Quadrajet idle problems

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Bludacious

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Jan 2, 2018
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A while ago I replaced all the CCC stuff on my bone stock 305 with the regular mechanical carb & distributor. About 6 months later I swapped out the random Craigslist QJet I had for a brand new A-Team rebuilt M4ME. Ever since then I have had trouble getting the car to idle low enough when it is hot. Let me say that I have spent a lot of time getting to know these carbs and I already checked the fast idle screw, the normal idle screw on the driver's side (this carb doesn't have a high idle solenoid), and have made sure the choke is clocked correctly. I also adjusted the mixture screws to the spot where the engine feels the smoothest, and to where the O2 sensor gives the best reading with a volt meter. I have initial timing set 7 BTC with a timing light which from what I've heard should be only 1 sooner than stock for this motor. The problem is that the motor still idles hot at about 780 in gear and 980 in park, which is causing a fair bit of dieseling and wasting gas. I've had to switch the distributor to ported vacuum because using the advance at idle makes it run at about 950 in gear and 1000+ in park. I have replaced all of the vacuum lines and intake manifold gaskets on this car and done the carb cleaner / propane torch vacuum leak tests and come up dry. Also tested the vac. advance canister and blew out the idle air passages with carb cleaner and compressed air. The entire fuel system from tank to hoses is new within the last 2 years and done by me. At this point I am stumped as to what could be going wrong here. Other than this issue the car runs great, no stalling/shuddering/backfiring/hard starting/bogging/etc. When it's all warmed up it runs at about 170-190.
 

pontiacgp

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If you had trouble with the rebuilt carburetor ever since you installed it did you contact the A Team?

 
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Gremlinsteve

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Mar 6, 2018
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Cc distributor still?
Have you checked the timing with the plug unplugged from it

To me it sounds like you should drop the timing until it stops that dieseling
But it needs to be done without the plug on distributor plugged in
 

Clone TIE Pilot

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It seems A -Team is a carb remanufacturer aka butcher. Basically, a remanufacturered carb is a crap shoot because you never know what was done to the carb. Coud be a Frankenstein of mismatched parts. Most of the time they use sub par parts. Generally it would have been better if you kept the CCC stuff and installed a ZZ4 chip.
 
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Bludacious

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Jan 2, 2018
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If you had trouble with the rebuilt carburetor ever since you installed it did you contact the A Team?


I can just never seem to remember to do it on a weekday during 9-5 hours or if I do, it's while I'm doing something else! Maybe I'll give it a try this monday. The other catch is that it's been over 6 months so not sure if they'll be willing to replace or service it for me.

Cc distributor still?
Have you checked the timing with the plug unplugged from it

To me it sounds like you should drop the timing until it stops that dieseling
But it needs to be done without the plug on distributor plugged in
No, distributor was replaced at the same time as the CC carb. Base timing was set with the advance unplugged (obviously). I thought 7 should be okay since the non-computer 305's ran 6 initial from the factory? I don't like backing it down too far because it never pinged or knocked even at 10 initial and ran great.

It seems A -Team is a carb remanufacturer aka butcher. Basically, a remanufacturered carb is a crap shoot because you never know what was done to the carb. Coud be a Frankenstein of mismatched parts. Most of the time they use sub par parts. Generally it would have been better if you kept the CCC stuff and installed a ZZ4 chip.
I thought about keeping the CC stuff but A) the ECM died and I have no idea what's fried in there, and B) the original carb had really extreme throttle shaft wear, and installing shaft bushings myself is not something I'm too keen on doing.
 

Clone TIE Pilot

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I can just never seem to remember to do it on a weekday during 9-5 hours or if I do, it's while I'm doing something else! Maybe I'll give it a try this monday. The other catch is that it's been over 6 months so not sure if they'll be willing to replace or service it for me.


No, distributor was replaced at the same time as the CC carb. Base timing was set with the advance unplugged (obviously). I thought 7 should be okay since the non-computer 305's ran 6 initial from the factory? I don't like backing it down too far because it never pinged or knocked even at 10 initial and ran great.


I thought about keeping the CC stuff but A) the ECM died and I have no idea what's fried in there, and B) the original carb had really extreme throttle shaft wear, and installing shaft bushings myself is not something I'm too keen on doing.

Could have sent the carb to a professional rebuilder to have busings installed, or do the DIY Teflon strip bushings which only requires minor drilling on one side, the passenger side would not need drilling. Good used ECMs can be had cheaper than a overpriced f###ed up reman Qjet. With Qjets, rebuilt and remanufactured are two very different processes. Rebuild is to restore the carb to original factory specs, reman is convert the carb to junk generic specs and hope it works good enough to fool the customer at best. Lots of reman Qjet horror stories on the net. Look up Lars on the Corvette forums, he is a Qjet wiz who has dissected several remanufactured Qjets and explained the crap they did to them and how it fixed them when possible. Some reman Qjets are so screwed up by the remanufacturers that they can't even be restored to factory specs.
 

L92 OLDS

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pontiacgp

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Mar 31, 2006
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I can just never seem to remember to do it on a weekday during 9-5 hours or if I do, it's while I'm doing something else! Maybe I'll give it a try this monday. The other catch is that it's been over 6 months so not sure if they'll be willing to replace or service it for me.

I never understand why people pay money for something but do nothing if they do not get what they pay for....if they are a reputable business they would probably be glad to learn of problems so they could fix them or a shoddy business they should get the bad reviews and hopefully go out of business. I have never heard of the A team and all we have is a bad review without the A Team being able to respond.....:popcorn:
 
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Clone TIE Pilot

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I never understand why people pay money for something but do nothing if they do not get what they pay for....if they are a reputable business they would probably be glad to learn of problems so they could fix them or a shoddy business they should get the bad reviews and hopefully go out of business. I have never heard of the A team and all we have is a bad review without the A Team being able to respond.....:popcorn:

According to Cliff Ruggles, another Qjet wiz, the carb rebuilding industry has been dying a slow painful death. Many carb companies cut corners to stay afloat. Qjets are application specific carbs, they are not like aftermarket carbs where you just slap them on anything. They are built to fit a single engine application, but remanufacturers attempt to convert or remanufacturer Qjets into a wide application carb with whatever mismatching parts they happen to have in stock. The results often are not good.

In a recent reman carb Lars opened up, he found they didn't bother replacing the failing float, and they had installed tiny aftermarket idle tubes that caused a dangerously lean idle.
 
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airboatgreg

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Could have sent the carb to a professional rebuilder to have busings installed, or do the DIY Teflon strip bushings which only requires minor drilling on one side, the passenger side would not need drilling. Good used ECMs can be had cheaper than a overpriced f###ed up reman Qjet. With Qjets, rebuilt and remanufactured are two very different processes. Rebuild is to restore the carb to original factory specs, reman is convert the carb to junk generic specs and hope it works good enough to fool the customer at best. Lots of reman Qjet horror stories on the net. Look up Lars on the Corvette forums, he is a Qjet wiz who has dissected several remanufactured Qjets and explained the crap they did to them and how it fixed them when possible. Some reman Qjets are so screwed up by the remanufacturers that they can't even be restored to factory specs.


Always remember they EXCEED factory specs
 
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