Help a NOOB - A continuing saga

[AussieinNC]

There should be a thick gasket between the carb and manifold...it appears to be missing from your install...

Make sure its there when you put new carb on...

If divorced choke cover still hits the levers, just tap the tin cover of the choke down a little so it clears...the cover only covers a small coil spring..just tap it down gently until it clears...

Doubt it would have caused the flooding, if anything, i would have been causing a lean condition stumble...

[ncpetersc]

Okay, I actually messed with it, and got it to not touch. Still flooding.

Going to brave the carb replacement. New carb came with new gasket but it looks similar in thickness to the existing one.

WISH ME LUCK!

[ncpetersc]

Oh and an admission of guilt.

I had siphoned one 5 gallon can out of the old tank before replacement.

I then purchased another can and put new fuel in it to put in the new tank.

A few hours ago I put about 2.5 gallons in the new tank just to fire it up (with existing carb) and check for leaks.

When I put the can back in the garage I realized I used the siphoned gas from the old tank! Not the new gas I bough specifically for this purpose!

These are the things I do... STUPID!

I only hope that the siphoned gas was "off the top" and didn't contain any crud.

GRRR.

[AussieinNC]

The pickup sock filter on the sender unit will keep any big crud out...

I wouldnt worry too much...

The thick gasket for the quadrajets acts a heat insulator, slowing down fuel percolation from heat etc.

Its about 1/4" thick...and usually black to dark grey...

Good luck young man...

[ncpetersc]

Well I installed the new carb and it runs. Took some video and don't see the fuel like before. Things seem good. I will have to find one of those gaskets and install soon, I just used the one that was on there.

Hopefully I'll get the oil changed tomorrow, and I can road test.

Excited about that!

Thanks again for all the help!

[Steeveedee]

The gas in the oil hopefully only dissolved a lot of the carbuncles in the crankcase. Whatever you do, don't drive it like that, if it hasn't been mentioned before. Diluted oil can allow some extremely quick wear on the bearings, if put under a load. Look carefully at your oil to see if it looks metallic when you drain it. Take pics and see if you can show that it does not have metal in the oil.

[ncpetersc]

Anxiously waited out a rain shower yesterday evening, and got the oil change done. Didn't see anything too concerning with what came out.

With that done, it was time for a ride! Waited (anxiously again) for my son to finish his supper, as he wasn't going to let me go without him!

I am pretty happy... it's running the best it has since I got the truck.

I still have a lot of things to fix and improve, and I will now be in the mode of trying to figure out what to do next.

Ride notes:
Transmission seemed to function flawlessly. Shift points seemed perfect to me, and it kicked down as it should. This was somewhat surprising to me, because the worst leak on the truck is from that transmission. I plan on looking into it sometimes soon.

Kicked down fine, but the response fuel wise left a lot to be desired. I don't know how to determine the whole secondaries open or not thing, but it really didn't respond and accelerate as I would like.

Noises. Clunks and rattles on small bumps. I am certain I'll have tired suspension parts to address, but am leaning towards putting those off until powertrain type of issues are mostly ironed out.

Other noises. I'll try to observe more specifically in future rides, but the truck whines pretty loudly while cruising, say say 30-45 mph. My uneducated guesses would be tranny or rear end? But it's a whine, you can "feel" if you know what I mean. The whine is accompanied by a vibration I think I can feel in my feet.

Brakes. They work fine, but I really would like to go with a booster upgrade at some point. You have to press pretty dang hard, just to keep her still at a stop light!

Next Steps:
Now that I appear to have a properly operating carb, I'll probably play with tuning, rechecking timing, and maybe try idle adjustments using my vacuum gauge. I'm sure I'll have questions about that when I try...

THANK YOU!:
I know with my luck this 'good' feeling won't last and something else will fall apart. But I want to thank you all again for all the help with this! You guys have helped me get this truck running better than it has in years. THANKS A BUNCH!!