MALIBU Well, it's official, my coupe hates me.

[Ribbedroof]

So, this flippin' car has fought me almost every step of the way. Some might recall a while back that I could NOT get a mechanical fuel pump to suck fuel without having to prime the carb every time. All stock fuel system. Blew out the lines, tried a second new pump, finally relented and put a low pressure electric pump on it.

Second issue has been that the needle/seat doesn't always close, resulting in flooding. Carb was a fresh rebuild. Put a kit in it. Better for a while, then the same. Put ANOTHER kit in it, has been OK so far. UNTIL today. Sent car to second alignment shop. Boss raved about how nice the car is after he drove it over and picked it up. Whatevs....Decided I'd take it to lunch and fill the tank. First bad omen, nozzle somehow flopped out while pumping..WTF? I've been putting fuel in these cars for 30 years, never an issue. Left fuel stop, headed out to get a sandwich. Got on the expressway, decided since I haven't really driven it, I'd open it up a little. Good pull, no crazy speed attained, but felt good. Let off to make the turnoff, engine stumbles. Coast into the parking lot, can't keep it running. Pop the hood, sure enough, fuel pouring all over the intake. Great, no tools with me. Called the shop, had them send a porter with a few tools. While I'm waiting, some woman in the drive through line says "Nice car!" I say thanks, but I'm thinking, "Yeah, I USED to thinks so too". Porter shows up, a few love taps with the ball peen deadblow, key on, no fuel cascade. Fired it up, told the porter to follow me back to the shop. OLD woman in a Crown Vic at the Pizza Hut next door yells out her window "It's the carburetor". Thank you, Katherine Obvious.

I'm so pissed, I'm about ready to pull the Dual Jet and intake off the wagon (which has a normally functioning fuel system) and put it on the coupe. I've owned probably 2 dozen Quadrajet cars, and have NEVER had this kind of trouble. I must be missing something (besides common sense). Had planned on driving it home this week, but a little apprehensive about a 38 mile tour through the city with my fingers crossed.

That is all, thanks for listening

 

[fleming442]

I'd expect it from an Edelbrock

 

[WanaBa442]

Slide a pressure gauge in line? Is your "low Pressure" pump overwhelming the needle and seat?

 

[Ribbedroof]

Pump has about 6 hours on it. First time since electric pump went on. Did the same thing with just the mechanical pump on it. I've used the same brand/model pump on multiple cars, never an issue, I really feel that it's a carb problem, but I guess a gauge check wouldn't hurt. Or an IED.

 

[CopperNick]

If you'd rather run a Dual Jet, I just happen to have one down in the basement shop. A Dual Jet 165, 1186 AJW, and a string of serial numbers that I can record for this thread if desired. Still has its oem choke with the hot air delivery line (copper?) and what I think is the choke pull off mechanism as well. All this unit is doing is sitting under one of the cabinets and gathering dust. I spotted it on the shelf at my local yard more than a decade or longer ago and snagged it as a curiousity. I make absolutely no claims or guarantees about its internal condition; I have never had it open and had/have no plans to dig into it. It could be clean as new internally or so loaded with an extreme case of the gas cruds that it is useable solely as a paperweight. I dug it out this pm and it is sitting on a carb spacer/gasket. You'd still have to find a intake but one of them might be lurking out under a bench out in my main shop as well. Only thing is it would be cast iron/steel and heavy enough to be a good boat anchor. Not sure what the freight would be to get them down to you, the carb would pass muster for a box and the mail but the manifold?? mail'd nebbah happen, has to be truck freight like Purolator or similar and to Oklahoma, well anything is possible but...............

All this aside, kind of wondering if the culprit is your gas, not the carb. Most gasoline sold commercially has a very limited shelf or working life. The stuff reeks from whatever chemicals are being added to it. Doesn't help that some suppliers are diluting it with E-85 and not saying anything about it. Most carburetors hate that stuff because, unless they are specifically built with the correct gaskets and needles and seats and floats, the 85 just eats them up internally. Had to park my beloved PITA, built it myself, Holley Cathedral bowl 4 barrel because the old school floats sank. Turned out that the gas had leached out the lead in the solder and the seams pinholed. Had the same thing happen to the float in my snow blower!! Pulled it out and you could hear the fluid sloshing around in the float when you shook it. The fact that a fast rap upside the float bowl with a screw driver handle caused the leak to stop only serves to add to my suspicions because giving the bowl that fast whack could have been all the float needed to pop back up and return the needle back to its seat to shut the fuel flow off. If you go ahead and tear that carb down for a post-mortem, would appreciate hearing about what you found.



Nick

 

[Ribbedroof]

Float was tested both times I kitted the carb. No anomalies were seen when it was opened up.

Fresh fuel since I got the car, I drained the tank before I ran it. In fact, I had just put 16 gallons in it 10 minutes before the last go-around.

Now I'm thinking maybe I should drop the tank, maybe there's a boatload of varnish that's working it's way in, despite the 2 filters in the system.

I have another earlier QJ here that I bought a kit for. Probably will build it and see what happens.

Hard to love a car that you can't trust

 

[CopperNick]

On the possibility of migratory crud in the gas tank, Just finished watching a recent episode of Power Block and Tommy Boshears was dealing with a similar situation with a car that had been sitting for over a decade unrun or moved. What he did to explore the tank was to use what he called a bore scope and ran the fibre-optic cable down the filler neck and pipe into the tank to see what was there to be seen. In his case the tank bottom was surprising clean so nothing further was done. In the case of your 'Bu, using a bore scope and making like a peeping tom to see what is at the bottom of the tank might reveal (or not) if there is any crud in there that periodically gets sucked up and delivered to the carb to un-make your day.

Oh, that Dual Jet actually has its complete choke heater tubing system including the cute little loop and plate that fits into the pocket on the intake and acts as a stove to feed hot air to the choke to get it to relax and open up. Can't recall when I managed to dig up those bits; they are usually rusted out junk when you try to harvest them from a wreck.



Nick

 

[Ribbedroof]

Both my 81s (one QJ, one Dual Jet) run electric chokes. By 81 they had moved on from the hot air choke, it seems.

Borescope is a good idea. Hell, I even own one. Glad you mentioned it!

 

[LT1B-Body]

Both my 81s (one QJ, one Dual Jet) run electric chokes. By 81 they had moved on from the hot air choke, it seems.

My 78' Malibu had an electric choke on the Qjet . I think it was factory, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

 

[druggles85]

Mine hates me too. I'm not the necromancer I thought I was.