Carb Rebuilt Tuned Up and WOW!!!!

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Mike's Dart

Mike's Dart

Dodging The Negative Darting Toward The Positive
Joined
Nov 20, 2016
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Location
McDermott, Ohio
What a great day! My brother put a kit in the carb, cleaned the pond mud out of it (at least that's what it looked like) and I tuned her up! I don't even know how that little car was running! If you did not know it was a slant 6 you would think it had a small V8 in it after todays work on her! It took almost three hours for the smile to fall off my face! Need to order a sending unit tomorrow to fix the fuel gauge and get the bushings to put the wiper linkage back together! Life is good, but it's great when I'm setting behind the wheel of my 1973 Dodge Dart!
 
That's right. I remember my Dad adjusting valves every couple of years or maybe even more often.

Wow Dan, what a beautiful car you had!
 
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Mike's Dart said:
If you did not know it was a slant 6 you would think it had a small V8 in it after todays work on her!
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Not sure I'd go quite that far, but we've become so accustomed to electronic ignition & fuel injection and how little maintenance modern vehicles require that we forget how performance falls off almost imperceptibly on older cars after a few thousand miles. Do a tune up and/or carb rebuild and WOW! what a difference.

Undeniably, the slant (or at least the 225...never driven one of the smaller ones) was a peppy engine, especially compared to the Ford 6's (170/200) of that era. My first car was a Falcon with a 144...what a slug!
 
slantsixdan said:
Real good! Did you adjust the valves, too?

(Your '73 Dart looks a lot like my old '73 Dart)
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No valve adjustment yesterday, I'm afraid it may run even better than it is now!:) I'll save the valve adjustment for a rainy day! R & R the sending unit is next so the fuel gauge will read accurate and then get the back glass pulled and sealed so the leak in the trunk will stop! It was really nice to get under the hood of an automobile that the common man can work on! I think I'll leave the grease under my fingernails for a few days!
:thumbsup:
 
I know the feeling. What carb was it? My 69 Dart idled rough and stumbled when leaving a stop light, sometimes stalling, for years. I tried several rebuilt carbs and rebuilt myself too, w/ little change, plus many other attempts (swapped intake, valve jobs, ... ). Finally, the 4th Holley 1920 made it run excellent. No mechanic could diagnose the problem. These days it isn't hard to install a wideband O2 sensor to monitor O/F and figure such things out.
 
BillGrissom said:
I know the feeling. What carb was it? My 69 Dart idled rough and stumbled when leaving a stop light, sometimes stalling, for years. I tried several rebuilt carbs and rebuilt myself too, w/ little change, plus many other attempts (swapped intake, valve jobs, ... ). Finally, the 4th Holley 1920 made it run excellent. No mechanic could diagnose the problem. These days it isn't hard to install a wideband O2 sensor to monitor O/F and figure such things out.
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Single Barrel Holley! The diaphragm part of the pump was wore out to where you could see right through it! No wonder it was leaking and not running too well! Love my old 73 Dart! I think I've got the fuel run down to a couple of gallons so I'll get the sending unit R&R'd this weekend!
 
My car was running okay, but I also sent my carb in to get rebuilt.
IMG_1920.JPG

I also got this message along with the carb.
Image.jpg

And my new Spectra tank (from Summit) arrived yesterday, about 2 months after I ordered it.
 
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g413 said:
My car was running okay, but I also sent my carb in to get rebuilt.
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I see new throttle shaft bushings and a proper recoat of the air horn casting. Looks like nice detail work (except uncoated steel screws, levers and linkages, which will rust). Where'd you send it? What'd it cost?
 
I sent it to UREMCO in Illinois. The cost was $200 which included shipping. For that price I wanted to get a rebuilt one, but I couldn't find one. The levers and linkages are just the original parts cleaned up - right? Why would they rust more than the original parts? The carb I sent in didn't really show much exterior rust. I think the rust he was referring to was rusty particles coming from the fuel tank that settled in the bowls.

I talked to him and he kind of chewed me out. He also told me I needed to replace the fuel pump. Actually the fuel pump had failed recently and I replaced it. I think the moral to this story is when you get a 50-year-old car, start cleaning up the fuel system from the tank and sending unit first.
 
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g413 said:
I sent it to UREMCO in Illinois. The cost was $200 which included shipping.
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Pretty good price.

For that price I wanted to get a rebuilt one, but I couldn't find one
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Good. Off-the-shelf "rebuilt" or "remanufactured" carburetors are junk. So are the Chinese "100% NEW!!!!!!!!!!" knockoffs.

The levers and linkages are just the original parts cleaned up - right? Why would they rust more than the original parts?
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'cuz most of them were originally plated against rust.
 
BillGrissom said:
I know the feeling. What carb was it? My 69 Dart idled rough and stumbled when leaving a stop light, sometimes stalling, for years. I tried several rebuilt carbs and rebuilt myself too, w/ little change, plus many other attempts (swapped intake, valve jobs, ... ). Finally, the 4th Holley 1920 made it run excellent. No mechanic could diagnose the problem. These days it isn't hard to install a wideband O2 sensor to monitor O/F and figure such things out.
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Lol! My '69 did the same thing, the little plastic rocker that actuates the PV lost the fragile"pin",so..... I replaced it...w/a 318-eddy DP-Holley 600!
 
when i got my 75 valiant it had been sitting for years. the fuel tank was full of goo. i cleaned and de-rusted it by using electrolysis and a lye solution for the electrolyte. it worked wonders! (note: be sure you hook the electrodes up correctly. if you get it backwards, you will destroy what you are trying to save!)

my personal recommendation is, try cleaning the sending unit by soaking it in a lye solution. it would be wise to go ahead and order a new fuel float, they are about seven bucks. since they are brass, even if you don't need it right away, they have an indefinite shelf life. you can see if your float leaks by using a hair dryer on the low setting (BE CAREFUL!). if it has tiny cracks in it (a very common condition, often very hard to see with the naked eye), the fuel will swell and seep out of the cracks. once you have made sure the tank is clean and you have a good float, make sure you have EXCELLENT ground (scrub strap and contact area w/ wire brush).

fuel sending units don't fail very often. it is usually a float or inadequate grounding. if your oil gauge, fuel gauge, and temperature gauge are all not working, you likely have a bad instrument voltage regulator ("IVR"). there is an excellent article on how to upgrade the IVR by mr. ehrenberg of Mopar Action fame. i posted a thread about it on the slantsix website. it cost me ten bucks and my gauges work!

congrats, and good luck!
 
BillGrissom said:
I know the feeling. What carb was it? My 69 Dart idled rough and stumbled when leaving a stop light, sometimes stalling, for years. I tried several rebuilt carbs and rebuilt myself too, w/ little change, plus many other attempts (swapped intake, valve jobs, ... ). Finally, the 4th Holley 1920 made it run excellent. No mechanic could diagnose the problem. These days it isn't hard to install a wideband O2 sensor to monitor O/F and figure such things out.
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Carb is a single barrel Holly! She runs really good now! 14.7 mpg checked today! Off to the Glass Shop in the morning to pull he back glass for a new seal job!

Mike
 
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