stromberg carb query overflowin with fuel

Gents.
I have a straight 8 with a stromberg 97 (I believe) and a Facet electric fuel pump. I have just had a new kit put thru the carbi and the guy doing it said the Daytona valve is different to stock needle and seat arrangement and he wondered whether it was gonna work. Well, when I tried to start the car weeks later, petrol came pelting out of the carbi's float housing thing. So I pulled the carbi out and took it down to my brother, who is a mechanic with infinitely more knowledge than I and he thought the floats were hitting against the inside of the carbi housing causing it to flood. He said he thought the Daytona needle was better than the original, just by looking at it. Anyway we put it all back together and sure enough it did the same thing. I started wondering whether it was the little electric fuel pump which was pumping too much fuel in there. I dont know much about the facet pump as I bought it off my brother but he has just told me it runs about 7 psi.
Any suggestions?
Thanks guys.
Peter

 

you need a regulator and drop it down to about a pound and a half of pressure.

 

Hmmm. Thanks for that. Any recommendations as to what might suit? I guess a universal unit with a gauge would be a good start?

 

yup, should be able to use one of those little mr gasket regs from the parts store.

 

pressure should be 2 1/2 PSI max

 

Thanks for that. After a bit of a dig around I think I might go for the Holley 12-804 Fuel Pressure Regulator. Couple it with an adapter and bung a gauge in there and see how we go.

 

ditto on lower fuel pressure, 2 1/2 max., find the lowest pressure that works, make sure your pump can operate at lower pressure w/o fluctuating all over the place.

 

2 1/2 Psi is good, best acheived with an adjustable regulator, not one of the silly little round dial ones .

 

What's wrong with the "silly little round dial" ones? I've been running one for years without an issue.

 

x 2, TR

 

I have run as low as 1 lb with 2 strombergs on a blower ( flathead) those round regulators are usually a piece of ****, I have gone thru 3 to get a good one. Get a good Holley one. They make two kinds , get the low pressure one.

 

ta dudes. The Holley low pressure unit comes without a gauge or port. I guess I'd run an adapter thru for a gauge. Got an eye on the Mr. Gasket 1561 Fuel Pressure Gauge.

 

Guys, sadly, I put all the stuff on the carbi and it still fricken leaks everywhere. Got me thinking now about this (and tell me if I am wrong):
when we put a new kit thru the carbi, my bro in law left out the thick carb base spacer/ insulator, saying it wasn't much chop, but we didnt replace it. Could that be the problem? The only other weiiirrrrd thing he found was the daytona valve unit in the carb kit was different to the original and we are now wondering whether we should stick the old one back in again. Going up to my bros place on sunday to tackle it again...sheesh!

 

no offence here, but strombergs dont run much pressure at all, ,what uve done is run too much pressure through your carb and blown ur gaskets/seals for your carb,my answer is new kit again through ur carb and regulate your fuel pressure to suit ur stromberg,remembering that the mechanical pump is not that high to start with, youve prob near on doubled or tripled your pressures with the electric, also check your carb plates with a straight edge to check for warpage on mounting surfaces of your gaskets, all the best and hopes this works for you
A tub

 

no offence taken It's a valid point. Hope y'r wrong, tho. those kits cost a bomb (its the postage to down under that smarts.)

 

Sounds as though the float might have sunk. Check it for leaks by submerging it in pan full of hot - not boiling - water and look for tiny bubbles. Also, make sure your needle/seat isn't stuck. Then re-adjust the float. I doubt you did any damage to gaskets or seals from too much pressure.

 

Did you check for dirt in the needle and seat? I ruined a rebuilt 396 chasing a flooding Holley carb. I see you rebuilt the carb but if you have rust/dirt in the tank it would immediately screw up your new clean carb.

If it's flooding either the float is set wrong or something is preventing the needle and seat from stopping the fuel from entering the carb when it is supposed to.

1# of pressure will still flood an engine if there is dirt in the seat. Cleaning it may only be a temporary fix if the system has dirt in it to foul it up again. I ended up replacing the gas tank because it was available which solved the recurring problem but I never gave it a thought about all the fuel that had been thinning out my oil in the oil pan. I pulled the bronze factory filter in the carb but the rust didn't show up on the bronze filter so check very carefully. Sometimes it can be hard to detect.

If you find dirt in the seat, I'd pull the tank, clean it out real well, install and additional filter and change your oil.

 

Not sure to what you are referring to as a "Daytona valve". If this is the valve composed of an aluminum plunger, a seat with an inverted flare, and a neopreme wafer encapsulated in a hex aluminum housing, make sure of your float drop setting. We have seen these wafers lodge cross-wise in the seat, and flood profusely. When setting the float drop make absolutely certain the float does not drop sufficiently to allow the wafer to get cross-wise.

As to the cheap dial type regulators: all of the ones we have tested regulate pressure by regulating volume. At full flow (often 20 gallons/hour) the pressure is reasonably close to the dialed value. At idle (very little flow), the pressure is reasonably close to the maximum output pressure of the pump! Possibly there is one out there we have not tested that works; but until I see independent actual test results of pressure at idle that differ from our own tests, I consider them useful if one has a rabbit problem in the garden, and a strong right (or left) arm.

If you question the regulated fuel pressure, simply install a fuel pressure gauge right behind the regulator. Oh, and have the gauge calibrated first. Just because you bought it at new at a parts house doesn't mean it works.

The recommended factory pressure on the Stromberg EE-1 (the "97" is a special case of the EE-1) is 3 psi.

Jon.

 

Yeah, fuel looked okay. I byp***ed the tank and ran it straight from a brand new fuel container. I am still using the old fuel lines, but gave them a good blast through with some hot air (that is, me blowing through the line- I have a lot of hot air).
Fuel filter seems a tad gritty, but nothing scary. When we pulled it apart the other week there didn't seem to be much wrong with it... Trying again tomorrow.

 

All good info, thanks, Jon. Will p*** it on to my carbi building guru (bro).
If the regulator is a dud, I will add it to my growing wok collection. One day I will see a wabbit I can throw all these woks at. Heheh.
The Daytona valve is something that, um. Actually, these guys say it so well
http://www.daytonaparts.com/float.php

 

one other thing i forgot to mention, did u replace jets???, i know someone (not mentioning names) whodidnt and the jets were not spraying correctly, just sort of dribbling out fast like a garden hose if this makes sense, they are meant to spray in a clean manner he put new jets in all fine after that,

btw you can get kits from mike davidson here in adelaide, hell post em to you, check out his site, hes a stand up guy,spe******es in flattys and has everything u want, check out his website flatattack racing.com.au, itl save u $$$ on postage ull get em faster too, i got everything from him jets,full rebuild kits,linkages basically the works, id help ya but hes a 2 hour drive from wwhere i live

 

are ur emulsion tubes straight and not damaged????

 

Is this an original 97?
Check for a pinhole in the float....causing it to sink.....

 

If the float is sinking, but the float in a pan of boiling water and you will find the hole in it. This works great.

 

thanks for the heads up, mate. will do.
Will put up a post tomorrow on what we find.
Thanks guys, owe you all a beer!

 

Did NOT see it mentioned but sometimes you need a thick phenolic spacer under the carbs to reduce the heat from the engine causing boil-over when the engine is turned off. Just a thought.......

Leo

 

X2, bin there got the "T" shirt

 

yeah, it was one of those things we didn't check when we had it apart last time. Will let u know

 

I guess you could call it disappointing...in some ways, but a relief in other ways. We pulled carb top off, checked floats...short answer; they did, so no pin holes. We put it back together and hooked up pump and holy ****ting damn wouldn't you know it ****** worked?
Gonna connect it back up to the car again and theoretically, it should still work. Our only conclusion is that there may have been a bit of crud blocking the fuel, but otherwise everything is working perfectly. We tried it without the regulator and it was fine and we tried it with the gauge. The pump is apparently only throwing out about 4psi, so that's better than I thought. We hooked the regulator up and got it to 2 psi or thereabouts and it was running fine. Next test is to stick it back on the car.
Will advise of the verdict, but really, it's impossible to think that it wouldn't work now...
Thanks guys.

 

Great the only thing that I would warn you about is that there MAY be more of this "crud" in the system so it MAY happen again. It did for me anyway. I'd add an aftermarket in line filter just in case. I bought one of those gl*** inline filters so that I could monitor the fuel. When it kept getting clogged I cleaned the rest of the system and then eliminated the temp filter.