´74 Olds Delta 88 straight out of hibernation, troubleshooting , now the Quadrajet´s acting up, pg.4

Last weekend I gave the Olds its first wash in probably 15-20 years .. the interior is perfect, the paint has a few bubbles beneath the rear glass. Other than that the car is absolutely rust free. I‘m gonna fix the rust and try to touch up the paint in the catwalk area. Someday. Now it is time to go cruising !

 

@Baumi great to hear your efforts are going to be enjoyed.
While I dig the solo pictures highlighting the car, I'd like to see one or two in town with local cars.
These could have been taken in the midwest of the US.

 

Great job, a nice cruiser.
Greetings Harald

 

.... sooo good...

Yes!

Fwiw, the engine will be snappier if you attach flexible dryer ducting to the snorkel and the rad support mounted scoop. Sometimes the scoop goes mia if the ducting has deteriorated.
Just get the hose in front of the radiator for fresh air.
It doesnt need to be a ram air setup.
Those 70/80s engine bays can get oven hot. Hot air intakes are no bueno. when heat soaked the throttle looses a bit of response(less dense air).

Check the snorkels hot air stove valve. If the diaphragm is blown it's just a vacuum leak. If so, cap off the vac hose to it. Spring in the valve defaults to open for cold air.

*somehow I goofed the imaging, will fix later.... maybe*

 

Not unless we’ve started using European traffic signs. Zoom in on them. They are not American signs.

 

That‘s the only photo I‘ve got that is in perspective to normal European traffic. I´ve got to get to work early when I´m taking the Olds to work, otherwise I would be blocking the whole parking lot in front of our shop. So I´m the first in and the last out ( as usual) The street in front of our shop is pretty crowed when shifts switch at BMW. 20k employees going to and out of work causes a lot of traffic at certain times in our small town, but we are glad to have them, those a very good jobs.
The big aluminum building behind the gas station is a BMW plant, it is Werk 2.1 in Dingolfing. They are making all the differentials and axle subframes in that building. Dingolfing is actually a small town in a rural area, I guess 2/3s of the city area is covered by BMW buildings. Also our license plates are giving a clue from which county we are from, M would be Munich, LA Landshut, PAN is Pfarrkirchen and DGF is Dingolfing, for example.

 

@Baumi thanks for the picture! The others are great for highlighting the car and maybe they could be geospotted as not in the US, but that shot shows the scale of the car in a different place.
We have the smaller modern stuff here too, although a lot of places are mostly populated with pickups and SUVs, something missing in the last picture.

Thanks for the license plate info too. I don't dig into those like some do, but it may sink in and be useful at some point. It is interesting that yours is different than every one in the latest picture. Here it could be a Vintage plate. It might be a import plate there. The US uses different plates at the state level, so there are lots of variations even without the specialty plates many states have.
Here in Arizona, they have a large selection of specialty plates.
https://azdot.gov/mvd/services/vehicle-services/plates-and-placards/plate-selections-gallery

 

At a different parking lot

 

Ok, friends, I need your help again. I ´ve put about 1000 miles on the new motor, it purred like a kitten until it just stumbled and quit on me at a stop light. At first I thought I just ran out of gas, poured some in, still no start. Spark was there, so I poured some gas through the vent tube, started and idled, but not enough power to drive. I thought a bad fuel pump or clogged in tank filter sock, so I put in an electrical unit and pulled fuel from a canister, limped it home.

I had the Q-Jet apart for 2-3 times to check everything, checke the meh pump and fuel flow,all clean and nice inside, fuel is plenty to the carb running a clear filter. Now the car starts nicely when cold, but starts to miss, stumble and shoot out the exhaust during warm up and after about 4-5 min of the godawful poppin and missing it finally clears up and runs and drives like a sewing machine. I´ve already checked timing and the distributor, everything´s in spec there.
Also worth mentioning is I ´ve been noticing a hissing sound from the drivers side of the carb since my first break down, but I could not identify any vacuum leaks externally or internally, all gaskets are good and spraying brake cleaner doesn´t change anything.

I suppose the problem has something to do with with the choke circuit, since it only does it while warming up...I´m mot familiar enough with Q-Jets to understand what would cause this, maybe you guys can help me out with ideas once again.
Thanks a ton in advance!

Here a short overfew:

Starts perfectly
Stumbles and misses, pops out the exhaust, down on power, undrivable during warm up, wants to die
Clears up and runs perfectly smooth, has power in all ranges after warm up

Scratching my head as we speak, hahaha

 

Are the vacuum choke pull offs all working?

 

Thank you for your idea!In case you´re referring to the little vacuum canister on the passenger side front of the Q-Jet, yes, it pulls back once the car is started, and the choke blade is opening like it should, there is also no binding withing the choke linkage. I also applied vacuum to it and it does hold vacuum.

 

These are interesting symptoms, poor cold performance , running bad , mis-firing , bad drivability then it clears up when hot. This sounds like the vacuum break/choke pull off is not letting the choke open far enough and creating a rich situation. The front one should have a phillips screw to adjust it , I would look at that and it might just need more opening to lean it out when cold. I have no idea what the settings would be , just adjust as needed. lol . Or maybe the choke is set to tight ?

 

If the choke is set to tight it will want to close when you open the throttle and the pull off won't overcome the spring pressure of the choke. This would be with the motor running.

 

You also said it is popping out the exhaust, as a general rule back firing out the exhaust is usually ignition related and looking back through your thread the muffler looks like it has had some back firing going on. More than just a cylinder missing. Just a thought.

 

Good, detailed info on the issue. Since it's only during warmup, that helps narrow the focus.
There are specs for setting the choke and the pull-off or vacuum break. I'd start with those. Consider them to be good starting points, though. It may need a bit more or less choke, or a bit more or less of the pull-off. Both adjustments should be outlined in the rebuild kit instructions. If you don't have those, you can search the web for videos and guides. I haven't watched these, but there are a few that are an hour long. I would hope they cover each adjustment fully.
https://www.ecosia.org/search?method=index&q=rochester+quadraject+rebuild+adjustments

I'd also check each vacuum line by pinching it off during the poor running and once warmed up. This period of the 70s had lots of thermo switches for vacuum. A vacuum gauge is a good tool for diagnosing, too. There are more guides on what to expect on a vacuum gauge online.

 

Thanks for your input. I see I´ll have to study and understand the Q-Jet some more. The sudden appearance of the issue and combined with the hissing noise make me think that there might be an internal vacuum leak but I couldn´t find anything wrong on the carb on 2 tear downs. It´s totally possible the hiss is coming from elsewhere and I´m just looking at carb... All above is great advice and I´ll go after each one step by step. I kinda love troubleshooting ,it´s a good feeling once you find that little thing that´s wrong, but sometimes it´s hard to not pull my little remaining hair out, hahahah

 

Try tracing the hiss with a rubber hose (fuel line or smaller heater hose - whatever you have available). One end goes against your ear.

Be very careful around fan blades and rotating parts...