Thanks to everybody for the welcom back. So when I bought the Buick, the previous owner tells me that the fuel line gets clogged every 5 miles or so, and that he has to clean out the filter, then it's fine. I found out real quick he wasn't lying. Long story short, tore apart the carb and the thing was filthier than my ex-wife. The accel pump was shot, and the primary venturies were loose and rattling around. There was a ton of rust and dirt in the car, and it looks like it even started pitting in some areas. It's a fairly new Edelbrock Performer 600. I'm thinking it's going to require more than a carb cleaner dip. Any thoughts. I'll try to get some better pics of the Buick soon.
I have to resurface my gas tank because its rustier than hell. That may help you with the sediment issues in the gas and the problems with the carb. It sounds painfully familiar to my own adventure. Great Buick, man. I'm a big fan. That is a KILLER project you've got.
Awesome Buick! That's a killer project. And a BIG project. I'm currently working on a '54 Roadmaster. I need to resurface my gas tank, because I was having a lot of the same problems. If you have rust and sediment in your filter and your carb is ****ty, this may be a good step. I don't know anyone in Fresno, but there is a shop in the OC that does a fantastic job. It's called Matson's Radiator.
I have a 55 Special with a 264 that I put a 4 bbl manifold on from a 322. I then collected about 3 carter WCFB's and came up with some rebuild kits and made a really nice WCFB from all of this. It ran like **** and I finally realized that today's gas is so much different from that of 1955 that I really needed to completely rejet the WCFB to get rid of the stumbles and burning rich problems ect. So after wasting all that time and money I put a Edlebrock Performer 500 on it. I made my own adaptor but you can buy them from Exeter Auto Supply (Dan Marvin) for about $50. It ran great right out of the box. I think that the original WCFB was about 350 CFM so the 500 is bigger, but really, it could use more and now I wish I would have put a 600 on the 264. A 322 might be happy with a 750. I don't think you can overcarburate a Nailhead. The nice thing about the Edelbrocks is that you can buy a complete jet kit for about $35 so if you have any tuning issues it isn't too hard to experiment and take care of it. Try finding a complete jet kit for a WCFB, and if you could, what would it cost? You need to get your tank cleaned out and sealed. Check around your local radiator shops, some can boil them and seal it for you. The guys in the motorcycle world use a "Kreme Kit" and it would probably take two of those to do a car gas tank. Some people use a mol***es and water mixture to get the rust out of their tank, you have to let it sit for awhile and bees and wasps like it but it seems to work. I've seen logs for nailheads where you can mount up to 6 single carbs. I know everyone wants to go this route but I've never seen anyone actually drive the car and get it in tune so it actually runs right. I think 4 of the carbs are dummies on the ones that do. My car runs great and has no runnability problems, I drive it often. Tomo
Just dropped the tank tonight and emptied it out. Don't think gas is supposed to be red, but that's what came out. Thanks for all the great advise. We don't have a shortage of radiator shops in Fresno, so the tank is gonna get done right. After looking at the carb some more, it's gettin the acid dip treatment. The stuff that I can see in the carb is bad, it's the stuff that I can't see that worries me though.
I had the exact same problem with my '55 Special about 9-years ago. I couldn't go around the block without it stalling out due to gas filter plugging up. I drained & removed the tank and it was full of a fine, grannular rusty sediment. I bought a kit, cleaned it out and re-sealed it. Haven't had a bit of problem since.
I had to pull a tank out of a car and once I got the pickup unit removed, the nastiest looking red sludge pour out of it. I dropped some on the ground. A whole year later, the smell of that old gas was still in the air at the spot where some of that sludge dropped on the ground. Don't forget the pick up ***embly. Toss the sock if it has one. If you are getting the tank boiled out, you could probably leav it off. My pickup tube was plugged solid. I had to soak the pick up tube in lacquer thinner for a few days before I could force a welding rod through it. Even then I had to twist, jamb, remove the stick for a while before I finally made it through. It helped when I cut some teeth in the end of the rod with a file to help drill through. Might as well replace the float too. They are cheap and most all makes of cars used virtually the same float. Replace ALL rubber lines and connectors along the way since they can break down internally and flake. Have a good filter before and after your fuel pump. You might also consider replacing the fuel pump as it could be breaking down internally too or at least trapping some of the debris and slowly releasing it to the carb. I chased this problem on 2 cars and these steps eliminated the problem.
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