I was asked to weigh in on this thread by you and Chris. I used to own a carburetor shop and we were a Holley warranty center. First item, Dave touched on it, I think you found some of it the hard way. Holley float levels, if you are raising the level, generally you have no problem getting it correct. Lowering it, the needle and seat assembly will push the float down slightly, giving you an artificially high indication. On the primary side you can open the throttle a bit and use it up, on the secondary side, I used to put a rag under the carb bowl and loosen one on the lower screws a little so some of the gas would drip out.

Gaskets, your assumption on the primary metering block gasket was correct, the notched one is used with and accelerator pump transfer tube. Secondary, does that carb have a metering block or metering body? The block will look like the front, the body is a smaller unit that fits entirely inside the float bowl. This needs to be checked to make sure it is flat. Proper assembly is metering body, thin gasket, metal plate, thick gasket onto main body. Mounting gasket, the gasket needs to completely seal the throttle body to manifold surface including any passages. Throttle body to main body (big source of problems sometimes) needs to be no larger than the throttle bores, too big and air leaks into the idle circuits.

Accelerator pump, pump linkage needs to immediately move the pump lever as soon as the throttle is moved, NO CLEARANCE!! The .015 clearance Holley specifies is between the pump lever and adjusting screw at wide open throttle with the pump lever held all the way down. If there is any gap, it will stumble as you describe.

Vacuum advance. sounds like it is hosed, hook a length of hose to it and try to suck on it with the cap off the distributor, the pickup coil should move, if it doesn't try pushing it in the clockwise direction. If it is stuck, you will need to free it up. If it won't move and you can't get a vacuum to hold on the hose, the vacuum advance is shot.

BTW, don't get me mad or I will send my granddaughter down to teach you how to fix it.

 

No SIR!!!! I wont yell at anyone who is trying to help me. Sorry for the late reply been rubbing my 81 up. Praying to the FTE Gods... Anyways No I try to listen to everyone all at one time, and try anything offered as long as it sounds right. NOW I am working on antique vehicles... and willing to get antique tools to make it right. I am working on grandpas truck and he wants to work on it like he used to.... So since he is leaving for the beach for 3 days... ALL INFORMATION IS WELCOME WHILE I STILL GOT TIME!!!! so. Tomorrow I will check the timing if possible. if someone could send me a link to doing this, I would be very grateful.

 

OH.... MY..... GOD..... I dont know who you are or how you found me but this has a lot of information! So to answer your questions. Great idea for the rag under the secondary side to drain it out so you can check the level. What I have done is put a screw in the vacuum advance control valve so I can manually open the secondaries at the same time as the primaries **** ONLY DURING TESTING****** So that way I can drain the secondary bowl to test the level. Now this has a metering block on the primary side, as far as the secondary side it has a metering body inside the bowl. As far as the accelerator pump clearance, I got .015" clearance on the diaphragm at WOT and a .031" shooter nozzle. As far as the vacuum advance information, that is new to me so I will check on that this afternoon when I get a chance. I had an assumption that when I hooked the vacuum advance to full manifold vacuum, and it didnt change anything with the running condition of the truck, then I assumed that the vacuum advance needs servicing but we all know about assuming..... I greatly appreciate all the info, and hope you will continue to float around to this thread again.

 

Ok, one item, the screw on the secondaries will cause a huge bog. Not a good idea, if you want mechanical secondaries, either get an Edelbrock (formerly Carter AFB) or a Holley double pumper.

As to who I am, I used to own a carburetor shop in Newport News VA and as Chris and a few others may tell you, have probably forgotten more about a carburetor than most people know.

 

FANTASTIC. I know where newport news is. I used to work for Northrop Grumman Ship Building. As far as the screw on the secondaries. I understand that if I manually open them up before they are supposed to, there will be too much gas. I just use it for tuning purposes myself. Manually open the secondaries to drain the fuel out so I can check the float levels.

 

Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, that means you were there before 1 April 2011. I retired from NNS in Nov 2011.

I used to get so mad at idiots who put screws in the secondary link because they didn't understand how a Holley worked. Properly set up, they will always open at exactly the right time.

Here is a picture of the 1966 Shelby I used to own, there are 2 Holley 465 cfm 4 barrels under that air filter.

 

I think somewhere in a previous post he said he had a 1850-3 Holley.

He keeps talking about this big hick-up and bog he has when he hits the gas. If his accelerator pump has two nice big shots of fuel(like was said, instantly when the throttle is opened) he must have some other problem. He definitely needs to take that screw out of the linkage before any test drives.

He does need a timing light.

I pulled the heat riser thing out of the air because I have actually block them myself and had the exact same results, and I wonder how they installed that intake.

I thought about a warped main body on the carb, but that usually causes weird tip-in problems, not a huge bog like he has. And in my experience, the warped body problem shows up about a month after a new gasket is installed, not right away.

 

Well please dont consider me an idiot, this is my grandfather's truck and I am new to holley (I usually work with mikuni's which are japanese crotch rocket carbs) anyways. I found it with that bolt in there, and asked what it was for, and he said to manually open all 4 bbl if he wanted it to. I know I have read enough about the secondaries for this vacuum secondary system, that it will open up when it is perfect. I just use the screw to manually open the secondaries up while I adjusted the float level for the secondaries...... and yes. I left in 2008 but I also worked in the Louisiana location. But I found the Newport News on Google Maps.... a lot nicer than the location in Louisiana too.... anyways I am off to make some adjustments on the truck! wish me luck. OH and adjustments are going to be take the screw out of the secondary, and a few other adjustments like double checking the accelerator pump travel. See y'all in a bit

 

Well I will be getting a timing light soon enough, And here shortly I will take a video of this thing so everyone can see what it is doing and how it sounds.... I will post it to Youtube.com. and it might help with some of the questions about what is REALLY going on here.....

 

Dave, sometimes too much accelerator shot can cause issues too, difference in the reaction is not enough or none will cause an instantaneous dead spot, even at small openings, too much will be more noticeable on stomp it, it will blubber then go. It sounds like he has a dual diaphragm distributor advance system, inner for retard outer for advance. It also sounds like his vacuum advance is hosed. Once he gets a timing light and can get it to run well enough to check, I can walk him through testing both vacuum and centrifugal advance.

 

Hey everyone this is the video sorry for the terrible quality and shaking around, I failed cinematic class in high school. But it shows basically what I have going on here. And as far as running, once it warms up it idles fine so yes sir, I can try to test the difference in vacuum and centrifugal advance if I know how to. Thanks for all the help everyone!

 

<p>Wow, thanks for the video!</p><p>OK, get yourself a timing light... we can see that rotating the distributor changes things, as does changing the vacuum source for the advance, but... stuff changes from what to what? That is my next question....</p>

 

Okay, next question. I have tried to locate the timing marks on the harmonic balancer, and I cannot see or find anything relating to TDC or any marking at all.... there is a pulley with 3 V's in it on the crank. and I cant hardly see anything, where am I supposed to check the timing with the timing light? up top or under the truck? cause if it is up top, I cannot hardly see the harmonic balancer at all. Thanks Chris. I wasnt sure the video would have helped any but.... it was worth a shot right?

 

Timing causes more confusion than is worth with people unfamiliar with it. You need a vacuum gauge to tune a carb, and perform engine diagnostics anyway, and these can also be used to set engine timing without regard to timing marks, and no need for a timing light. They are also cheap. Buy a mechanic's vacuum gauge before a timing light.

Holley is a good carb, but they do wear out. I wasted a lot of time trying to tune an engine with a "junkbox" carb. Then I bought a new carb, twice as large as necessary. Don't do this. The Holley's are prone to vacuum leaks at the throttle bushings when they get worn, and I bet you need a choke installed, even if it isn't necessary, if that makes sense. Bite the bullet and buy a rebuilt carburetor that has been benched and flowed, and is the correct size for your motor and application. I bet it will purr then.

 

They're there. But very, very faint, and covered with paint. Run some crocus cloth over it till they show up, and maybe fill in the lines with a china marker. With all that said note that some dampers are prone to slipping off axis rendering the marks useless. This causes a lot of confusion, especially when people are unfamiliar with engine timing to begin with.

If you feel you must, get timing tape for damper. Summit and Jegs and Speedy sell it, and everybody else.