Carb Conversion

I have a 1981 Buick Regal V6 3.8L. It has a Rochester Quadrajet E2ME carb on it right now. This carbs been nothing but problems. I just rebuilt it which made the car go from sluggish and stalling to backfiring and running terrible on acceleration. Im almost positive the Mixture Control Solenoid is bad and the connector for the electronic choke is broken so that not even hooked up. Instead of going in and replacing all this or getting a new carb (which runs at about $500) and hoping that fixes it id rather just convert it to one of the old style carbs. How hard would that be to convert it to a non electronic carb? Whats involved? Thanks for the help, im not too familiar with carbs so any help is awesome!

If you've just rebuilt the carb, what is wrong with replacing the Solenoid as well?

Because I dislike this carb. Id rather just have a old vacuum carb on there. I could replace it but I dont currently have the equipment to test to see what the main causes are. I adjusted the idle so it idles much better now, but on acceleration it stalls and bucks... Id just rather replace the carb. So yeah...

I have a 1981 Buick Regal V6 3.8L. It has a Rochester Quadrajet E2ME carb on it right now. This carbs been nothing but problems. I just rebuilt it which made the car go from sluggish and stalling to backfiring and running terrible on acceleration. Im almost positive the Mixture Control Solenoid is bad and the connector for the electronic choke is broken so that not even hooked up. Instead of going in and replacing all this or getting a new carb (which runs at about $500) and hoping that fixes it id rather just convert it to one of the old style carbs. How hard would that be to convert it to a non electronic carb? Whats involved? Thanks for the help, im not too familiar with carbs so any help is awesome!

i would check the jets also do you have them 1 and 1/4 ajusted out i do believe.

Fair enough :)


I don't know a lot about American Carbs, I've only ever used Side drafts.

But, there are some guys around here somewhere who know more than enough, and should be able to help.

I'll see if I can rattle them up for you :)

Ha, thanks for the help :) As for the jets, I do believe there adjusted, i never took them apart so im sure they aren't not adjusted, and i put a new float in the carb which is adjusted as well.

Ha, thanks for the help :) As for the jets, I do believe there adjusted, i never took them apart so im sure they aren't not adjusted, and i put a new float in the carb which is adjusted as well.


If you didn't take them out, are you sure their clean?
As for being adjusted, you can't really know unless you check yourself :smokin:

Yeah i soaked it in carb cleaner and blew it out. I know its not a problem with the jets being clogged, its actually getting to much fuel cause its running rich, mainly cause somethings not adjusted properly and i think the MCS is broken. But i highly doubt its the jets.