Holly Carburetor

I went to start my car the other day, and it kept dying. Thinking that the power valve might have been blown, I took off the front bowl, removed the power valve, and did the "can I blow through the diaphragm test" I was not able to blow through it, so I figure that's it is good. I have not adjusted the timing or changed out any of the jets. I put it all back together, and it still will not idle. If I let off the gas it dies. It is also backfiring out of the exhaust. Perhaps I need to go from the 65 to a 45?

You may have a vacuum leak.

Hey Dan, if the power valve was blown, then at idle you would have a rich situation. A blown power valve also would not cause a back fire.

A vacuum leak like GMC said might be the problem so just check for broken hoses or hoses which are not in place.

If your two problems are related, my guess would be that your timing is off by 15 degrees or so and your cap is cracked or you have moisture in it,....I am talking about the cap on your distributor. Yeap, you might be having a little moisture problem in your own cap over this, but that is all I can think of and both of these would be easy fixes.

I will look into both possibilities :) Thank you both :)

Also if one of the bolts that holds your carborator to your intake manifold is stripped, it could create a vacuum leak.

I came to the conclusion that it was not the power valve. I then replaced all of my spark plugs(which were all carbon fouled). I'm going to replace all the gaskets on the carb(I found a crack in one of the gaskets) Will keep you updated. Thanx for all the help :)

One more thing you might check for is bad gas. The gas sold nowadays isn't that great at holding up for extended periods of time (like in the case of our hotrods over the winter). If the car ran good a while back and suddenly it wont run for s#!t, I would start by checking the gas. If the gas is bad, it could also lead to sticking exhaust valves (schalacked gas coats the stems and causes them to stick). This could lead to the "backfiring" through the exhaust that you are experiencing. If you find this to be the case, try running the engine and SLOWLY pouring some automatic tranny fluid down the carb while the engine is running. As I mentioned in a previous post, the burning ATF actually lubricates the valve stem and can free it up. Hope you get it running.

Firechicken

Got her fixed.....just took it all apart.....put it together......and WALA!!!!! O yea it helps if you dont mix up your 2 and 4 spark plug wires as well :)