Wondering if anyone has had to rebuild their edelbrock (w/electric choke) carburetor after 10-12 thousand miles? I can't lean out mixture,loading up, fouling plugs,etc. Checked float levels, squirted carb cleaner down idle screw port several times.Fuel pump is stock (Chevy 350), so I don't think it's getting too much fuel pressure. Even though carb has 10-12 thousand miles only, they're hot rod miles so car is not driven everyday.I know with today's gas if it sits it goes bad, and I am told this could screw up the carb,but don't know if this warrants a rebuild. Thanks for any info.
Make sure your primary ****erflies are not opened too much at idle. If so you could be drawing from the main feed circuit. Then no matter how much more you open them with the 'idle' screw, you are just allowing to draw more fuel at idle. Other than that, check to make sure the needles are not allowing fuel past the seats, the floats are adjusted properly, and fuel pressure is not more than about 5psi.
My Edelbrock sits for a couple weeks at a time in the winter and once gas pressure is up, engine starts are easy. Got a big cam? If so you may need nothing more than a swap of metering rod springs. Easily done, only two screws involved and both are up top. Far as pressure goes, you need to get a gauge on it and know for sure what you have. 4#-5# is a good range for the Edelbrock/Carter series of carbs.
I've had some problems with the filters inside the carb cloging up with very fine grainy like stuff ,even though I have all new carb,tank,lines,filter before the pump and an Edelbrock filter at the carb. Stuff has to be coming in the gas! Float has stuck a couple of times but not since I installed a regulator set at 4 psi.
I had the same problem with my 1406 Edelbrock. I finally got tired of messing with it and installed a kit in it this weekend. This seems to have corrected the problem as far as I can tell.
I've fixed two Edelbrocks in the last week or two. Both running like ****. Mostly cleaned them and adjusted the floats correctly. Adjusted the accelerator pump on one of them. Easy stuff. I like them. The people that seem to not like them are usually the ones that can't tune or expect them to be perfect right out of the box, to the point of not even checking the screws.
I didn't even think of the step-up/metering rod springs. Very true-if you have low vacuum you may need to change the springs to a softer pair. This will allow the metering rods to stay down and restrict the fuel flow until you get the rpm up a little. There are also different diameter metering rods that you can install to fine tune the carb. I once did a 10 minute rebuild on one of these before going to work. I left the metering rods out (as I usually install them after the carb top is back on) and by time I got to work the plugs were fouling out.
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