Quick Fuel / Holley leakage around needle

[Trucksareforwork]

I love a happy ending, I also have a QF carb I will be running on the the 489 BB, hope it works as good as the hollies I am used to.

Maybe just a watch out on your carb: One thing my rebuild saga brought me to was the weird quality control inconsistencies in QF carbs.

I have been posting about this motor in my nemo thread. After recamming the motor, it fouled its plugs after breakin due to running way rich. I had chalked it up at that point to a stuck float, So I decided to do a full teardown and rebuild of the carb. That landed me here, which of course turned out to be a leak around the needle seat.

But...In doing the rebuild, I ran across a couple of articles on how QF frequently had a random mix of air bleeds installed at the factory. Mine did. This can lead to bad idle performance. Mine was awful before this saga, but I blamed the mutha thumpr cam it had (I hated that cam).

Be sure you check those air bleed sizes (I'd check the main jet sizes too) to ensure you didn't get a carb that had random bleeds installed. Here's a reference chart for bleed and jet sizes stock.

Good news is I'm back to a running motor that doesn't either flood itself through the secondaries or geyser out the secondary vent. Running Link.

 

[Rustisbest]

Did you happen to notice on yours whether or not it has the little bleed hole under the rear transfer slots? These were meant for 2 corner idle carbs to keep fresh fuel in the bowl for the people who never get into the secondaries. Don't see how theyre needed on a Quick Fuels 4 corner idle carbs.

On this one I have I plugged it like it shows in Dave Emmanuels book when converting from 2 to 4 corner idle. Just curious if they're still making them like that. This one is probably 15 years old.

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[Craig Nedrow]

My QF is about 5 years old, was on my brothers 65 Plymouth Satellite with a stroked 440 to 486. I use AME's A/R gage with Bosch wide band in the collector area. Worked with the 750 holly, I learned a lot, but that truck went like stink at any speed, fun. Also in the market for a good QF book.

 

[Trucksareforwork]

I did not. I don’t think those exist on my carb.

 

[Rustisbest]

My QF is about 5 years old, was on my brothers 65 Plymouth Satellite with a stroked 440 to 486. I use AME's A/R gage with Bosch wide band in the collector area. Worked with the 750 holly, I learned a lot, but that truck went like stink at any speed, fun. Also in the market for a good QF book.

Funny...I got this one from my brother because the internet convinced him he needed EFI. The choke horn was broken where he got a little overzealous with the wing nut. I fixed that with a Proform main body but its just been sitting on the shelf.

 

[ChuckN]

Yeah, duh. You can see how my mind works. Don’t pick up the dipstick, lower the whole car.

I’d say we should have a beer and share stories, but I don’t drink anymore.

But I am known to take “the long way ‘round” on some projects. lol.

Honestly, with all the tuning issues of my Edelbrock, I’ve thought of getting a QF carb after David Freiburger did that cool tuning video with his red Duster. With all the accoutrements of air bleeds, etc, he was able to get it damn close to AFR with an EFI.

 

[Trucksareforwork]

Honestly, with all the tuning issues of my Edelbrock, I’ve thought of getting a QF carb after David Freiburger did that cool tuning video with his red Duster. With all the accoutrements of air bleeds, etc, he was able to get it damn close to AFR with an EFI.

I watched that video over the past few weeks, too. It was a good one.

I have tuned an Edelbrock AVS on a 67 impala my son and I fixed up, and it wasn't hard to do. I could access the springs and rods from the top of the carb no problem and the jets are easy to get at too if needed (car has a comp 280 cam so is lower vacuum). It runs great as a driver...won't win any races but it's not the carb's fault.

I have rebuilt Qjets and my philosophy on them is that they are truly awesome for driving around, but I don't tune much with them. I have either had the carb that fit the motor, or I've tried to find the Q-jet by number that fit the application I need. My Qjets have been rock solid for driving. Honestly if I'm putting a carb on a motor that I want to dial in and leave alone, I'm probably a Q jet guy.

Now on the Holley/QF style: I feel like I can take over the world by tuning it, but then it blows gas all over the motor while running. I guess that's the risk/reward?

I just do this as a hobby, but it's crazy to see how much people screw up carb tuning down to even just knowing how to adjust the choke. I've posted this before, but my 85 305 Q-jet starts almost like efi when I take 5 mins to adjust the choke twice a year. Link...

 

[ChuckN]

I watched that video over the past few weeks, too. It was a good one.

I have tuned an Edelbrock AVS on a 67 impala my son and I fixed up, and it wasn't hard to do. I could access the springs and rods from the top of the carb no problem and the jets are easy to get at too if needed (car has a comp 280 cam so is lower vacuum). It runs great as a driver...won't win any races but it's not the carb's fault.

I have rebuilt Qjets and my philosophy on them is that they are truly awesome for driving around, but I don't tune much with them. I have either had the carb that fit the motor, or I've tried to find the Q-jet by number that fit the application I need. My Qjets have been rock solid for driving. Honestly if I'm putting a carb on a motor that I want to dial in and leave alone, I'm probably a Q jet guy.

Now on the Holley/QF style: I feel like I can take over the world by tuning it, but then it blows gas all over the motor while running. I guess that's the risk/reward?

I just do this as a hobby, but it's crazy to see how much people screw up carb tuning down to even just knowing how to adjust the choke. I've posted this before, but my 85 305 Q-jet starts almost like efi when I take 5 mins to adjust the choke twice a year. Link...

Nice! Sounds like you have a good handle on it.

TBF, the Edelbrock was probably at a severe disadvantage. The engine was probably a little over cammed, which made hard to tune around that (I bought the truck that way). It was rich off idle, lean on cruise, rich at WOT and the rods/jet setup isn’t very flexible for fine tuning at different areas of the fuel curve. Kind of binary- whether the rods are in or out of the jets, you kinda get what you get. There’s lots of witchcraft that’s out there (putting thin wires in the air bleeds, drilling holes in the primary butterflies, etc). But I don’t think it was getting a good signal since the cubes were smaller than the block said (327 vs 350) and low vacuum at idle. It was a mess.

It may well be more tunable when the 388 is done. It’ll have more “pull” through the Venturi and might respond better to tuning, AVS 650.