With all the talk about the poor quality of rebuilt parts store carburetors, I thought I would take a survey of different car forums to see how different rebuilds compare in quality. I want to hear your experiences with rebuilt carbs. If you want to participate, please answer the following questions for each rebuilt carb you have owned.

1. What model of carburetor?
2. What engine and car was it on?
3. Who rebuilt it - yourself, a friend, a professional carb specialist, or bought one from a chain parts store like Autozone, etc?
4. How well did it work after rebuilding?

Here are my examples:

Carb no. 1

Holley 1920
225 slant six on my '66 Dart
Rebuilt it at home with a kit from NAPA
Worked just fine.

Carb no. 2

Carter BBD
Same engine and car as above
Bought a parts store carb off Ebay
Never could get it to accelerate smoothly - it would always bog and surge when I hit the gas

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

Carter BBD
225 slant six on my '65 Valaint
NAPA rebuild/Autoline
Worked just fine.

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Yeah....Im the one who destroyed this rare, vintage automobile.....

I filled a 40-gallon trash barrel with carburetors when I moved away from Denver. Had no choice but to get rid of them. Just to give you an idea of the number of carbs that have passed through my (capable? culpable?) hands.

Most of the "remanufactured" carburetors, Carter BBS, Holley 1920, Carter BBD, sooner or not-much-later developed operational problems ranging from the annoying (persistent rough idle or other driveability problems) to the expensive (persistent extreme fuel consumption) to the dangerous and grossly inconvenient (sudden catastrophic leakage and/or failure to carburete, many many miles from home).

Upon disassembling some of these "remanufactured" carburetors, I've seen some hair-raisingly extreme things. BBS step-up rods made out of crudely-bent, single-diameter, way-too-small wire (looked like staple wire as used in automatic staplers on office copy machines). Floats grossly bent. Severely pitted, pocked and corroded castings (with zinc oxide corrosion powder clogging internal passages) due to heavy-duty sandblasting being used; no anticorrosion coating applied as was done when the carbs were newly made), etc.

Most of the carburetors that had been rebuilt, either by myself or by another individual, and which had not previously been "remanufactured",, mostly worked OK most of the time. Occasionally one would develop a problem; very occasionally such problems couldn't readily be fixed by reworking the carb and so it was swapped out.

One NOS (brand new, never previously installed) Holley 1920 developed sudden suspiciously excellent cold-engine driveability combined with staggeringly high fuel consumption (9.8mpg). The power valve retainer ring had come unstaked from the metering block, permitting fuller-than-full flow at all times.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

When I bought my car, it had a remanufactured Holley one-barrel. POS!!! The throttle shaft was very loose, and gas leaked out of the carb in at least 3 spots.

I picked up a Carter BBS from a junkyard for 20 bucks, rebuilt it myself. I just got the car back from the exhaust shop yesterday, had them check the idle speed and the fuel mixture, and the thing runs beautifully. The best part, no more gas leaking all over the intake manifold.

I am with SSDan on this issue, I have a "few boxes" full of carb cores and grab the rebuild "kits" any time I see them. (cheap or free)

When I need a carb, I pick a few cores out of the box and dis-assemble one, once inside you can spot a unit that has a "high risk" of not working or is just plain junk, those carbs get stripped of useable parts and scrapped.

Once I get a core rebuilt, I install it onto one of my cars for test and adjustment. (this also applies to carbs I rebuild for others, I road test them)
Most of the time, a carb I have 'gone through' will work fine, with only needing minor adjusting. The lowest "success percentage" I have is with the Holley 1920's because of their sealed metering block design.

I stay away from Auto Part store rebuilds, most are more trouble then they are worth. (especially for the prices you sometimes see quoted)

A word to the wise, if you do get a rebuilt carb from any source, always keep your current carb, don't turn it in as a "core" until you are sure you have a replacement unit that works well.
DD

Hate to revive a dead thread but I thought that I would chime in on this.

Carb No.1- Holley 1945 that I got from Advance Auto (before I knew better). Put it on my 82 D150 and has worked perfect. Adjusted the float level once and that is it.

Carb No.2 -Holley 1945 that came from NAPA (my dad's idea) and was installed on my 74 Duster. Worked fine for about 2 weeks then suddenly started stalling and drinking gas. Took it back for another one since it was still under warranty.

Carb No.3- Holley 1945 installed on my Duster to remedy carb No.2. Worked for about two days but suddenly started to flood uncontrollably. Took it back to NAPA and got a refund.

Carb No.4- Holley 1945 that I got from a junkyard to replace carbs 2 and 3. Neighbor helped me rebuild it and it I ran for three years until the throttle shafts wore out and I went to a 2-barrel.

Carb No.5- Supersix BBD that I rebuilt myself and is still going strong.

Carb No.6- Current project. Remanufactured Rochester Quadrajet (you know how picky these things are) that was installed by my grandfather on his 85 Silverado (305) several years before I got it to replace the worn out factory original. Gets horrible gas mileage, air door calibration has been royally screwed up so it is a Quadrabog, and likes to flood if you look at it the wrong way. I am just going to replace it with a Edelbrock.

Then there is that weeping bastard that is on my best friends 73 Nova. The wonderful Rochester Monojet. We hope to replace it with a better type of carb. Hopefully a kit will fix the leakage problem.

My two cents worth .

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82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

Bet it's the float................

Had terrible flood out problems with a Quadrajet on a 73 Grand Prix. Eventually replaced it with a Holley SpreadBore.....

Anyway, several years later (ok, probably a decade), I come across the carb and decide to test the float......

I weighed the float dry, then let it soak in gasoline overnight. The float was considerably heavier....... (BTW, I always thought it was the float, but could never find one)

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Holley 1920 carburetor. Autoline rebuild exchange carburetor.

Dog$#!+, dog$#!+, dog$#!+. Had to fatten the main metering jet to a #65 to get an acceptable mixture, and les than 10,000 miles later the metering block is toast and it is running so lean the engine wont idle under 2000RPM.

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I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.

Carb #1
Stock Holley 1945. Tried rebuilding, but between inexperience and throttle shaft wear, things didn't work. Swapped it out for a rebuilt unit from Advance Auto. (See carb #2)

Carb #2
Remanufactured Holley 1945 from Advance Auto. Worked acceptably for about 8 months before the accelerator pump linkage snapped off and cause the throttle to wedge fully open as I was going around a curve rated for 20 mph. (Lots 'o fun) Exchanged on warranty for another reman carb from advance. (See carb #3)

Carb #3
Upon receipt, float bowl screws were very loose, and causing all sorts of linkage problems. Tightened screws and installed. Ran, but not great. Was informed that dissasembling would void warrenty (screw head is covered w/ paint so you have to scrape it out to get a screwdriver on it), so decided it was good enough and ran it. After warrenty expired, dissasembled and discovered power valve needle and retaining assembly laying in bottom of bowl w/ stripped threads. JB welded it and ran until upgrading to two barrel.

Carb #4
Holley 2300 derivative with reverse idle screws from a '76 Ford 2.8 L off of eBay. Rebuilt with a Borg Warner kit, had internal vacuum leak. Bought Holley rebuild kit, and it worked as it was intended to function.

Carb #5
Another Holley 2300 w/ reverse idle screws purchased for $5 this weekend. After examining #4 (see previous post), it appears easy enough to rebuild and convert to standard operation. Results pending.[/url]

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Used to own:
'82 Dodge D150
Erson 270 Cam, O/S valves, mild port work, ~9.5:1 compression

Currently fighting with an '85 VW Cabriolet

My other passion

So far 2 Holley 1920's: one economaster, one OEM 1967 both used Borg Warner rebuild kits, both will be come spare parts carbs as the economaster has a dead idle circuit, the other no longer meters the gas correctly, both had a 2 day soak in clean solvent.

3 Holley 1945's rebuilt using Borg Warner kits, one no longer seals at the top of the bowl, the other had a few things "fall apart" while reassembly (now a spare parts pile). The third one I haven't run yet...

4 Carter BBD's (actually a 5th one is now "junk" as the bowl won't seal and the throttle shaft leaks bad enough you can measure it with the edge of a feeler gauge...), Today I grabbed one I rebuilt using an Echlin kit 4 years back and had used on the original incarnation of the Hpak Duster, and used it on the "road oiler" duster, and now it's running pretty well on SwingLo73's Dart....3 left to go...(time to super six the Beater Valiant iguess).

2 Holley 8007's and one 80457, using OEM Holley rebuild kit (37-119?), along with the quick change spring pod, and secondary metering block, both worked fine although I think the original one used one I first put on the Hpak really needed a throttle shaft rebushing...


(Various other carbs including a Carter BBD for a 383 using an Echlin kit back in 1996, ran fine for a few demo derby heats, Holley 2245- ran OK with a generic kit from Knecht's, etc...)


-D.Idiot

Got my current 1920 from Autozone also. The only thing better than my old one was the throttle shaft was tighter. That is literaly it. When I put it on to get a base of what needed to be adjusted, I found that the metering block was toast, the gasket for the economiser was torn, the jet was a #52, the accelorator pump shaft rod was in the wrong hole, the float was adjusted to low and the float bowl cover was warped causing fuel to leak out in a constant drip. Fixed all that with a new rebuild kit, a #58 jet, float bowl cover with proper baffel and spring under the float and now its reliable as the sun rising in the east with over 10K miles under its belt. Rebuild a rebuild. Nice.

I've rebuilt several dozen that included most brands and all types, including farm equipment. I'm not a carb expert by any stretch, but my work has proved to be far better the ones I've purchased from rebuilders. I've never rebuilt one that needed more than a few tweaks afterwards, but have bought several from the parts stores that were basket cases, so now I avoid them like the plague.

I much prefer Carters, tolerate most Holleys and despise most Rochesters, but they all seem to have their good and bad points.

Is it possible to re-coat anticorrosion yourself? Or is it too chemically involved?

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The Old Goat '83 D150 225-2

AKA Ice Titan

I got a super six intake manifold, BBD, and linkages from a junk yard 77 Volare station wagon for my 73 Swinger. I sent my carb to Savas Tuning http://www.savastuning.com/ (Portland, OR) for a rebuild. After he received the carb (which was in pretty bad shape) he identified the carb as a parts store rebuild. He said it had mismatched and MISSING springs, mismatched metering rods, jets, ect. He had to use a couple of different cores to get all the parts right.

He did a great job on the rebuild and I would recommend him to anyone. (he also rebushed it).

Also, he sent me one of the "good" shiny base gaskets with the rebuild.

I'd been wondering just why a backyard hack with no previous experience at rebuilding carbs seems to, on average, do a better job than the companies that do rebuilds for parts stores day in and day out. I think I've finally got the answer.

Because a backyard mechanic has a much less likely chance at accidentally putting one carb together from parts meant to be in three different carbs.

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair