Grandmas Skylark project

zmotorsports

Hardcore Gearhead
Vendor
Location
West Haven, UT
Seems like I've never heard a bad thing said about Gear Vendors. I think you should Guinea Pig that for me.

I used to be a dealer for Gear Vendors and love them. Great product and great company to work with. I put them on a few touring cars when I had my speed shop and a shit-ton of tow vehicles and motorhomes of fellow racers who used them to haul their race cars around. Never had an issue with one. Highly recommend them.

The car is looking great by the way.

Mike
 

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
The more I read about the Holley Sniper the more I want one EXCEPT my cam produces NO vacuum. Apparently that creates issues with the Sniper from most reports I've read (trying to weed out the whiny posts about the Sniper). That leads me to think I should just stick with a carb and I've had a couple of folks I trust recommend the Edelbrock AVS 800 cfm carb. They are available for $475 through Summit. My wallet has moths coming out of it the past couple weeks (since I bought the Gladiator just bought another winch yesterday :rolleyes: ) so it'll be a few weeks to think about it before purchase.

Seems like a solid way to go but might not be quite as cool as I'd like it to be. Realistically, I'd like to drive the car in the evenings and on weekends when the weather is nice. Assuming I keep it running regularly (I did that with my trail Jeep so I don't know why I can't do that with the Buick), I don't know why a carb wouldn't work out pretty well?

My current Holley carb has went to worms since I started using the car a bit more often. No idea why. Difficult to get the car started, never really idles now even after being warmed up, heavy gas smell, etc. I've tinkered a bit with it and have made it marginally better but need to invest $75-100 in a complete kit for the Holley and then keep tinkering a bit after that. I'm thinking I'm $ ahead to just get a fresh carb and jet it for the correct altitude? The Edelbrock just uses metering rods if I remember correctly for adjustment. You don't even need to take it apart to change those?


On the completing the car front, carpet AND headliner have arrived, door fuzzies are still 30-45 days out.... The fuzzies I have are not impressive at all and an incomplete set. I still haven't put the side windows in waiting for the fuzzies. I've got a pretty full weekend cleaning up my garage from cleaning out my F350, tidying up the stuff I've pulled off my trail Jeep, hoping to sell the XJ, trailer and trail Jeep as soon as possible. I'd like to get to the car but we'll have to see? (it'd be good to get that headliner in before it gets chilly at all as I understand. Heat is apparently a good ally to get good "stretch" for it? (anyone ever done a headliner before? :D )
 

xjtony

Well-Known Member
Location
Grantsville, Ut
Sounds like maybe float bowl levels being high or just leaking into the venturies? With the air cleaner off look to see if you can see fuel dripping at idle from them. If the secondaries are dripping extra fuel they will cause what you are discribing.
 

mbryson

.......a few dollars more
Supporting Member
Out of curiosity, have you put a vacuum gauge on this engine? (Even just as a temporary test to see how bad it is?)


No but a wise thing to do before abandoning my fuel injection ideas.
I have a Holley Street Avenger 870 that you can take and try to see if it is any better. It ran well on the Camaro.


I'd love to give that a shot. I work in Kaysville. I can swing over to your place anytime that works for you to pick it up.
 

NYCEGUY01

Well-Known Member
Location
Willard, UT
My Blazer had much less Vac than Fitech recommended as well.
When I talked to the tech guys they told me it would still work fine but Id have to do a bunch more adjusting and tuning to get it close.
Basically it wouldn't do any self learning until I was basically almost perfect.

I found that accurate, it was alot of fiddling with the accelerator pump shot size specifically and of course the idle mixture and whatnot at different temps but after I got it close it started working great.

That said, Im becoming a big fan of the Brawler carbs, Im used to tuning Holleys anyway for the most part and the prices are pretty good, especially if you watch the Holley site for a reman when they have them in stock. The in stock inventory changes at least a couple time a week but if you check it every few days eventually what you want will pop up for a super good deal.

Its hard to beat a fresh Holley ( Brawler ) with Vac secondarys and electric choke.
 
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