I checked the needle valves tonight and they looked to be in excellent condition, I think they may have been replaced when my neighbor rebuilt the carb for me, I sprayed them with carb cleaner and reinstalled them, the needle valves are (D-.097). I also bought a Aeromotive fuel pressure gauge to attach to my Holley fuel pressure regulator. I am going to try and reset the float bowl levels tomorrow after work.

 

 

Okay so I was working on the truck tonight. My main goal was to get fuel pressure gauge on and get my float bowl levels reset. I was successful in doing so, while the truck was running I had the fuel right at the edge of the peep holes without fuel dripping out, both front and back. I had the screw put back into the rear peep hole before I turned the truck off but not the front, once I turned the truck off fuel began to drip out of the front peep hole,down the side of the carb. and onto the intake before I could get the screw put back into the peep hole. My question for tonight, is this normal for the fuel to be at the edge of the peep hole and not drip out while the truck is running but once the engine is turned off the fuel drips out more than a little?

 

Yea, that's normal. The engine's no longer pulling fuel and the residual pressure lets a bit more fuel in afterwards.

 

Thats great news, so if I remove the screw from the sight plug without the truck running I should expect fuel to come out but if the engine is running and the floats are set properly and I remove the sight plug screw no fuel should come out of the peep hole? correct?

 

I set em to where just a little fuel dribbles out when it's running at idle. This'll compensate for increased demand at WOT

 

Another quick update, my fuel pressure is at 6.5 psi so the fuel pressure regulator is working properly and now that I reset the float bowl levels I did not have fuel dripping out of the boosters or out the side of the carb. I am heading in the right direction thanks to everyone that is helping.

 

Can you please tell me what you would experience if you removed sight plug screws, both if the truck is running and also if the truck has not been running?

 

Just what I posted.

 

I was working on the truck some more today and this is the results. The new permanent fuel pressure gauge read my fuel pressure at 5.5 psi where my vacuum/ fuel pressure gauge was set at 6.5 psi so I split the difference and set the permanent fuel pressure gauge at 6.0 psi. I had my vacuum gauge hooked up to my carb to try and tune my carb a little since installing the fuel pressure gauge and I am getting fluctuating vacuum readings between (18"-20"), the engine is not real happy right now, back firing out the exhaust. I pulled plug #2 and it is black so I think my plugs are all fuel fowled from so much running in the garage and no road time. I also had my timing retarded from a while ago when I was exploring different road test results, trying to eliminate the off idle hesitation by adjusting timing up and down 12,14,10,8 and left it at 8. My truck has total timing of 36 when it is set at 14 so that is where I set it back to. I am going to try to play with the idle mixture screws a bit more in an attempt to stabilize my vacuum reading and next Saturday my mechanic neighbor and I will go out on a road test to see if we can clean the plugs off a little.

 

 

Another day of tuning today with some progress to report. I knew that my spark plugs were fuel fowled and I knew I had a used but good set of Autolites on my bench so I got busy changing them out. I than examined all the various vacuum hoses, all good. I read last night that loose exhaust could cause popping, sure enough I saw black soot where my headers are strapped to my passenger exhaust pipe so I tightened down the exhaust strap and pulled it tighter against the header buddy, all good. Than I started the truck and left it warm up, right away I could tell a difference, the truck was not popping and it was holding idle much better than it was. Once the truck came up to operating temperature and I was able to kick the choke off I adjusted the idle mixture screws and the idle screw. End result, I have a steady 20" vacuum and a solid 700 rpm at idle. I was able to throttle up over 3000 rpms with no backfires or popping so all seems to be good. I am not going to be able to go for a road test until Saturday, I will report back with the results. I also bought a new set of sight plugs with washers so no more leaking and my fuel bowls are still set properly.

 

Tonight's results including road test. My truck used to turn over with just pushing gas pedal to the floor once but since I installed the Holley fuel regulator it takes a bit more work to get the truck to stay running, i need to work the peddle for a bit until it holds idle. Next I noticed the exhaust had some light popping out the exhaust while i allowed the truck to warm up a bit in the garage. I also heard light popping the entire time I was road testing the truck during deceleration when off of the gas peddle. I was very impressed with WOT as it pulled very strong, off idle hesitation was very minimal also. My electric choke has always been a pain in the butt as I can never seem to get it to come off soon enough. I also noticed that my temperature gauge raised a bit to right in front of the N of NORMAL and stopped climbing. When I pulled the truck back into the garage I reattached the vacuum gauge and my vacuum reading was at a steady 20" and with the truck warm and idling in the garage the popping out the exhaust was very minimal. So I have a truck that's difficult to start with newly installed fuel regulator, a electric choke that is very difficult to set properly, temperature gauge that is half broke, and popping or back firing out the exhaust.

 

Might need to pull the plugs and read them to see where the mixture is at. Sounds like it could be too lean.

 

Plug #3