Road trip day! *long post
Erik and his boy Daniel (5 yrs old) arrived bright and early on Friday morning at 8 am. After going over my recent work that he had not yet seen, we fired her up and took her for a test drive. We got 4 blocks from the house when white smoke started rising up from under the cab. The trans fluid was still leaking! It was now worse than before, somehow, and seemed to be coming from where the dipstick meets the pan. We drove a few more blocks to Roxbury Auto Parts to get a new gasket for the dipstick. Well, a Turbomatic 400 isn’t supposed to have a gasket, just an o-ring. Apparently yet another thing the PO did wrong was slap the WRONG DIPSTICK in the transmission and used a repair gasket to make it work. With a $20 part, a few more test runs and only a few hours late, we got on the road with a bunch of tools, spare parts and no more leaks.
Our path of travel was from West Seattle to I-5 North, then jump on I-90 East until Cle Elum. That first half of the trip is 100 miles and crosses one mountain pass. The second leg of the trip was another 100 miles along Highway 970 over Blewitt Pass, then 97 and 97a along the Columbia River to Lake Chelan. We had planned on making stops at 25 and 50 miles during the first half of the trip to check the truck. We made it 18 before troubles started.
After cruising along on I-90 for about 10 minutes the engine started to stumble and surge from lack of fuel. We had just topped off the tank 15 minutes prior, so I knew there was a delivery issue. Pulling off the freeway into the nearest gas station we popped the hood and started inspecting the fuel lines. No leaks, but the clear in-line filter wasn’t a full as it usually is. Pulling the fuel line from the carb we checked the little paper filter in the carb inlet, gunked. Of course it was one of the few small parts that I hadn’t grabbed a spare for. Luckily there was an O’Reillys a few blocks away, unluckily the kid behind the counter was about as bright as a bag of rocks.
“We need a carb filter for a 1971 Rochester Quadrajet”
“You mean the fuel filter?”
“No, the filter in the carburetor”
“There isn’t a filter in a carburetor”
…tap tap tap on phone...
“yes, this one” showing him the part on the O’Rielly’s website…
We, Erik and myself, were able to find the filter we needed on their website using our phones before the kid could find a part number on his computer. We threw the new filter in, started her up and right away the fuel filter went back to the right level, but we also had leaks. The fittings at the carb fuel inlet were leaking through a bad seal. So after another 45 min of dealing with brick-for-brains behind the counter we were able to get what we needed and get back on the road. “East bound and down…” maybe we shouldn’t have celebrated too soon.
5 miles later we were having the same symptoms as before and pulled off the freeway again. There was a kink in the fuel line right after the filter. That wasn’t the problem. Our only option left was the fuel pump, an item I had remembered to grab a replacement for. The old one was clearly in need of the replacement as the arm basically flopped up and down freely when we pulled it out. Had I known how simple these pumps are to swap out before this, I would have done it before I put the engine in. In less than 15 minutes the engine cranked back to life with all systems showing strong fuel pressure. Too strong apparently. Gas started seeping out of the carburetor from every possible opening, spilling down over the intake and engine. After a few more attempts at starting and stopping the engine with the same results we were stuck. Not having the skills or confidence to tear apart the carb in a parking lot we had two options; quit or get a new carb.
I know that there are experienced guys and girls that know exactly what’s wrong with my Quadrajet and could have fixed in right there, probably with a well placed hit from a hammer. I’m not that guy, yet. Another thing about me is that when I say I’m on a budget build, I mean that in the more restrictive of terms. Spending money on this truck has always been a calculated balancing act of what I need to buy new vs. what I can find on craigslist or what I can rebuild or make. The Quadrajet was complete and came with the engine in running condition, why would I waste money on a new part when I had a perfectly good one? I did go through the effort of rebuilding it and it had functioned well on the truck up until now. While I don’t have a ton of money, I do have an amazing woman. She had been following us in her car, a “reliable modern vehicle”, and was almost as disappointed as me when things turned for the worst. This was her response to the news that the carb wasn’t working: “well, just buy a new one and let’s get back on the road” Problem solved!
There was a Napa about a mile away that had an Edlebrock 1406 on the shelf, so we quickly ran and grabbed it. “Ten minutes” is how long it take to do anything according to Erik, and he wasn’t that far off. 30 minutes after popping the hood I was turning the key and true to the box’s slogan “Bolt on and Run Right Out of the Box!” the engine fired up on the second crank. Erik was manning the throttle linkage and was revving her up to make sure we were good to go.
The good news, the Edlebrock preformed great; the bad news, with proper fuel delivery we were able to hear a bigger problem.
Above 2000 rpm the 1971 350ci small block was backfiring through the carburetor so much that it would barely stay running. Flattened cam lobes were causing valves to be open when they shouldn’t be and it was no longer an “internal combustion” engine. A very bitter end to a long day. We found the nearest brew pub and conducted some liquid and bacon therapy while we waited for the tow truck to show up.
Cheesy TV Announcer Voice:
Next week on
“First Time Car Builder” we get to see Outlaw pull the engine and swap in a new cam kit from Comp Cams! Stay tuned!!