I will be coming thru the twin cities in about three weeks but that won't do you any good. Actually I will be in the area for a week, running back and forth between Garrison and Northfield MN.

Looks like you can chalk it up to a "learning experience".

My advice:

Go out to a local shop and buy a Edelbrock 1411 (750cfm w/electric choke) with ford linkage kit, if you have an auto tranny. Installation may require drilling a hole in the kickdown linkage. Installation will also require finding places to hook up all 5,230 vacuum lines and assorted thingies properly:-) If you just putter around town you could go with a #1406 600cfm and get a smidgeon better gas mileage.

-or-

You can buy a rebuilt OEM carb for big bucks and still have a worn out carb. You will also have to find out how to properly hook up half of those "thingies".

-or-

You can buy a new Holley, more big bucks, and figure out how to properly hook up all 5,230 pieces parts.

Keep the old carb and when you get ready to do an exam... Go thru it very carefully with the assy diagrams. You have probably lost a check ball or something.

I prefer the Edelbrock carbs since they are easy to work on for us "dummies", they don't leak, usually cost less ($270 in Jegs) than Holleys, are rock stable for everyday drivers. Be prepared to be derided and almost spat upon at some shops for asking for anything non-Holley. If the sales people act that way go somewhere else. Holleys work great on all kinds of vehicles, they are just more trouble prone in a daily driver than they need to be. This trouble comes from the fact that they are so very very versatile for racing applications. You can get thousands of widgets for Holleys, none of which you need.

My $.02 worth.

Good Luck!

 

I actually live pretty close to Northfield... I'm in Medford, about 20 miles south of there. I drive past every day in my 62 miles commute to Minnetonka. (good thing this truck ain't my daily driver!)

Buying the edlebrock is probably a good idea. But, I want to talk to this carb guy first to see if he can tinker with it and get it running. I'm hoping that he's a married guy and will be interested in trading his labor for a few nights in the B&B. Carb work is just something he does on the side, I guess.

The wife will kill me if I start spending more and more money on this thing. If I can get the carb tuned properly, I'll hopefully be done with it for a while. It doesn't need to be a champ, it just needs to run for a while....

Although, I did see that a neighbor of mine has a sand blaster, paint gun and a hefty air compressor in his garage. Perhaps the truck will be my canvas for experimenting in auto body? Scary thought. I think I know less about body work than I do carbs!

 

So, is my Holley 4180 not a stock carb? I thought that it was...

It says "Made for Motorcraft by Holley" on the side, so I just presumed that it as a stock carb.

What cfm is the 4180? 750?

Looks like there's about a $50 price difference between the 750cfm and the 600cfm from Edelbrock. Will there be a substantial difference between them?

So many questions!

 

Most of the time a "box stock" retail version carb is not quite the same configuration as the "OEM" version. But they should be close. The OEM unit may have extra vacuum ports, emission vents, limiter caps, etc, etc.

The 750 is the preffered carb for a 460 and it will work well. The 600 will not work as well for those full throttle high rpm times. The 600 has slightly smaller primaries and will give marginally (~.1 mpg) better mileage in normal use. Probably not enough that you would even notice.

I have no idea what cfm the OEM version of the 4180 was set up for. That is all Ford spec info. When they buy a whole bunch of parts they get them built "their way".

I have relatives in Garrison and a student in Carleton.

 

I live in Iowa about 6 hours for the twins. I use to live in White Bear Lake up there around 15 years ago. I feel so bad that I wanna drive up there and fix this for ya. I don't think theres a major problem but just some fine tuning that needs to be done. I lft a post on the other thread if you wanna look. I'm sorry its causing you so much troubles

 

Welcome to the world of Holley carbs. The fuel you describe spewing out sounds like the floats are set too high. This causes the needle not to seat and fuel comes up the vent tube. If you look on the top of the float bowl, each has a slot screw and below it is thin flat nut. The screw acts as a jam and the nut actually adjusts the float level. There is another slot screw in the side of the bowl that is used to set the float level. The theory is that you set it to where the fuel is just at the bottom of the hole.

My suggestion is, if you remember which one was spewing, loosen the screw and turn the nut clockwise a few turns to get where it will seat. Retighten and retest. OR If your fuel pump will hold pressure after you quit cranking, you can set the floats way down, crank to get pressure, then run the floats up until you see fuel at the base of the hole.

***********************************************
Always Always use a remote starter button with the key off (no spark) and have a big fire extinguisher and or a garden hose when you work on Holleys.
************************************************

And if you are wondering, I enjoyed it so much, I exclusively run Carter/Edelbrock AFB's now

 

I kind of have two topics going at the same time here... check out "No idle after highway driving" for the most current update...

When I was putzing around, I did have two fire extinguishers right next to me. About 6 months ago I had a Jeep Grand Wagoneer go up in flames on me in the middle of town. I'm a lot more careful now

 

Hey, guys -- I thought I'd throw an update here...

I took the truck to a guy in town that really knows his stuff when it comes to carbs. Kind of a hobby for him, I guess (crazy fool).

I got a call last night with good news and bad news.

GOOD: only took him 30 minutes to get ther carb tuned and running perfect. (How the hell did he do that?!?!?!?!)

BAD: The knocking noise hasn't gone away. He thinks that it's a rod knocking, and the fact that it started happening the same time I put the carb on is just an evil coincidence.

I disagree! I've learned in my line of work that there are no coincidences like this. I think that while messing around, too much gas got into the engine, and has thinned out the oil too much. He doesn't think that's the case, but we don't have to agree. This is a truck, not a debate :P

So, I'm taking it to my trusty neighbor's shop tonight, and I'm going to have him change the oil. He suggested that we go with a partial synthetic, and maybe something a bit thicker than I'm running now. From like 5w30 to 15/40 or something.

Keep your fingers crossed that this works. If not... who wants to buy a truck?

 

How did he do it? -EXPERIENCE!!!

It would take a LOT of gas to thin the oil down enough to where it would actually "cause" a rod to knock. Enough gas to fill the crankcase (a gallon or so), then taken out and driven under load.

Hydraulic lock on a cylinder full of gas could cause some evil noises.

 

How would I fix that?

 

Take it to a good mechanic and find out what is actually wrong so there is no guessing game.

 

What fun would that be?

 

You did not drop a nut down the intake or something did you?

 

Yeah, that's totally a possibility.

I think that I'll be getting the truck back from my mechanic guy in a day or two. His role was only to fix the carb, not to really diagnose this new problem. When I get it back the first think I'll do is pull of the valve covers and take a look for anything obvious. If that doesn't turn anything up, I'll drop the oil pan and take a looksee.

If there's a broken rod (which is what it sounds like), I'll be in the market for a new engine...

 

If you dropped a nut down the intake it would not be the first time anyone had done that. I have taked a number of engines apart that had a nut imbedded in the top of a piston and they were still running. I have also seen a few where that nut was on the edge of the piston and broke rings or valves or even cracked the piston.

There was a 460 rebuilt crate motor on ebay that even came with the carb and intake $2700 complete with free shipping:-) It was a hot motor that produced 510 #/ft of torque and ran on premium fuel if I remember right.

You might want to let the mechanic guy give it a closer look b4 you get it back.