Thread: New Edelbrock Intake and Carb...Now 283 won't start

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Put out your cigarette. Have your fire extinguisher close at hand. Pull off the gas line that runs into the carburetor. Get a buddy to hold a can under the open end of the gas line, and you go crank the motor over with the starter. If all is well gasoline should squirt out of the gas line into the can (and I do mean squirt---tell your buddy to hold the can so the gas squirts into it, not over it.) Assuming that gas does indeed squirt into the can, then odds are that your fuel pump is alright.---Yes, S10 streeter is right, a faulty fuel pump can leak oil into the engine cavity. About the only way to tell if this is happening is to pull the fuel pump off, hook up a feed line and return line to it, and pump the actuating lever by hand, untill it is actually pumping gasoline. If any gasoline is running out the hole where the actuating lever goes into the fuel pump housing, you need a new fuel pump.----Assuming that the fuel pump is delivering fuel as in step #1, and not leaking into the oil pan (step #2), check and see if there is a sintered metal fuel filter in the carburetor housing where the cas line attaches to it. (there is on a Rochester quadrajet---I don't know about Edelbtock carbs)---Take the filter out and see if it is plugged ---if you can blow air through it, its not plugged.
The way your carburetor works is like this.---the float is hinged to pivot up and down, and there is a needle valve which is activated by a small "tang" or lever attached to the float near the pivot pin. When you put on a new carburetor and the float bowl is empty with no gasoline in it, the float hangs down (gravity), and the needle is "open", meaning that the tip of the needle is not seated tightly against the tapered seat in the carburetor, so that any gasoline coming out of the gas line can fill up the float chamber. As you crank the engine over the float chamber fills up with gasoline, the float floats upward and the "tang" (lever) on the float pushes against the end of the needle valve, causing the needle valve to "close" against its tapered seat and shut off the flow of gasoline entering the carburetor. The adjustment of exactly at what level the needle valve closes is a very critical carburetor setting. It sounds to me, based on your post that the needle valve is stuck in the open position, and as you keep cranking the engine over and it doesn't start, the gasoline fills up the float chamber and since the valve doesn't "close" and shut off the incoming flow of gasoline, that the gasoline is "spilling over" directly into the intake manifold, then travelling down the intake runners and into the cylinders, past the piston rings, and into your oil pan. The free operation of the float and needle valve, and the adjustment of the float to the correct height are critical.