Holly carb running rich

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fishman

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Just got the 408 in my 69 cuda running. I used a holly street avenger carb. The thing was way rich out of the box. I had to take it to a friend thats a carb man. He spent some time with it and got it right. The reason i'm posting this is in case anyone has this problem. Make sure you oil didn't get any fuel in it, mine did and thined the oil to the point that my oil pressure dropped about 10 psi. I caught the problem with out any damage. So if you install a holly be careful that it is setup right. This carb wouldn't have worked out of the box on any engine combo.
 
most carb need adjustments out of the box...holley can not build a carb went they have no idea what kind of engine the carb is going on..
 
What size street avenger? What compression ratio? Which cam? How much timing? Which intake manifold?

There's a lot of factors in picking the right carb, a 408 with a different set up (as above) than yours would need totally different carb tuning...
 
You know I have heard a lot of people complain about holley, I have never had a problem with holley my biggest problems were edlebrock. I wonder if differences in climate could play a factor.
 
The only thing that can pour that much fuel into an engine is a bad float adjustment. This can be very easily resolved. These carbs get banged around quite a bit in shipping.
 
There was no easy adj. for this one. The guy I had fix it has been racing small block mopars for 30 years. He knows carbs it wasn't a turn of a screw or a simple float adj. he had to drill a small hole in the throttle blades. Some holleys come that way. I didn't put this on here to get bashed about how little I know about carbs, I was just trying to help someone that may be going thru this same thing. Thats why I took it to a pro, He runs a W8 motor he put together a couple years ago and has been in the low 8's. He is the best carb man I know and there is several members on this sight that have had there cars to him for final tunning.
 
I don't think anyone is trying to bash you, but if you want to help us out we'd have to know more about your engine set up and the particular size carb you're running. Otherwise the fact that one unknown size street avenger ran too rich on your mystery 408 isn't really all that useful. After all, I wouldn't be too surprised if an 870 street avenger ran too rich on a generic 408, but I might be a little surprised if a 670 street avenger did.
 
Street avenger carbs don't work with big cams out of the box and are not the best choice holley for anything above 224*@.050

Sounds like it wouldn't idle so he drilled the butterfly to pick up signal, it must have only wanted to idle with the main at 1000 plus rpm.
 
Im experiencing ritch idle also, but runs great @ higher rpm`s. I have crane, 284. edelbrock rpm air gap, holly 770 street avenger, tti headers. Im not a tuner, but would like any advice on this setup, 69 340 x head. 2nd gen A body. over carbed? bad cam choice? shitty throttle response, have to rev high to get going. also 4 spd. Thanks
 
mopar head said:
Im experiencing ritch idle also, but runs great @ higher rpm`s. I have crane, 284. edelbrock rpm air gap, holly 770 street avenger, tti headers. Im not a tuner, but would like any advice on this setup, 69 340 x head. 2nd gen A body. over carbed? bad cam choice? shitty throttle response, have to rev high to get going. also 4 spd. Thanks[/Q

This is the same thing I was dealing with. I took it Tommy Corbett he is a master at carb work. He understands what it takes.This motor is a 408 w/ a 508/ 511 solid lift cam w/harland sharpe roller rockers w/236/242 @50. fairly small cam. It makes good vac. this may add to the problem. That also means that it was put together right. It is a holley 780 street advenger. The heads are from Indy and are somewhat stock w/202. Some people need to know everything but when Tommy says this carb won't work w/ any setup I know he is right. If you need to know just what he did I will try to find out. He is not the kind to get on here and argue over what is right and what some other people think are right. I hope I can help someone out with this same problem.
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72bluNblu said:
I don't think anyone is trying to bash you, but if you want to help us out we'd have to know more about your engine set up and the particular size carb you're running. Otherwise the fact that one unknown size street avenger ran too rich on your mystery 408 isn't really all that useful. After all, I wouldn't be too surprised if an 870 street avenger ran too rich on a generic 408, but I might be a little surprised if a 670 street avenger did.
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As I said my problem is solved I posted this to help anyone that might be having the same problem...
 
fishman said:
As I said my problem is solved I posted this to help anyone that might be having the same problem...
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Where is this guy located? web site? Your not to awful far from me, maybe I could ship this carb to him if possible. I dont know if you can ship a carb that has or had gas in it. Or maybe other members can chime in to resolve this problem Thanks.
 
mopar head said:
Where is this guy located? web site? Your not to awful far from me, maybe I could ship this carb to him if possible. I dont know if you can ship a carb that has or had gas in it. Or maybe other members can chime in to resolve this problem Thanks.
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He is in Newport News Va. I'm sure he can get it right.He will need to know some info on your motor. Check to make sure your oil dosn't smell like gas before you run it again, also pull a plug to see if it is black. After his adj. I ran mine down the road and they were already turning brown and now are tan
 
mopar head said:
Is he a business or friend? pm if you dont want to put his name out there. But I guess he would need the veihicle to actually tune the carb, eh?
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No he will not need the car, he can do it of the the car and it will be right. He builds his own carbs that work better than anything you can buy over the counter. I've watched him test and get a couple of tenths out of the right carb. He has a high dollar Barry Grant that sits in the box because he can make an old holley run better. I can check with him to make sure but I'm sure he can help. If youwant send me an email and I will get back to you, dont think I will get him to do anything on a computer LOL.
 
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