The issue with my frame is that I know it's worse than I can see. Having grown up in MI, I just don't trust it's condition. I bet even if I sandblast it, I end up with a pitted frame best case and swiss cheese worst case. I'd prefer to start with a known good frame or make a known good frame. After today's research, I feel comfortable letting this local frame go and re-engaging this effort when I have time for it. For now, I'll just get the carb parts ordered and look into an adjustable vacuum advance canister and recurve the mechanical advance.
1983 Big Block Monte Slow Build
- Thread starter Supercharged111
- Start date
It's been too long since I fired the pig up, so I finally ordered a rebuild kit and main jets but I threw a set of idle tubes in for good measure as well. They arrive at a drill-to-spec .035" and the ones in there now are .052". Greg at quadrajetparts said he's never seen them drilled that big, and seeing how there's nothing special about this 454, I decided to order them as they may be part of the secret sauce to get the thing to idle without burning your eyes. That and jetting down for altitude should help. The carb had 75 mains and the math said to drop 4 sizes, so I ordered 71 but also 69 because it stunk to Hell and back down in MI too. Now I get to find the main jets, metering rods for both circuits, and the hanger because they seem to have grown legs in the past 4 months.
Well well well, lookie what I (finally) found.
I may have to swipe this car's driver side valve cover, it has a breather and mine doesn't. I imagine it's just a TBI 454 cover, easy enough to get another.
I may have to swipe this car's driver side valve cover, it has a breather and mine doesn't. I imagine it's just a TBI 454 cover, easy enough to get another.
Alright, time to pretend I know what I'm talking about. Decided to take a crack at this carb since I found the rest of it. First thing I notice is this ding in the butterfly, gotta wonder what happened here?
Likely a drop in the bucket. I do need to refamiliarize myself with the function of these slots.
Next I hacked a HF gasket scraper into a needle seat tool.
Not sure which of these 2 gaskets is right/wrong?
Next I decided to pull the idle pickup tubes to make sure that circuit wasn't gummed up as I was having pig rich idle issues. The drill got a good bite on the one side and it came out in 2 pieces.
This blows because the new ones arrive at .035" and my smallest bit, a .040" bit, doesn't fit down the old tube, but it's visibly larger than a new tube.
New on the left, original on the right. Yes I need to cut my fingernails. What I didn't realize is that these tubes are only drilled at the very bottom, so they're not the .052" that I thought they were back in December. This is good news as this is a sane value so not to blame for the pig rich idle. Hopefully just jetting down the mains will get the idle screws to do their job because there's a bit more work to be done to the car before it's road worthy enough to take out for a proper tune. In the meantime I need it to not puke fuel out the tailpipes at an idle.
Likely a drop in the bucket. I do need to refamiliarize myself with the function of these slots.
Next I hacked a HF gasket scraper into a needle seat tool.
Not sure which of these 2 gaskets is right/wrong?
Next I decided to pull the idle pickup tubes to make sure that circuit wasn't gummed up as I was having pig rich idle issues. The drill got a good bite on the one side and it came out in 2 pieces.
This blows because the new ones arrive at .035" and my smallest bit, a .040" bit, doesn't fit down the old tube, but it's visibly larger than a new tube.
New on the left, original on the right. Yes I need to cut my fingernails. What I didn't realize is that these tubes are only drilled at the very bottom, so they're not the .052" that I thought they were back in December. This is good news as this is a sane value so not to blame for the pig rich idle. Hopefully just jetting down the mains will get the idle screws to do their job because there's a bit more work to be done to the car before it's road worthy enough to take out for a proper tune. In the meantime I need it to not puke fuel out the tailpipes at an idle.
The slots in the baseplate are called transfer slots. They meter the air during idle and are set by the idle speed screw. Ideally, they should be squarish at idle on Holley style carbs, don't know about q-jets. They tend to be a common mistake for novice tuners (like myself), because if you keep raising the idle speed to compensate for another issue, you end up with an over rich idle. Set them on the bench and leave them alone. If you can't get it to idle, go back and check everything again.
Oh, and fingernails are tools, especially when working with small parts.
Oh, and fingernails are tools, especially when working with small parts.
Seeing how I may soon be relocating my storage, I decided I'd rather drive the Monte on the trailer than winch it. After watching an assembly video, I decided I really don't like these little *ss screws knowing there are more service friendly screws out there. At least someone was decent to unearth the existing screws at some point.
Next up, this foam seems the opposite of what should go in here? I assembled with no foam, not sure of its purpose?
Also got rid of this jankety *ss hacked off brake for a proper fitting.
Now to see what I screwed up when I put it on tomorrow. I made the choke adjustable too. Turns out the holes were already the perfect size for a #10 tap so I ran that down and Dremel'd the tangs off that kept you from spinning the housing from stock, but I still put it back in the stock position.
Next up, this foam seems the opposite of what should go in here? I assembled with no foam, not sure of its purpose?
Also got rid of this jankety *ss hacked off brake for a proper fitting.
Now to see what I screwed up when I put it on tomorrow. I made the choke adjustable too. Turns out the holes were already the perfect size for a #10 tap so I ran that down and Dremel'd the tangs off that kept you from spinning the housing from stock, but I still put it back in the stock position.
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Just read all of this - more power to you - rebuilding and tuning a Q-Jet is an art. And I’m not an artist. But I am a happy spectator when those GIANT secondaries open - YES!!!!!
How about a video when this is running?
How about a video when this is running?
It's funny you say that, I was just wondering myself how far open the secondary air valves will swing open just cracking on the throttle with the air cleaner off. It damn sure doesn't use all 800cfm of flow capacity that's available to it. Yet.
I opted not to shoot a video due to the amount of fail that ensued. I plopped the carb down easy peasy and got it all hooked up, this time with proper vacuum caps instead of a bunch of hoses with screws in them. I squirted some starting fluid down its throat and it fired and died. On the 3rd try the bowl filled up and it stayed running but wouldn't idle. After a few more tries I realized I'd left the idle screws shut and the double d driver back at home. F me. I went back and grabbed it and the car lean popped at 3 turns out. Next at 4 turns it wouldn't start and the engine was still stone cold, so I pumped and pumped until it was semi flooded. After I put the charger on boost it cleared itself and just wouldn't start at all no matter what. It would only run off of starting fluid but really struggled to fire it off. I then discovered the block ground I couldn't find earlier, hooked that up, and the car effortlessly fired off the last shot of starting fluid. At this point I decided the car simply acted like it had run out of gas. I peered down the primaries as I cracked the gas and nothing, so I yanked the fuel line off the carb, rolled it over and got one half-*ss loogie from it and that was it. I really hope it didn't suck up some crap, but the more likely (and simple) scenario is that it chose a weird set of circumstances to run out of fuel on. I had even contemplated running the tank dry today because the last time I put fuel in was 2018 and it wasn't much. I'm also pretty sure it was out of gas when I first moved it as it had similarly refused to start then. It's never given much of a fight to start before. If it is out, then I now have a fresh start on a fully stabilized tank of gas. I just wish I could get ethanol free here like I can back in MI. Hopefully tomorrow my tale will be of responsive idle screws and tailpipe fumes that don't sear the eyeballs. And maybe a peg leg burnout.
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