Thank you Mike McCormick - carb guru

[Kelly Thomas]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all the posts and suggestions regarding my dead (2 + cylinders. I threw a few dollars at it with no luck. I'd pretty much gone through everything I could think of in the ignition and valve train side and even took the car (limping) to a small local shop. I was at the point of getting 5 gallons of gas and a match, if you know what I mean. Anyway, it's after 1:00am and I've swapped some emails and a 1 phone with Mike McCormick about the fuel system. He explained what areas he'd be concerned with in the carb and what exactly to look for ( in a nutshell).

I pulled the top of the carb off and pulled the venturi's (I think that's the name of the round section in the front center) apart still sitting on the engine, cleaned thoroughly with carb cleaner. Buttoned it all up and WOW! Much better idle, pulled # 2 plug wire off the distr and got a rpm drop - which I didn't have before this. I think a little more cleaning with a $3 can of carb cleaner it'll all be worked out. Thanks to some great info from Mike and all you folks I saved $359 on a new carb I almost bought today.

I also want to give a special THANKS to Kelly Burnside for recommending this forum. The response has been great and saved me a lot of cash. By the way, the guy at the shop I took it to today said "I'm confident it's a internal intake leak because you used silicone sealant on the intake gasket". Maybe legit, but it cost me $10 for a BS diagnosis.

One more thing, Mike, like I said, if you ever make it to my part of the midwest give me a call - I owe you the best steak dinner in town and all the brew you can handle.

Good night and thanks again,
Kelly Thomas (Soon to be a official member of NCRS)

[Chuck R.]

Re: Excellent Kelly

I'm glad you were finally able to get your hands around the issue.

Anyone who owns a Vette would be remiss to not join this great organization.

Working on these cars requires more than just reading up on tech. books.

Practical hands on experiemces is just as critical (if not more in my estimation).

Again, welcome Kelly,

Chuck

[Paul L.]

Re: Thank you Mike McCormick - carb guru

There are lot of very helpful people here! Glad you got matters sorted out.

I've been having a similar problem recently with my 1967. Fouled plugs, etc. Someone suggested it was a bad Holley power valve. An inexpensive solution. No problem...I installed a new one. But the car was running worse. And I blew the new power valve! I had visions of a carb rebuild, a new Holley, and five gallons of gas as well. I slept on it overnight and bought another power valve. New NGK B4s as well. So let's try this again step-by-step before the matches come out. Or I start throwing serious dollars at the problem at a shop.

Opened up the carb again and installed the valve. I was just about to put the pieces back together when by pure chance I saw something in a primary metering jet. It was a tiny strand of old gasket material stuck in the orifice (see pic). That would explain the lean/backfiring condition. I put the carb back together, installed the spark plugs and voila! Purrrrrrrrr. Do you know how difficult it is to kick your own backend?