now i gotta go paint something.
oh yeah, the reason they need to be plugged, IIRC they are exposed when you use a carb adaptor on one of those manifolds. this one is on a dual quad manifold, and is plugged already, but you get the picture.
How should I go about plugging it up? I don't really want to plug them up permanently, in case someone wants to put the proper carb on the car in the future. Just make a gasket that blocks it?
Alright, the holley is not going to work, the adapter is useless. I've got an edelbrock on the way that should be in my hands around 5. The Edelbrock should just bolt right on to the intake, correct?
I figured that out the hard way, it was the only carb I could get my hands on at the time though so I figured it was worth a shot. I'm just glad I work at the parts store so I can return it and get the edelbrock!
my nailhead must be a freak, cuz it digs the holley that's on it. using a typical cheapie squarebore to squarebore adapter. one of these days i'll get my quadrajet manifold on....
Ok, the edelbrock hooked up flawlessly. It's running "ok" at idle, a little rough though. Revs up smooth in park. When I put it in drive it seems like theres a miss when I take off easy, and sometimes it wants to cut off when I stomp it. I think the vacuum is really weak as well, power brakes aren't working very well, and the transmission isn't shifting. I'm just glad I got the car home now, but I've gotta get this thing dialed in now. Who wants to help the carb retard?
Get the car running at idle.Take wd 40 and start spraying around all vaccum ports, rubber hoses, base of carb, etc. If it rev's up you have found your vaccum leak. If you don't want to use wd 40 use water in a spray bottle. It will make the car run worse when you find the leak. TP
Alright, gonna try to get this shit nailed down tomorrow. Aside from checking for leaks, do I still need to block off those small ports on the intake using the edelbrock instead of the holley?
Alright, messed with it some more and got the car running and driving fine, BUT my power brakes are still very weak. Do I not have as much vacuum now as I did with the old carb? I didn't plug off the hole sin the intake, but I have no signs of any vacuum leaks outside the carb. Everything seems to be perfect other than the brake issue, I know it's gotta be the vacuum since the brakes worked almost too good before. Now i can't get them to lock up no matter how hard I hit the pedal!
not sure about the carb you are using, but the edelbrock i got had a vac line port in it on the bottom back side. i ran my vac line for my breaks to there and pluged the one in the front of the intake manifold because the one in the intake was leaking. it was a crappy 90 degree fitting with a soild line that bent around to the back of the motor and had a built in check valve. it was cracked somewhere... anyway, it sounds like you're not getting enough vac to your booster. try pushing on your break pedal with the car off. then turn the motor on. once the motors running the pedal should go in further once the vacuum kicks in. if it doesn't your booster doesn't have enough vacuum bein drawn.
The pedal goes down a little bit, but the pedal doesn't feel right. At low speed, it stops pretty good. It's when I'm moving fast of giving it more gas that the brakes feel soft, and the car wants to kinda cruise to a stop even if I stand on the pedal. It should be throwin' me into the steering wheel if I do that! The booster is hooked up straight to the back on the carb. Pcv is hooked to the big port on the front, and the vacuum advance is hooked to the small front passenger side port, and the modulator valve is hooked to the small front drivers side port. The port on the intake is blocked off, and has been since I've owned the car....I know I could just trakc downa vacuum canister, but the brakes were working fine before, so it seems like I should be able to do something other than that!
i'm no expert on any of this, but wouldn't your engine draw less vacuum at higher rpms? isn't that why you'd use a vacuum canister in line with your booster? i know my 63 and my buddies both have canisters tucked to the inner fender on the driver's side behind where the hood hinge is. but i'm not using it as it didn't seem necessary. then again i've installed a booster and m/c from a later gm (67?), and the booster vacuum hookup has a built in check valve. that was a problem for me as i didn't think of it and initially hooked it up using the old in-line check valve also. both check valves in line made it not work. anyway, besides that modulator hook up that i just have blocked off, all your connections are the same as mine. sounds like your booster has a vacuum leak and at higher rpms when the engine draws less it leaks out. myabe just a bad check valve.
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