68 Comaro, Holley with a prob.

I own a 1968 Camaro. It is a 327, and has a Holley intake manifold, and a Holley Economaster model #7456 carburetor installed on it that I recently bought off of e-bay. When I first started it up it idled perfectly, and didn't even run rough when the choke was all the way in. When I took it for a test drive, and stopped to turn around, the engine cut out. When I tried to start it again it took a long time, and when I looked into the carb fuel was dripping in large amounts from the upper venturis in both the primary AND secondary barrels, and fuel actually started to puddle up down on the throttle valves. I managed to drive it home, but it ran very rough, and cut out at stops. I'm thinking it could be because of debris in the needle and seat, but since the fuel is contained in the actual casting and the carburetor doesn't have fuel bowls, or floats (I think), I'm not sure what could be plugged, or how I would go about checking for clogs. If anyone has any information on the diagnosis, or repair on this specific model it would be appreciated.

Thanks

Well I dunno what kind of Holley a #7456 is, but in my opinion you should get rid of that carb and go with a holley 4160 model 1850. That carb would be the ticket; simple, tested and trued, plus anyone and everyone has worked on those things. However, that is just my opinion.

I had a similar problem with a Q-jet (different carb, I know) and it turned out to be the float that was out of adjustment. Maybe the float needle shifted during shipping?

burnM is totaly correct. that is your problem. the floats need to be adjusted. now i have no idea what carb your talking about nor have i ever herd of that number, but im going to asume its like ever other holley on the market, ok well most, and tell you how to adjust the floats. on each side of the carb, the font and the back, there should be float bowls, there are 4 screws that hold each of them in place. you will probably need to remove the carb from the care to do this. anyway, you take the float bowls off and hold them upside down, now the to adjust the if the carb was sitting upright and together at the near the ends of the float bowls there is a screw with a lock nut on it, you will need to loosen the lock nut. now, with that lock nut loosened and the float bowl off and upside down, look into the float bowl from the open end, you should be able to see the float and needle and seet and everything, not adjust the screw that is on the top of the bowl where you loosened then nut and make the float level. its kinda hard to describe but the arm that goes from the float and to the needle and seat is what im talking about should be level. (dont forget it is only level when you are holding the float bowl upside down). once you do that hold the scew in place and tighten the locknut. make sure the float still sits level after you tighten the lock nut because it is easy to turn the screw while tightening the nut. after you do that then you can put everything back together. it probably doesnt really make sence just reading it but if you look at your carb eveything should make sence. hope this helps.

I have a picture of the carburetor on my computer. I'm a little confused on how to put pictures into your text. If someone could give me a pointer or two, I can show what the carb looks like, and maybe someone will recognize it. Thank you for your help. I appreciate your tips.

In all seriousness, I dont know if they make one but Id look into an economy edelbrock carb. I have holley carbs on both my nova and corvette and HATE them.. they are so damn tempermental.. everytime the weather changes and so on, things have to be adjusted

Rob

yeah im kinda with rob. i know how to work on holleys and i know how to tune them but i do not like them. i wont run one. i have but i just personly beleve they suck. you might want to look into an edelbrock like he said or even a JET quadrajet. i have never used a edelbrock but i persoanly like quadrajet carbs. they work great if you have them set up for your spacific car.

It would be great to just up and buy a new carburetor. The Economaster is a 4 barrel, but it only has 450 cfm, which isn't too bad, but after searching on e-bay for five minutes it's hard to find a 4 bbl carburetor that's under 600 cfm. The carburetor had been professionally rebuilt, and in the description it said that it was different from other quadrajet carbs because the fuel was actually held in the casting of the carburetor, so it contained no fuel bowls or floats. When looking at it, it looks like every other holley out there accept there are no fuel bowls in the front and in the rear. If you type in Economaster on e-bay you can find a good picture of it. I tried starting it again today after blowing compressed air through the idle needle valve ports in suspicion of a blockage, and it ran perfect for a couple minutes, and then started flooding again. I thought it was a blockage somewhere in a needle and seat, because the fuel pump is pretty old, and there was no fuel filter between it and the carb. I put a filter on it too before I started it up, and after it cut out I looked in the clear view filter and it was full of crap from the pump (I assume), so that had to of been getting in the carb before I put the filter on.

ok well its looks like a cross between a holley and quadrajet. its says its to replace a quadrajet so im asuming its a spread boor carb. anyway i would say grab the carb walk outside and through it as far as you can. why do you want a carb with less than 600CFM's, if its so its is economical, well then your just driving the wrong kinda car for that. my best sugjestion would be to buy a quadrajet. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33550&item=2475882965&rd=1 it says its for the 67 but im sure its probably the same one they put on the 68, could even be the same casting number but anyway it will work.

oh and by the way, there is nothing blocking the needle and seet. its just like we said before, THE FLOAT IS NOT PROPERLY ADJUSTED. get it, the reason it runs good for a couple minutes is because the carb is not full of fuel. it slowly fills up with fuel and once it is full is when it starts to flud. hence the running fine for a couple minutes then not.

Yeah, ^what he said. It'll run great until it floods, then the float will drop, telling the carb to pull in more feul. It'll just keep trying to fill itself up, because the float is at the bottom of the bowl, and that's why you see feul leaking from every orifice.

But like you said, it may or may not have a float.(although I can't fathom how that could work) In which case, I don't know what to say....

You guys are right. I can't think of any possible way the carburetor could regulate the fuel without some sort of float mechanism. The guy giving to info might have just been BSing. In any case I'll probably be getting a new carburetor sometime in the near future, but it would be nice to get this one running, so when I sell it, I can say it runs perfectly. In order to get to the "fuel bowl", it looks like I'm going to have to remove the entire air horn area. Why does holley make their carbs so complex? I put a picture of it in my gallery.

I've found the problem. When opening the fuel bowl the float must have gotten ajar during shipping. It was out of its grooves making it inoperable (obviously), so you guys were right. Thanks a lot, it's great to have a forum like this with such easy access to good info. Thanks again.

you're welcome