I guess this is the thread that wouldn't die.

I have tried two new Summit VS 600 cfm carbs. Both, when the engine is off, and I'm playing with the return spring, working the throttle, so the acc. pump is shooting fuel, leak fuel out the throttle shaft. There is discoloration on the intake where it has been leaking. So, I'm back to the QJ.

I am also going to C intake, I believe. Interesting, I am going from a $260 new carb to a $10 one from the Swap Meet, that I rebushed and rebuilt.

I will say that the QJ is a lot of work to rebuild, rebushing the shaft, honing the acc. pump housing with a small brake wheel cylinder hone, measuring all the orifices with micro bits and dial calipers, drilling/changing air bleeds, r&r idle tubes, etc.

I'm using Cliff Ruggles' recipe for a sbc. If this doesn't work perfectly, after tuning, I'm going Holley.

 

I sort of have trouble expressing myself, so I'll try to say this straight out: I want to lay my three QJs side by side and beat them to tin foil with a sledge hammer!

I just bid on a NOS Holley 1848.

 

I'm sorry that all the time, effort, and work you've put into them hasn't gotten you to where you want to be. I feel your pain. It's frustrating.

If that 1848 works out, it'll of course take a few tweaks itself, but I hope it treats you right.

 

Thank you, AB. I'm perplexed and frustrated.

I wanted to share a couple of mechanical blunders: So, after ranting about the QJ, I went to the garage and looked it over, and noticed a vacuum hose nozzle left uncovered! The problem I ran into, which instigated the rant, was I couldn't get my newly rebuilt QJ to idle down from 1200 rpm. I had left one of the caps off to put the vacuum gauge on for tuning, and then in the rush I just uncapped a nozzle beside it and used that. The first nozzle was hidden beneath the fuel inlet and lines, in a really tight spot with the v. cover blocking sight. Unbelievable.

Before I found the open v. port, I was looking at the idle restrictions, thinking I had opened them too much and that was why it was idling fast. I thought I'd have to remove and install smaller ones, and was dreading it, and then I remembered AbandonedBronco's 'hillbilly' trick with wire, where rather than change a jet or restriction, you simply insert a piece of wire into it. I took very fine copper wire and carefully bent it, with two strands inside the jet, and the top bent over to hold it. When I set it in place it dropped through the restriction and down inside the carb and disappeared.

I think that was when the urge to smash the carb to tin foil came to me.