New carb?

[Ktmrida4life]

Need some help.

My uncle has a 65 Dodge Coronet w/ a 383 and a 4 barrel carb. It hasnt been driven it in the past 20 years or so, but he goes outside and starts it up every few weeks to let it run a little bit.

Heres some background on the car. Stock everything. Carb has been rebuilt twice, once many many years ago, and by me a year ago. It does not hold gas in the carb bowl, it just leaks out all over the back of the engine. Replaced mechanical fuel pump earlier this year. All electrical stuff is original.. distributor, plugs, wires, etc. Car doesnt have an exhaust right now, just stock manifolds.

A few days ago we go to start it up.. and we do the same ritual as always. Take air cleaner off, pour a little gas in.. and give er hell and see what happens. Well, it started up but was running very badly. Just sounded ROUGH. Then I looked under the hood and saw flames shooting out the carb, lots of them.. hoping it would go away, we let it run a good 15 seconds more or so, and the flames didnt stop. Shut car off, still flames, I try to blow them out (stupid move) and because of the fuel leak I described earlier, the whole backside of the block + carb caught on fire. Had to get the extinguisher.. started it back up afterwards, and it was doing "better", but still not great. No flames at least.


Something similar to this (No fire!) happened about a month ago. It was running very poorly and wouldnt even hardly start up. After much trying, it finally cranked up and ran much better.


Not sure what the deal is, but we want to drive the car to an exhaust shop eventually to have an exhaust put on. We cant do it in the shape the car is in right now obviously and I want to get it running much much better. I want to start with replacing the carb. If necessary, I want to replace the coil/distributor/plugs/wires if that will help it as well, but I figure the carb is a good starting point. Heres some pictures of what I have right now.

I just dont know where to start. I know a good bit about newer cars, assembled a few engines, replaced all sorts of stuff on a car... but cars this old are lost with me so Im asking for help here. I want something at least equivalent of OEM and wont be too much of a hassle to install, the closer to a bolt in it is the better.

Any suggestions? If I get a different carb, do I need a different intake?

 

[Meep-Meep]

Hmmm, as far as gas gushing out it's possible you have the float too high or the float is sticking open. That causes the fuel to rise in the bowl until it pours out of the main discharge, then it fills the throttle bores and eventually floods the engine and leaks out of the throttle shafts. A good back fire will cause the fire with all that gas. There is no reason to get a new carb unless there is major damage to that old AFB. And you wouldn't have to change the intake as long as the new carb has the provision for the narrow bolt pattern, which your intake has. I believe Edelbrock carbs will work with the narrow pattern.

 

[Ktmrida4life]

Hmmm, as far as gas gushing out it's possible you have the float too high or the float is sticking open. That causes the fuel to rise in the bowl until it pours out of the main discharge, then it fills the throttle bores and eventually floods the engine and leaks out of the throttle shafts. A good back fire will cause the fire with all that gas. There is no reason to get a new carb unless there is major damage to that old AFB. And you wouldn't have to change the intake as long as the new carb has the provision for the narrow bolt pattern, which your intake has. I believe Edelbrock carbs will work with the narrow pattern.

What would be considered major damage? Inside the carb, everything is very very corroded and green. When I rebuilt it, Im pretty sure I replaced the float needles.

What would you recommend if I wanted to totally rebuild this carb? I would want to replace everything, and Im pretty sure if I spent enough time on it I could get it clean.. Im cool with fixing what I got, if its possible.. I figured with a new carb, I know its "good"

 

[Ktmrida4life]

You know what, I may find someone that knows what they are doing and ship it to them and have them totally rebuild it. Do you know anyone? There are a few people on ebay that I have found.

 

[Ktmrida4life]

Cleaned what felt like a few pounds of dirt off of the flywheel pulley today and found 3 pairs of separate marks on it. Anyone know which pair of marks is TDC?

Anyway, we started it up again today. This time instead of pouring gas in the carb, we just tried cranking it. Took quite a bit of cranking, but it finally started up. Lots of white smoke for about 5 seconds, and then it stopped. It actually sat and idled for a minute before we shut it off. The timing cant be too far off because it does start up and idle like it should, even if it is a bit rough.. but heres the issues it has.


1- Carb doesnt hold fuel for whatever reason, so its a pain to start up. Not sure if its leaking onto the back of the block, or into the intake.
2- Once the car DOES start up, lots of white smoke as if it is flooded.. then no more smoke.
3- Choke is broken. It has the linkage coming up out of the intake that is supposed to move as it heats up. It is stuck open. Is it possible to convert to electric using the same carb? (carter AFB as seen in pictures above)
4- When trying to rev it up, the higher you rev it the more it spits back when the revs are coming back down. I dont know if I would call it a backfire, like gunshot loud backfire, but its not quiet and I would call it more than popping.

 

[Meep-Meep]

I think you have more things going on than just the carb. Go back and check the firing order. Dist rotates CCW and the order is 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2. TDC marker on the balancer is usually a square cut notch; should be easy to spot after you clean it.

 

[Ktmrida4life]

I think you have more things going on than just the carb. Go back and check the firing order. Dist rotates CCW and the order is 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2. TDC marker on the balancer is usually a square cut notch; should be easy to spot after you clean it.

A square cut notch in what, the pulley or behind that? Its pretty clean and I didnt see any notches.

Excuse me for my ignorance, Im not sure how to check the firing order. I have never messed with a distributor or timing before. I took the distributor cap off today and looked in there but didnt learn much from that.

Is it as simple as looking at the top of the cap, and following the plug wires in a circle CCW and making sure they go to the cylinders in that order?

 

[70redbee]

I think you need to take it to someone who can diagnose your problem as you seem not to know. I am not trying to be harsh, just want to help. The first thing you need to do is stop trying to get it runnig with a gas leak. You are going to set the car on fire, you already have at least once and you were lucky. After fixing the leak then check for the other problems. Good luck

 

[Ktmrida4life]

I think you need to take it to someone who can diagnose your problem as you seem not to know. I am not trying to be harsh, just want to help. The first thing you need to do is stop trying to get it runnig with a gas leak. You are going to set the car on fire, you already have at least once and you were lucky. After fixing the leak then check for the other problems. Good luck

Car is not mine, it is my uncles, and he isnt going to let it go anywhere. Hasnt left his driveway in probably 20 years.

 

[67 coronet]

your uncle should invest in a shop manual if you are gonna fix the car yourselves.it will tell you,with pictures,things like how to check firing order and timming along with everything else about the car.the fact that the carb runs out of fuel overnight worries me a bit.i would pull it back off the car and fill it up with gas and try to find where it is leaking.if it is cracked it is junk and anything else you do will be useless.

 

[dave5237]

Hello. What you could do in the meantime is do some reading ( shop manual or internet). Pulling things off the car and not knowing really sure what your looking at is going to get you into more trouble ( hose detaching, plug wire falling off, loose wire coming off on accident or something )

 

[Ktmrida4life]

your uncle should invest in a shop manual if you are gonna fix the car yourselves.it will tell you,with pictures,things like how to check firing order and timming along with everything else about the car.the fact that the carb runs out of fuel overnight worries me a bit.i would pull it back off the car and fill it up with gas and try to find where it is leaking.if it is cracked it is junk and anything else you do will be useless.

What is the best way to go about filling it up out of the car? I will do that.

 

[Ktmrida4life]

Hello. What you could do in the meantime is do some reading ( shop manual or internet). Pulling things off the car and not knowing really sure what your looking at is going to get you into more trouble ( hose detaching, plug wire falling off, loose wire coming off on accident or something )

Where can I get a shop manual for the car? He has a decent shop manual from the 60's but its so old there is no mention of a 65 coronet anywhere in it.

 

[67 coronet]

What is the best way to go about filling it up out of the car? I will do that.

just por in through the bowl vent on top.or you can pull the top back off the carb.(wont normally damage any gaskets)you can even fill it from where the fuel goes in normally with a funnel and a peice of fuel hose,floats should shut it off when full with this method.

 

[Ktmrida4life]

Tried to start car again today and we couldnt even get it to start. It is a fire waiting to happen.. there is gas dumping everywhere.

Uncle gave me the OK to find a replacement carb. He says he wants to keep the stock intake if possible! Can someone help me locate a carb that will work? Also, is there some standard jetting that comes in a carb that will work OK for a 383? Dont really want to rejet...

 

[Ktmrida4life]

Also, does anyone know a good way to clean the gas tank while in car? My uncle wont let me remove it for whatever reason... about 20-30 years ago he drilled a hole in it and drained all the gas out, and capped it with a self tapping screw. I removed the screw and drained all the gas.

It is GREEN!!! Like antifreeze green. What the heck could cause that? Is there a decent way to flush out the tank with it in car? Want to do this before I get a new carb.

 

[67 coronet]

only problem with cleaning the tank in the car is you have no way to agitate any chemical you could get in there.if gas came out green there is some bad contamination and if you dont drop the tank and clean it properly you will have nothing but further problems.

 

[Ktmrida4life]

Also, now that Im looking more into carbs... isnt mine actually an AVS and not an AFB?

 

[furyus]

I think you should listen to what's been said before. Stop trying to start that car! You could burn it and your uncle's house down. What is your reason for trying to start it? Is your uncle going to let you drive it? Doesn't sound like it. Don't waste time or money putting a carb on this car until your uncle comes to his senses and lets you replace all the fuel lines and have that tank cleaned and the hole soldered shut. You will just ruin the new carb by flushing all that junk from the tank and lines into it.

 

[Budnicks]

A square cut notch in what, the pulley or behind that? Its pretty clean and I didnt see any notches.

Excuse me for my ignorance, Im not sure how to check the firing order. I have never messed with a distributor or timing before. I took the distributor cap off today and looked in there but didnt learn much from that.

Is it as simple as looking at the top of the cap, and following the plug wires in a circle CCW and making sure they go to the cylinders in that order?

1st thing is, I would highly suggest you invest in a "FACTORY SERVICE MANUAL" for your specific year, make & model of car... Educate yourself some on these "older cars with distributors & carburetors".... Everything your asking, is very well explained in them, also drawing & schematics for referring back to... Good luck