I'm trying to get the 2300 Holley that I just put on my truck dialed in correctly. At first (a week ago), it ran ok, although I knew I had some bad vacuum leaks. I've been driving it to work (about a mile in town) while working on getting a kickdown linkage fabbed. During this week, it has slowly developed a problem. At first I thought it was fuel starvation, because it would be fine for a while and then just sputter, then finally I would be able to get it restarted. I messed with the adjustment on the float, but to no avail. Now it has finally gotten to the point that I can't get it to run long enough to go a block w/o keeping the RPM's really high. I've also noticed that when it does die, it sprays enough gas out the top of the carb to resemble Old Faithful. I'm now starting to wonder if I managed to blow my power valve. (This is an older carb w/o such protection.) Do my symptoms fit this problem, and if so, after putting the power valve protection kit in, how can I determine which valve would suit me best. (Before doing this swap I had around 19 inches of vacuum)[/i]

I''l do this:

1) checking the power valvle (good guess!!)
2) checking all the gaskets (especially the one that goes btwn the body and the throttle plate)
3) check for vac leaks with an unlit propane torch, aiming it at diffrent spots on the carb (trhottle shaft, metering block gaskets, body/throttle plate gasket, etc)

replace your needle and seat (cheapo, comes with any near decen rebuild kit)
There's good kitn on ebay @ 20 bux more or less. comes complete with everything you need to freshen up your carb. If you decide to go that way PM me and I'll do my best to help you out.

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Juan Ignacio Caino

Please use e-mail button istead of PM'ing. I do log in sometimes but I'll be answering quicker thru e-mail.

I just rebuilt the carb an replaced the needle and seat. When I say sprays though, I mean like 3-4 feet, straight out of the vent tube. We're talking a lot of gas. There's no way it's pressure from the fuel pump. I'm 99% sure it's the power valve, just checking to make sure that a 6.5" will work for my situation.

If you end up opening it up you might as well replace the float. It might have a small hole in it changing the bouyancy of it. I've had them develop a hole in them and the float was ok in warm/hot weather but when the weather cooled off the air in the float would contract and eventually the float would fill up with enough gas to sink.

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Former bent 6 owner
Mark

ain't sound like nothing to do with power valvle. the function of that valvle is to provide extra gas when HG is low. That's why they're rated. 6.5 hg souns fine for and eingine idling below 20... Altough I have to say that if you increase the rate in your power valvle you can get better mileage, by means of reducing both main fuel jets. I use larger main jets and low hg rate power valvle (6.5 being the higer I wanna see) but as steponmeboom said, why using power valvle at all... well, my car sees lot'sa throttle )

The issue you have seems to be coming from fuel level. The float is a clever guess... an intermitent porosity that may cause it to sink, so what you're seeing is actual fuel pump pressure... or maybe the needle and seat assy that you installed was faulty from the beginning so you're seeing actual fuel pump pressure too (all that gas sputtering)

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Juan Ignacio Caino

Please use e-mail button istead of PM'ing. I do log in sometimes but I'll be answering quicker thru e-mail.

I guess I should clarify, the spray doesn't happen until the engine dies and sputters and has a little bit of a backfire. I believe it's this backfire that's causing the spray. It's not an all the time thing, and there is plenty of gas in the bowl when it happens. (I've removed the sight plug to check).

Thanks for the info about power valve selection though... I'll keep that in mind as I try to get it dialed in. Speaking of main jets, I believe mine are 522's. From what I seem to read, these should atleast serve to get me going, right?

do this: insert 2 brass thread (from any regular wire) into each idle circuit air bleed (the "large" hole that is located on top of each throat next to the venturis "foot" (the shaft that goes into the body) be sure to get extra lenght so you can get it in and out easily.

If that solves it, your idle air bleed might beed to be replaced (don't worry, easy job)

gimme your timing specs and curve if you know it

some previous story might help us to get you going (if you had this carb before, and it worked right)

talk to you soon
Juan

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Juan Ignacio Caino

Please use e-mail button istead of PM'ing. I do log in sometimes but I'll be answering quicker thru e-mail.

Sorry for the long post, but I'd like to be thorough here:

My truck (82 dodge ram, miser package equipped) came to me from a previous owner and had been used and abused. It had a Spark Control Computer and one barrel carb on a welded aluminum intake. Previously, I replaced the SCC with standard electronic ignition which ran very well. I've been wanting to do the swap to the two barrel, and amassed the parts from various places. The manifolds came locally from a guy I found in Mopar Collectors Guide, and the carb is a 2300 family Holley that I bought off of Ebay. (as far as I know, it originally came off a Ford truck of unkown displacement) Imediatly after recieving it, I rebuilt the carb with a Borg Warner rebuild kit.

Before beginning the "upgrade process" I had around 19 inches of vacuum, with about a 1" oscillation because I know my head has seen better days. My timing is set around 19* (I think... I know it was 3* further than what is specified by the factory, and ran w/o pinging) I have to admit, I'm not sure what my curve is. The carb was a rebuilt 1945 from Advance Auto that had numerous problems from the day I took it out of the store. My goal was to give the truck a little more "pep" for the two-lane ozark roads I travel on my way back and forth from school. (From near KCMO to University of Missour-Rolla)

Imediately after tearing into it, I found my #3 exhaust runner had cracked off some time ago, and I also had cracks forming around the base of the exhaust pipe flange where it bolted to the manifold. (I'm pretty sure this is the result of a mechanic cutting of the exhaust mount closest to the manifold because I "didn't need it.")

I got the new manifolds on, but I'll admit it was very half-arsed. I intended to use silicone on the ports because I new the manifold surfaces weren't perfect. (a few small pits... not bad, but I didn't think it could hurt.) Unfortunately, between applying the silicone and actually getting it bolted up, a couple hours passed as I scrambled around trying to find the triangle washer that had mysteriously disappeared. I had vacuum leaks in numerous places, so that I now had about 9" of vacuum. I figured I'd go ahead and drive it to work though, because it beat walking, and I figured I'd pull the manifolds off put everything back together properly the next off day I had.

It drove okay at first, although I couldn't really step on it because I didn't have the kickdown linkage figured out yet. As I said previously, it developed a problem that I at first thought was fuel starvation... it would sputter and die, then restart, sputter, etc. The problem didn't really happen until I had driven it for a few minutes though, and I couldn't recreate it at idle in my driveway. Unfortunately it started happening more often, and now, it is essentially un-drivable. Fortunately work's only a 10 minute walk away.

It wasn't until I gave up on driving it and was playing with it in my driveway that I noticed it sprayed gas as it died. I really don't see any way that it could get enough pressure to spray like it does from the pump... I contend it has to be backfiring through the intake and blowing through the p-valve passage. Even if that's not my problem, I'm tearing down it down to install the p-valve protection kit before I start troubleshooting again.

Tomorrow I'm tearing the intakes off again, using new gaskets on everything, and trying again. I intend to use silicone again, but it is different stuff with a little longer set time, and I am also confident that I can put it together much faster this time. As soon as I get everything back together (and I no longer have hellacious vacuum leaks), I will try the wire thing if I'm still having trouble.

Sadly, if I can't get this fixed w/in the next few weeks, I may have to give up on it... I go back to school the 17th of August, and that's 3-1/2 hours away. I'm only home for the summer, and I'm really not too sure if my parents will be too happy about having my non-running truck sitting in their driveway. (or how I'm going to get me and all my crap back to school) Worst case scenario though, I could go back to the craptastic 1 barrel that I am trying to replace.

Post back with thoughts please. I'll check the board before I tear into it in the morning, to see what advice you guys have. Thanks in advance, you guys are a great asset.

well, nw that's late down here (4 am plus) and I'm restless, maybe we can get something solved up

do what follows

a) reassemble all your intake/exhaust manifolds carefully and let it set. Don't ve too vicious un the torque of that nuts since overtightening may cause warping. All stuff must be dead cold (let it sit on the floor starting the night before)
b) install your PV protector then get another needle/seat assy just for being 100% sure
c) do you replaced the throttle body with a chrysler correct one with PCV fitting? if not, you can either replace it or drill a hole in the right place and tap it and install a fitting for that PCV hose
d) dry folat level cheching: inverting your bowl assy, with needle and seat tightened, you should have something btwn 5/16 and 3/8 clearance between the float upper edge (now downwards) and the bowl cover inner wall (as you see, 2300 ain't too picky with float level. As long as is somewhere close your inspection bolt (not sputtering outta that hole...) is fine and dandy.
e) kickdown: I'd recommend a lokar cable. If that's too high $ for you, you can drive it shifting and downshifting it manually (the downshift part being the most important) and have the tranny shifting long, extended those gears. You wanna feel a kick not a silky shifting trans (that's when you screw your trans up, when it shifts silky and the engine pulls good with low line pressure
f) if stills ain't idles, do what I explained before.
G) remember that some fords (oh my, I'll have to wash my tongue) had inverted idling mixture screws, so maybe you're starving the thing to dead and that's why the backfiring...

hope to be anf ANY help.

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Juan Ignacio Caino

Please use e-mail button istead of PM'ing. I do log in sometimes but I'll be answering quicker thru e-mail.

How do you know if the power valve is blown? Can you tell just by looking at it? Or is there some test you can do?

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Jay

blown power valvle can be detected by huge rasie in fuel consumption over normal driving conditions, gas sputtering of a li'l vacuum port on carb's base (you have to get it out) or if you remove the bowl and metering block (on a holley 2300) the damage will be clearly visible most of the time to the naked eye.

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Juan Ignacio Caino

Please use e-mail button istead of PM'ing. I do log in sometimes but I'll be answering quicker thru e-mail.

I didn't feel like drilling and tapping on my carb, so I came up w/ an idea that I like a little bit more:

I made an EGR block off plate out of some aluminum I had laying around, and drilled and tapped the intake side for 1/8" pipe threads. While not a lokar, I think I managed to make a fairly good system:

It's kinda pieced together, and still needs to be secured in the middle so that it's not flopping around, but I think it should work well.

Ugh... it's all back together, and having pretty much the same problem. It will run great at really high RPM's, but as soon as I drop it even a tad, it dies on me, and even if I stab the throttle as it's dying it won't "come back." The fuel spraying out the top seems to be fixed by the PV protection kit, but niether it, the new float needle/seat, nor the "put some wires in the air bleed" trick have made it driveable again. I know that I have the reverse idle adjustment, but the adjustment was not changed from when this problem developed. (When first installed, it seemed to run pretty good.)

As a last ditch check, I ran a compression test and found between 120-130 across the board. (I was expecting 90... looks like the screw in type gauge is a lot better than the press in.) I checked for vacuum leaks again, and while I think I have a very slight one around the 3 & 4 leg, I didn't really find anything terribly attrocious. I didn't get a good chance to check around the carb, because I don't want to sit at such high RPM's any longer than absolutely necessary. Any suggestions from anyone? I'm kinda lost at this point. The only other thing I can think of to try is replacing cork seals around the idle adjustment screws. Well, that, and I wonder a little bit about my timing... 19* seems to be a little farther than what I remember most people here running, but it was great w/ my 1 barrel.

Looks like you have also found vacuum leaks on the manifold, take it apart and have it planed flat as a unit (intake & exhaust) with set of new gaskets, fix all broken off studs. Mine had broken off stud for exhaust.

No matter how small, when you close or snap throttle closed, strong vacuum develops and leans the leaky runners out and engine dies.

I had so many issues with my 1987 2.2 in caravan too because of this manifold leaking at the head-manifold joints. Mine was warped and gasket reused and split at runner #4. The timing was way out in the space, carb messed up to run rich etc. Giveaway was uneven burn in the spark plug readings, all 3 was ok but too brown, one was really sooty so cylinders were getting ok mix but one cyl was way out rich.

Now purring like new 2.2L with carefully rebuilt 5220 carb from many carbs. No bogs or holes, will power through all kinds of throttle responses.

Cheers, Wizard

well, hate to be carrying bad thoughts, but if everything's as was before, maybe your timing chain jumped on you. It may all fit in with your 19 btdc initial setting (maybe that's what youre reading cuz the damper mark is off...) and the later backfiring.

so remove your valvle cover, rotate the engine CW till mark on the damper is on TDC (zero) At this point the engine should be either at TDC #1 or #6. Either way, the cylinder in TDC must have both valvles closed (you can rotate pushrods with your bare fingers, no resistance at all) and the other one must have intake rocker near the apex of its travel. If ain't so, your timing chain has jumped.

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Juan Ignacio Caino

Please use e-mail button istead of PM'ing. I do log in sometimes but I'll be answering quicker thru e-mail.