You can buy a 4160 600 CFM Holley from Jegs.com for $234. It has the Ford kickdown and will bolt right on. That is what I did. If you will go out once a week and start it and let it warm up you shouldn't have the problems your having. I also use StaBuilt.
Hope you figure it out.
Craig

 

You will like the new carb if you get it.

Can you possibly get out and start it once a month during the winter? During your last trip of the summer, if you can start running stabil in the tank, and then let it run once a month during the winter, that should make it last awhile. That will also help the batteries get a charge, spin the waterpump seals a little bit, and you can turn the defrost on to spin the A/C compressor seal a little bit too.

 

Well, the saga continues ....

I figured out my fuel leak and reseated the o'ring. Fitted a paper clip, formed to fit the secondary diaphram shaft, on the carb after installing the lightest yellow spring and headed off to see my carb guy, Pat. Before I went in, since after some serious "rompin" I hadn't seen any action from my indicator light, I checked the paper clip and nothing had moved.

I explained to Pat that I was fed up with my old carb and that I had decided to replace my 4180 with a new 4160 in the form of an 80457. He looked at the information I had printed off the Holley sight with much the same look as a guy who had just been told he had to eat a chunk of raw lutefisk. Now maybe you would have to be a Swede like me to appreciate that comment but in summary ... .. it didn't look good.

I said, "Pat, you really don't like that 4160 do you?"

"It's not that," he said, "It just isn't going to work all that well for you." He went on to explain that ... in his opinion ... that the 4180 was built more for driving and the 4160 was more for "beating on". If he were going to put me in a new carb, and you guys must know by now how I use this truck, he would steer me toward a 570 cfm Street Avenger, but he still thought the 4180 could give me better performance with economy (think 460 here) than any of the new stuff. He spoke confidently that I'd loose mileage with an "upgrade" and at 6-7 towing and 10+ solo I can't afford to lose any.



On his recommendation it looks like the 4180 is going to get another shot.

Wednesday we're going to "autopsy" the carb and figure out what's going on. He's as curious as I am as to what the problem is. I said I didn't want to put another $200 into it and he promised we'd only do what needed to be done to make it work as it should.

On his suggestion, on the way home, I installed the white spring and should call him with the results. At ~5100 rpm in second she ran out of air and flattened out. I think I can say with confidence the secondaries are dead. He even mentioned trying the unspeakable "cheater screw" but I kept burning my fingers trying to get it installed so I gave it up.

Will keep all interested parties informed.

 

Thanks for the suggestion Dave. Time well spent. I was missing out on ~1/2" of throttle travel. Pulled the footfeed (you know, that little pedal on the floor), did a little bending in the BIG vise and I now have FULL ENGAGEMENT!

I bet this is even going to eliminate that floormat conflict that caused me so much embarassment one time.
(We don't like to talk about it.)

Thanks again,

 

Hey Craig,

The "centrex.com" path leads me to a european gas company ...

My carb guy doesn't like Holley's add ons ... says too much restriction in the air flow, but does like the type you described. Can't seem to google up anything even close. Don't want anything but the best for Clyde

Any better clues??

 

Ok, yes, carburetors are dead as far as OEM applications. Holley still provides a lot of parts for their stuff.
The secondary issue sounds like the diaphram either got torn or cut, easy to do even for an experianced carb rebuilder. If you have the housing off (it's safer that way) you can do a check for diaphram sealing by pushing the rod up into the housing then sealing the vacuum port and release the rod. The rod should stay retracted. If it doesn't, the diaphram is leaking and you will have no secondaries.
The bigger issue I found was the remainder of the emission system on my truck. I spent 3 weeks last spring trying to identify and replace two parts on my truck. First was one of the two canister purge valves, second was one of the three air pump check valves, the one on the right exhaust manifold air pipes.
The 85-86, early 87 over 8500 GVW emission package was a short lived setup. This and the royal pain the truck is to start after sitting for a few days are the main reasons for converting it to EFI. The third reason is the ability to use an E4OD transmission and gain the lockup converter even in direct and OD for running empty.
Do not use the cheater screw, bad idea, Holley calibrates the secondaries to work at the proper time, forcing them open early will only cause 454 chevy like fuel consumption on a heavy package like yours.
Holley has a check valve that goes in the throttle body and is used on most of their later performance carbs, it blocks sudden "blasts" from the power valve but allows normal operation.
If you really want to wake up a 460 carbureted engine, the 1969 428 CJ Holley at 735cfm works wonders. It is a 780cfm unit with the primary bores "sleeved down". Great throttle response and on an engine originally equipped with the Motorcraft 4300, better economy. Good luck with it!

 

Found it!

http://www.powervalveshield.com/

 

Roger,
How is Clyde doing now?
Ken

 

Clyde has been getting a lot of attention lately ... we're leaving for Colorado on May 19th .... $3.29+ per gallon gas and all ...

My carb guy ran through the 4180 again installing a new two-stage power valve that he said might help my towing mileage a little. I added the power valve protection screw referenced earlier and installed a micro switch on the carb that lets me know when the secondaries start to kick in. I used a little tiny blue LED that one of the auto chains (I was in about 7 that day) sell for license plate (???) mounting that I installed by the driver wiper in the cowl vent. When the secondaries start to open the LED lights up. On my test runs I found that after they open I sometimes have to back off the throttle to get them to close, otherwise they will stay open a LOT longer than is really necessary.

Ran Clyde through the shop at the dealership I used to work at. We did a Wynn's "flush and fill" tranny service topping off the C6 with highly discounted synthetic Mercon after I added the second tranny cooler (24 plate) in series to the original (27 plate) cooler. Highest I've seen so far on my trial runs is 180* and that's just perfect! Since we're not traveling in triple-digit July temps this year we should be just fine

Replaced the original stock timing gear set with a Ford Racing "straight-up" set from Summit. At 70,000 miles the tech said the OE chain was a little loose but not too bad. Of course the water pump shaft had to be just a little too loose for yours truly (+$107) and the timing chain cover had a crack in it (+155) so there were some additional expensed that weren't in an already tight budget .

Last fall I picked up a Ultra Fab wind deflector http://www.ultra-fab.com/productPage...ges/dft_up.jpg on ebay used once for less than half price. Lot of controversy about using these things but we'll find out if it works for us or not. It's now all mounted and "re-engineered" with nylon bushings and anti-vibration cushioning on all the pivot points. If it will give me another 1/2 mpg it will pay for itself on this trip ... plus I really don't care to spend hours scrubbing bug guts off the front of the fifth wheel if I don't have to.

Just finished the fifth wheel's (26.5 Hitchhiker LS) bearing and brake servicing and am now fighting with a brake controller that really should be replaced but I don't want to spend another $130 right now. Had the manual on a CD but can't find the CD anywhere.

With all of the above and the new set of 4.10 ratio LS gears I'm hoping to see 7.5 mpg with Clyde towing. My little red Tracer wagon (at ~33 mpg) thinks this is all very funny .....

 

Wow! Since you take such good care of Clyde before you go towing, I should lend you Hoss for a season so you can give him a once over too.

 

On your nickel ... sounds like fun!!

As the H&R Block commercial says "I've got people!"

When do you want to bring "The Hoss" over ???

 

Have a great trip!
Ken

 

MY NICKLE?!?!? What a gyp! I thought you'd like to "pay it forward" with a free once over for Hoss. But go ahead, be evil and refuse the offer of a lifetime!

 

It's called "Win some, lose a bunch!"

I have enought trouble managing my own "nickels". Now if you could fix it up so that I could win the lottery to the tune of MULTI-MILLIONS I couldn't think of a better way to make the world a better place than to restore a bunch of old Ford workhorses.

You take care of my dream and I'll be just tickled take care of yours ...


Oh hell, let's go have a beer and dream together ...

 

Have you considered a 4100 Autolite carburetor?
I pull a 7320# car trailer with a truck very similar to yours. (1984 F-250/460) but I use a Autolite 4100 from Pony Carburetors . Gets 8.5MPG consistently and can pop the secondaries open anytime.