New Owner, Old Boat

Check out the diaries and reference sections. You can find a lot of photos and good information there. There are many knowledgeable people here and they have answered all of my questions. This is an amazing site. I would love to see a few photos..

Hey,

Stringers were replaced from about a foot from the transom to just under the drivers seat. no foam. the guy that did it for me does all the fiberglass work for several of the local boat dealerships and marinas around here. he was adamant that the wood going back in needed to be the same as what came out (although im not sure i agree with that..) so the stringers are fir. have you guys ever heard of perinneal wood?   its a brand made by one of the spin offs of kodak. treated with acetic acid and has a 30 year below grade warranty.   seems like that would be a great product. its hard to find here in the southeast and even harder for me to get my customers to pay for, but i like it.   (i work on houses. wish i knew more about boats)

k       

I too had the carb rebuilt on my 80 my a person that really knew Holley Carbs, last spring, and I also still had problems after the rebuild. It was expensive, but I sent my carb to Carolina Carb Specialities in Wilmington, NC. Butch remanufactured the carb. It looked like a new one after he was done and it now works great. It was almost plug and play. The thing that I like about Butch is that he has a flow bench to simulate an engine. Once he rebuilds the carb, he can test it on the bench. He runs mineral spirits through the carb to simulate gas. There is also a place in Jacksonville Florida , National Carb, that many on this site use. They also test the carb on an actual engine. Butch found out that my rear float was out of spec (too heavy) and this was making my carb flood. I inspected it my hand and saw no cracks and could not feel any gas in the float, but it was a few grams off spec. I even had the desirable float material and it was still bad.

If I had to do it over again, I would just purchase a new carb because the new carbs have the tube on the bottom for the vacuum tube. My carb is old and I run the spacer with the tube for vacuum. With the new carb, I would then run a wedge to make the carb more level and pull vacuum from the tube on the bottom of the carb. This would make float adjustments easier to perform due to taking the angle out of the engine. Some on this site have had needle and seat issues with new out of the box Holley Carbs so this is why I went with Carolina Carb in Wilmington, NC.

I am just a hobby guy so be careful taking my advice.

Donald

I had carb flooding issues, dripping into carb, and the cause was too much fuel pressure. This should be the first thing checked, and is often the last.

I've had carb issues too for too long. Mainly minor but annoying. I'm tired of chasing problems and fiddling with having it rebuilt so ordering a brand new one tomorrow from Summit. Them and Jegs seem to have best prices, just an FYI.

if you bought a new carb already a fuel pump is probably cheaper than setting up a guage

thanks. havent started humting parts yet for the boat so dont exactly know where to buy.   figured id get that info here...   

koswimmer1967 wrote: i rented a pressure guage from auto zone . k

Auto zone? Yup, that's a problem for sure! What range did they lone to you? Hopefully you have the option of not going to that "auto supply" again. I hate Auto Zone!!!

koswimmer1967 wrote: interesting that you mention carb flooding.   i feel like this is the main issue. i rented a pressure guage from auto zone to check it but it would read low enough to register.   the pump shoots a ton of gas.    looking for a low pressure guage to see what im getting.    k

Yeah, a perfect carb will still flood if your fuel pump is putting out too much pressure. My stock pump pegged the gauge at 10 psi, so I got a Holly pump. It still flooded at 7 psi. So I got a Holly fuel pressure regulator that was adjustable with a nut and bolt, the cheapo dial one leaked and was inconsistent. Now at 4 psi, it works perfectly.
This is on a 650 cfm for a 454, but a 600 won't take too much psi either.