Madmike, You Are A Bad Influence And An Alabama Crazy @$$

95BlueStallion said:

So are you saying that this would be as simple as a bolt in affair with the exception of my drive shaft and that box to tune it? The guy I bought the truck from was talking about his tranny guy and how I can call if I want him to try to source me anything or sell the C6 in the event I do a swap. I am guessing this guy can easily get me the 4R70W and go through it to make it solid, but I would like to do the install myself.

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here you go chief:
http://www.usshift.com/

95BlueStallion said:

So the dang truck wasnt idling all that great in the cooler morning weather, so I decided to do a tune up after work. Slapped in new plugs (previous owner just put on new wires but left the old plugs...), put a new cap and rotor on the dizzy, and then realized the dizzy hold down was loose. I bumped the timing a couple degrees and snugged her down and she idles great, and is way more responsive. That made me want to figure out what carb I have, and go buy a rebuild kit because it has a hesitation when coming off a stop. My local Advanced Auto had the rebuild kit I needed, so once I get that done and having it running to its fullest potential (as far as I am capable of anyway), then I will be chopping the springs and giving it the stance. No pics from tonight's fun, but Im strangely excited to do this carb rebuild. It will be my first one.

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What kind of carb are you rebuilding?

95BlueStallion said:

Holley 600 cfm 4 barrel. I plan to lay out all the new parts, and just take my sweet time. I know NOTHING about carbs, so I am looking forward to learning as I go.

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Go out in the woods,.....deep , deep in the woods.

Find a fallen tree,......a really big, round tree,..one that is at least 2' in diameter.

Climb up on the fallen tree and get up on one leg.

Start hopping.

When you fall off the log,....you'll know how to rebuild a model 1850 Holley 4 bbl.

95BlueStallion said:

Holley 600 cfm 4 barrel. I plan to lay out all the new parts, and just take my sweet time. I know NOTHING about carbs, so I am looking forward to learning as I go.

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You picked the right brand to start with for your first rebuild. It is an easy design to understand, and Holley has published books and books on rebuilding and tuning them. Your public library should have a copy or Amazon.com too if you have a reader or software. Something I used to do before their non stick blue gaskets came out is coat the bowl and plate gaskets with chap stick. The waxy balm helped keep the gaskets from sticking without causing leaks. Also use safety glasses to keep from getting splashed by the cleaner or spray. It burns.

I know this is heresy on this site, but unless it is a crazy camshaft, you should be able to get a Holley 600 (I might go 650 cfm if I was buying new) to run as well as Fuel Injection on a motor like this. It might get lower mileage and will be questionable on a sniffer test and never pass a visual test, but the right tweaking will do wonders. If you were wondering about the visual test, the extra 2 to 4 cylinders will give it away. I have had carbs that were the only thing to start when it was way too dang cold to go outside, and my current carb car fires up quicker than the F.I. vehicles we have.

When you first described your issue, I wondered "Does it have electric choke or a manual/cable choke?" There are two adjustments in this system. One controls how far closed the big choke flap is. That is run by the cable or round electric thing on the passenger side. The other is the high idle adjustment screw and cam. It is adjusted by a screw that you only get to from underneath with the throttle open. Get them balanced right (and get enough gas from the accelerator pump to start with) and it will purr right off the bat and stay at a good high idle speed until the choke gets hot or until you back the cable off.

Speaking of the electric choke coil assembly, MAKE SURE it has a strong 12v wire that is switched with the ignition. But do not use the wire from the ignition coil. Some ignition supply wires have resistors or resistor wire to protect the points. Then the choke coil is sluggish that way and will not get hot at the right time. Then the choke stays on, the secondary side may not open, and you are running rich all the time.

For the rest of the tuning, I would have to know if it is a double pumper or a vacuum secondary, and the Holley books will cover all that until your head spins. They will cover jets and power valves and the air bleeds, most of which should be close for the size of the motor and carb out of the box. But you never know what the last owner did. If you have a Vac. Secondary carb, the quick change kits for the secondary springs are worth EVERY penny. Do it once and you will agree.

THIS IS MY REQUEST FOR RELATED HELP, PLEASE. One other tuning thing I have never run into is a chart of what the colored accelerator pump cam fuel curves actually look like. So if you find a good graph, or a description of what each color is supposed to do, please post and credit where it comes from. On a hill with a full car, it leans out under initial tip in. It is not enough to ever notice with one person in the car. Otherwise, I just have to guess and test. I just want a little more fuel under part throttle when my car is loaded (and the driver is not of course).

You are right about Mad Mike being a bad influence on you, but flushing the tank will not hurt, especially if you are already in the area. He sets a heck of an example of how to do it right.

95BlueStallion said:

So the dang truck wasnt idling all that great in the cooler morning weather, so I decided to do a tune up after work. Slapped in new plugs (previous owner just put on new wires but left the old plugs...), put a new cap and rotor on the dizzy, and then realized the dizzy hold down was loose. I bumped the timing a couple degrees and snugged her down and she idles great, and is way more responsive. That made me want to figure out what carb I have, and go buy a rebuild kit because it has a hesitation when coming off a stop. My local Advanced Auto had the rebuild kit I needed, so once I get that done and having it running to its fullest potential (as far as I am capable of anyway), then I will be chopping the springs and giving it the stance. No pics from tonight's fun, but Im strangely excited to do this carb rebuild. It will be my first one.

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Did you use a timing light to make sure you put the distributor back in the right neighborhood, or did you just do it by ear? I ask because you should set the idle screws after setting the timing. Old school tool time, you will want a vacuum gauge to help make sure the screws are all set, then do the idle speed screw. All that should be in the tuning books. The vac. gauge will be helpful with other tuning issues too. It will not just sit there.

If it stumbles when cold and has a manual choke, 1. Make sure the big flap closes and opens all the way with the cable. It sounds like you did but check again. 2. Make sure the high idle cam moves freely with the throttle open and motor off. 3. Tighten the screw for the high idle cam until it idles high enough while choked cold. Unless there is a vsc leak, it should be that easy. That screw is rarely tight enough out of the box for my taste.

Like the truck. Low, wide wheels, and fender flares will be awesome. My first vehicle was an 84 Ranger. It had a ford probe engine and a 4 speed. A idler pulley broke as I was learning to drive it. Truck over heated and then it was gone. Aaaand that's my story about the ford ranger I had for a week.

DO NOT WELD ON THE OLD TANK. Radiator shops clean them out and then fill them with water. That way there is no oxygen and fumes inside to blow up. And they still are a little Crazy. Why you want to make old parts not smell like gas I do not know. please explain.

7991LXnSHO said:

DO NOT WELD ON THE OLD TANK. Radiator shops clean them out and then fill them with water. That way there is no oxygen and fumes inside to blow up. And they still are a little Crazy. Why you want to make old parts not smell like gas I do not know. please explain.

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I have welded on well over 100 old gas tanks and have never had any trouble what so ever. I wash them out with water followed by a solution of PurplePower and water and weld away. The only one I have ever seen blow up was after a guy cleaned it with brake cleaner (dumbass) and he blew his eyebrows clean off, neat trick if you ask me!

84Ttop said:

I have welded on well over 100 old gas tanks and have never had any trouble what so ever. I wash them out with water followed by a solution of PurplePower and water and weld away. The only one I have ever seen blow up was after a guy cleaned it with brake cleaner (dumbass) and he blew his eyebrows clean off, neat trick if you ask me!

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That makes you an expert or a lucky madman! The radiator places seem to be reluctant to weld them. A foolish bodyman drilled out spot welds from my trunk floor without removing the tank on a GM A body and I had to get some holes fixed or demand a new tank.
Speaking of stupid, I had a classmate who cut the gas tank straps from a demo derby project with a cutting torch. The fumes from the vent went up and so did his low IQ by the the he left the hospital.