I've been having this bad rich running problem with my 83 F-150. It only occurs at idle. When the truck idles its running so rich it'll take your breath away. Today i adjusted the carb according to the "manual" that comes with a rebuild kit. The truck now runs awesome, but its sucking fuel down like no tomorrow. What gives? Before it flooded and ran like ***, but sipped on fuel, and now that its idling smooth and running better, its drinking the stuff down?


I don't effin' get it...

 

Not that i'm impatient, but anybody got a clue? I'm stumped here...

 

Are you sure you got the float settings correctly? Those 1bbls are a pain to tune. There aren't very many settings at all, but you have to get them "just right." It sounds like your float might be set wrong and too much gas is dumping in.

What all adjustments did you make when following the manual?

 

If the EGR valve is clogged up and sticking, it'll run like that cause it's dumping exhaust into the intake when it shouldn't be.

 

Get all the systems running properly...Ignition, EGR, plugged Cat?, vacuum lines, then adjust the carb last. Carbs get a lot of blame when other parts of the system are not working properly.

 

+1 to what Harte3 said - check everything else out first before you beat yourself up over the carb any further.

 

Before i bought the truck the PO removed all the emissions stuff from the truck. So no EGR, cats, or anything else. You guys may be onto something about me mis-adjusting the float. But, i did use the little "L" ruler that's in the rebuild kit to set the thing, and i used the measurements in the guide, so i wouldn't make a goof and just try and set it by eyeballin' it.

I also re-set the metering rod, per the instructions too.

Guess i could try and adjust the float, i'm just not sure which way it should go, up or down?

 

If you used the ruler to properly adjust the float, it's probably ok. That works pretty well.

However, I had the exact same issue as you. I set the metering rod AS per instructions and it sucked gas like nothing else and even though it purred like a kitten, it didn't have that much power. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what I did to fix it because I was 300 miles from home and deemed it less expensive to have a shop rebuild the carb than pay for the gas it was going to guzzle unnecessarily to get back to my own tools. (And they did a darn fine job.) The metering rod might be the issue. Not saying it is, but that does sound familiar.

What everyone else says is very true though. Carbs are usually the last thing you look at even though everyone looks at them first. However, since symptoms changed after messing with the carb, then something you did to the carb is part of an issue.

However again, keep in mind that you may have put the carb RIGHT, and now something else is showing its ugly head. Check over all of your other engine components to be sure they're all correct before returning to the carb. Although, since most of the EGR stuff is removed, it may be difficult to diagnose from afar since you're dealing in the non-stock territory.

 

Most posts say it won't run top notch with the EGR removed, a short-sighted endeavor. The combustion chamber is designed to expect the lower-temp exhaust gases to make a complete burn, even though that might sound counter-intuitary.

 

If the dizzy was not recurved for non-emissions running it will not operate in an optimal manner regardless of what may be done to the carb.

Another case of half-arsed re-engineering where removing smog equipment is thought of as being profound without following through with the total re-engineering required.

 

How do you recurve the "Dizzy"?

 

Im haveing the exact same problem, for the exact same reason...

 

FWIW, my "drives okay, stinks like very rich at idle" issue was a missing cap on the back/underside of the vacuum tree.

Missing EGR should make the truck run lean, correct? More air/O2 in the combustion mixture vs. inert exhaust gas?

 

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thank you....