In this first episode we goover the Idle and main circuit functions of a Holley carb Powellmachineinc.com • We are giving away a R... / powellmachineinc
My main issue was I couldn't get them to idle. The problem was fixed with Mr. Johnson took the well caps out drilled the wells out with a drill Chuck in hand. Then replaced the plugs and drilled out the orifice for idle fuel controlled by the idle mixture screws. It took 3 steps up in size to correct the issue. At that point I had 1 1/2 turns out on the idle screws. Prior to this I had to have the throttle blades front and rear open way to much. With this it was way rich and would foul plugs and wash the cylenders down. Oil smelled like gasoline. Mr. Johnson sat me in a chair and drew on his board drew on paper talked way over my head and went back over that with layman's terms . I certainly needed the layman's terms. He was very generous to me. Giving me that knowledge for free. I just wish I would have went to him much sooner. He told me a lot of stories about himself, smokey and many others. One good guy.
I was very fortunate to get to meet Ralph Johnson. I had several holley carbs that I had bought trying to get one to work on my engine. Took them to several carburetor shops in my area to have them fixed. I had no clue what was wrong with them. Finally, my engine builder told me to go out to crane cams and meet Mr. Johnson. I didn't feel comfortable going out to meet him because I was young and didn't have a clue. I figured he wouldn't have time for me. I put it off. Bought all those carburetors and spent money having them gone, though. Finally I got desperate and went to meet Mr. Johnson. He welcomed me in and listened to my problems. I went to him several times and he tought me a lot about the holley carburetor. By no means am I an expert. But I did get to where I could help many others. This video will help many.
Great explanation of a controlled drip fuel system! Kids today are super afraid of them. They don’t even want to learn. Hell even new snow blowers are fuel injected. You are a great teacher, you explanation with out a script or lesson plan is dead on and easy to follow. You are an asset to the engine community thanks for the videos! Side note a good vacuum gauge can tell you a lot about the heath and tune of a motor.
Nice video man.....Been a MANY Carb. cussed at and called junk....When most of the time it is a person not knowing how to work on them! They always get the blame!
I’ve come back to this video again for a second time. I just swapped my mustang to carb with a set of Promaxx 185 heads and under carbed it with a 650. Taking jet out and still fouling plugs. Just now got it to be too lean, bogging and stuff with a 64 in the front. Buddy she screams at wot though. I’m getting ready to put 65 in front and recheck plugs after a drive. 66 blackened the plugs so I hope it be good. Probably need a wide band to make this easier on me like you said.
Great explanation Daniel,,Most probs with idle speed,butterfly position and transition,is that a lot of folks aren't running enough timing at idle,and /or manifold vacuum timing,as you explain in the part 2 video.More timing at idle also gives you more manifold vacuum as throttle blade is more closed,as added timing raises idle rpm.. I myself have my dizzy set at 20 deg initial,32 max,no vac,I will be playing around with vacuum,I fell into the common thought that it might be possible to draw vacuum at WOT,pulling in timing and detonating with the dizzy at full advance,,cheers
Hi Daniel, Have you ever opened the secondary throttle blades to get more air to get a Holley to Idle? I have and got my adjustment back! I mean not even a 1/16 of a turn did it. This was on a 780 3310 . Now maybe it was off in the first place, but that helped me. I tried putting pieces of wire in the idle restrictors on some carbs to see if that made a change! The hole in the throttle blades I guess is the way it's should be done but you have to sneak up on it right! On the street it gets alittle frustrating , but when you get it right and the plugs last,It's miller time! I really like this series Daniel thanks for the time and effort!👍💯%
Love your tech tuning videos, I used to read plugs by color and timing mark,I never realized how much more by cutting the plug ,still learning at 68 years old lol . Love to learn more about power valves ,I always though they were transition from idle to mains i was wrong lol. Cheers from Australia.
I had a tri-power 389 Pontiac as well as several 4 barrel carbs over the years and can say that a properly tuned carb. will run with the best and leave some change in your pocket.. thank you for bringing the past to the present..
I agree with your explanations and commend you for taking the time to explain it to those who have never had to deal with a carb. I do Holley, Rochester, Carter, Mikuni etc. My mentor in the 70's was a Marine Sargent mechanic. He was a smoker and followed all of the passeges with smoke. Your talk about the Wideband and it's an absolute must to tuning properly. I do domestic stuff and have since 1976ish but also do EFI which is a WHOLE DIFFERENT BALLGAME with numbers. Thanks for putting out your videos for folks to understand what's going on inside, be it carbs or motors or cams. You do a SUPER job of explaining it.
thanks for the video carbs have really changed since i used to work on them cleaned up one a while back where we had to drill and tap now is already done makes it much better
Great timing Daniel, just two weeks ago when we took my buddies LS2 C6 vette into the tuner after doing, Heads, Cam, Exhaust and other little thing. I was talking to the tuner about my 306 sbf build, (still having a heck of a go round with the machine shop, eager to put your custom cam to work) about does he tune/dyno Carb cars, he does but suggested I look in Sniper2 or Aces Killshot. I have and certainly there are upsides, there are downsides as well, namely reliability. For now, I'm planning stick with a Carb for my project.... Road Race toy.
Back in the day , well before any of us regular guys knew anything about wide band sensors ...we guessed . It was guess ...then test ..then do some more guessing until we thought we had it right . For us guys with old cars , the cost of installing 8 sensors is cost prohibitive , if not entirely out of reach . However , in my mind , installing 8 sensors and buying software to support them , is the only way to actually know . Are we dead lean in one hole and fat in four others ? A guy cant tell without the hardware and a way to read it . I only watch a couple of car channels , you and Brand Racing engines always teach me something . Thanks for the hard work .
Great content as usual. A couple of very misunderstood things I see a lot when tuning for cruise the car should be in the high 14s not 12 cruising down the interstate at 60. Also the idle intermediate main and power circuits compound one another and the idle circuit is still at play at cruise. Hope you have the time to cover these two common misconceptions
I took a little deeper dive into carburetors after your video and based on all the possible adjustments and tuning parameters, I’ve decided I’m a direct fuel injection man! 🤓🤪
Much of my tuning issues have been attributed to fuel droplets getting centrifugally worked out of the main flow of the intake. So, I'm lean when cold (unburnt fuel). I installed a carb with a smaller venturi, and smaller jets, and achieved enrichment with the relatively low (altitude and engine wear) vacuum available. Better performance, better fuel-economy.
Agreed on the PV restrictions being the "jets" to tune for WOT if the cruise jetting is perfect, however there are precious few carbs other than the very high end Holley/etc and boutique "carb guru carbs" that have readily adjustable PV jets. I do like Holley's however the Edelbrock AVS-2 carbs are considerably more adjustable for the average guy that has an O2 in his car since the carb has the main jets as well as vacuum operated metering rods that are available in an alarming array of different sizes, along with different step up springs to determine when they are in the power "step". I rather enjoy setting up a marine engine on the dyno with an appropriate Edelbrock carb as you have infinite control where the engine will spend most of it's life with simple parts changes rather than a master class on tuning emulsion bleeds on a Holley.
dont do much carbs anymore but when i did was back in late 70s mostly 3310-1 would make them 4corner idle but the first thing i always did when i got the carb out of box was take apart and surface the front and rear and bottom of the carb , never seen one flat. then would set the slot to somewhere around .035 to .040 and leave alone then start out by adjusting the rear to get correct idle if that didn't work then did some drilling on butterflys next before i started drilling anything else and most of the time every time ran good and didn't have to go any further except for some minor jet changes these were mild street cars.
Sounds like will be a good series on HOLLEY carbs on the carb circuits how they work. I have watched where on dynos they have heat, AFR sensors on each exhaust port to tune engines in but in saying that it becomes a different story when it hits the track, on the forces of acceleration, deacceleration and cornering. 👍
I learnt a conceptual great point from you, good Sir. Main jets are for part throttle and the power valve holes are for wide open!!! Yes, off course, when pointed out. I just purchased 3 Edelbrock VRS 4150's. Two for a Clevland tunnel ram. The idea of 8 sensors is great advice, as maybe a dyno shop has such headers. For a guy in my budget. Pandamonium is how I would envisage a tunnel ram's inertia's fuel flow!!!!
@@powellmachineinc3179 Good to hear! I looked at my old 4150 metering block and it only got 2 emulsion holes, as you well know and they do a good job. It will be interesting to experience the modern update to that great foundational design.
That is absolutely the truth. So few people understand ignition timing. Even if you put a time and light on a late model vehicle if you could that suckers idling in a nearly 30° advance. Vacuum advance from manifold vacuum is absolutely critical if your car is going to run right at all
Don't need a timing light to see the timing on a modern engine. You can watch the timing with pretty much any decent scan tool. I work on modern vehicles every day, and have never seen one have 30 degrees at idle. LS and LT engines with radical cams are in the lower 20s at most. I'm not arguing with you, I've just never seen that.
@@mikeday8826 I know you're correct. Everything I work on is old school with a distributor. The ability to tune these modern engines is pretty incredible. I can get it very close with the carburetor and mechanical and vacuum advance but EFI is pretty incredible
There is never a need to drill holes in the throttle blades. If you cannot get enough idle air, you need more timing at idle, and/or need to open the secondary blades. But not to the point that the transfer slot is exposed. Another issue is all the new metering blocks with the IFR jet located above the fuel level in the bowl. then the fuel is not dampening intake pulses which pull the fuel through the block. This results in inconsistent fuel flow, and the fuel coming out of the feed orfices in droplets. Moving the IFR jets to low in the fuel blocks below fuel level, the way Holley engineers designed them to be, greatly improves idle stability, fuel delivery, and mixture screw response. And the larger the cam duration/overlap, the larger difference the change makes.
Well you should not view/listen to anymore of these videos. Clearly Daniel does not know what he is doing - according to you. Also it appears Daniel does not have any experience tuning carbies over the last umpteen years. You might wish to point us all at the videos you have created which explain how it should be done. In them you can list your experience over how many years. How many racing engines have you built and how successful were they? Did you do inlet manifold and cam combos til you found the right ones? I am sure all the rest of us would like to learn the right way to do things. Are you Smokey Yunich the second?
Thanks for the video. Can you touch on what carb changes/ adjustments you made to the 604 asphalt car w/ overboring .030 the cylinders? Also, cover more about properly adjusting/ cc sizing the primary & secondary accelerator pumps along with the different plastic cams (selection & hole adjustment) as it would apply to asphalt circle track racing? Thanks again!
So, in 1976 this video wasn't. There was a BBC in a 1996 Chevrolet Caprice. A 2 door of course. I bought it from my high school Geography teacher. He bought it brand new off the lot. Those days A "fella" had to find a book or two on the Holley carb. No internet, really no other sources of information were readily available. Carbs were Science and a science that not many would share, unless you would pay em. And there is no learning and self reliance doing that! Might have been on the 4160 and 4150 carbs. Ordered them, they arrived and then several hours were spent reading and getting some kinda understanding about the jist of the carb operation. The BBC had been pulled and treated to 12.5:1 compression ratio pistons, Manley roller trunion rocker arms a Torker 2.0 intake and a Holley carb, may have been the 850. Oh yes, and a solid lifter cam with a decent lift and a bit to much overlap for the street. Also a bunch of machine shop work. Now the fun part. No matter how methodical I and my friends were at adjusting the solid lifters and idling at 800 or so rpm we were Never Able to hear the da da dah dat da da dah dat of that big ole cam at idle. Reading the books and it became clear that the power valves needed to be checked. Yep 6.5 they were. However I only had a bit over 5 at idle. Power valves were open or mostly open at idle. Dropped down to 4.5 power valves and struggled to close and vacuum sucks that I found. Power brake booster, looking right at you! Got the idle vacuum up to almost 6.5 and the idle sounded great and could be adjusted. As soon as I heard the 6.5 was probably fine 98.9 percent of vehicles. That triggered the POWER VALVE memory and short story. FYI that big chevy went on to run 13.17 at 103 mph in the quarter mile. Fast fun and reliable. Oh yes, the factory gauge package had an engine vacuum gauge. It was about all we had other than a timing light and the factory tach.
Ohh, to many years have gone by now. Guess I'll never know what "fixed" that messy idle. Thanks for more information. I still have that carb in the basement, somewhere. Seems that they have gone up in price considerably since I purchased my 850. Also yours is a good example of how far book learning can take a guy/me and the benefit of years of hands on learning can take you.
Oh man this is the gravy i wish i had learned 40 years ago. My nephew is going to inherit his fathers '33 Ford coupe that's soon to get a 427 FE side oiler. I told his father to send that engine out to a highly qualified machine shop to be gone through to make sure it is rebuildable, Whether or Not it needs it! Correction; it has to be rebuilt. It has sat in a garage forever and that engine is way too valuable to send to some hack shop. I'm going to get your info tonight. Got it. My brother in law lives just outside Chapel Hill, North Carolina and i'm in Upstate New York. I'll make sure he get's your info so he can get the best help with his motor from someone that knows there stuff in the business . Preferably you but i'm sure you wouldn't mind pointing someone in the right direction if your plate is too full. Like i've said all along, you know your shit. And some people are just full of it.
I'm loving this type of videos is there anyway you can do a series on quadrajets I run pure stock class dirt track in SC and NC we have to run quadrajets or quadrajunks as some people call them 😂😂
The Right questions to a knowledgeable will get you answers, just DON"T argue to try to change to your own opinions.. Mouth shut,Ears open will get needed help..
I'm going to have to watch this one a few times. Great explanation. When I make my headers for my 1000+ hp Chevy I6 292 with the Ryan Falconer V-12 head should I put 6 AFR's in the header tubes and where in the tubes? Thank you for your time.
Great shit 🏁.... What I run on my dirt car... My biggest problem is I run a power valve block off an its killing my plugs at idle 🤦♂️... I have to run it so lean at idle it kills the sound of my cam 😂
I've experienced a similar problem on my drag car that I drive some on the street. You need to work on the idle air bleed and or idle fuel restrictor. Another area might be you need to put a "jet" in the hole for the transition slot. That would be in the main body not the base. that separates the tuning for each. The easiest remedy is to put the power valve back in and tune it from there, especially if you don't have an O2 censor, or if you don't understand in detail the idle and trans slot. You will almost never get it for part throttle, idle and wide open and especially if cruise is in play, without a power valve.
So, growing up around Holley and Carters, I have learned quite a bit. You are now making it more understandable compared to, say, Bill over at The Old Mans Garage, that insists on CARB use only. I am looking forward to the rest of the series. Will you be discussing Pump Shot, Pump Cam choice and adjustments also?
Awesome content! Don't worry about the length of the video. I look forward to many more in this series. Do you have an opinion on which location is preferable for the idle feed restriction in the metering block? And why one is better for one situation versus another? Thanks again!
Interesting on the intakes being difficult or weird to get to work right with a carb. My particular project right now involves the Dodge 440 Six Pack and the non-factory intakes, Edelbrock STR and the Weiand Six Pack intake. Both, particularly the Weiand, are what is recommended for the SS Dodge Six Pack cars. But the issue is the outboard 2300 on the Six Pack do not have accel pumps. Metering plates not blocks. This makes the single planes difficult to tune. I am in the process of creating the old Direct Connection Mechanical Six Pack that used to be sold. Instead of the center hung float bowl you have to run the side hung to get outboards with accel pumps. Apparently it's as simple as changing out the center hung for a side hung bowl to fit a 2300 with a metering block on the intake. My question is I am wondering if I want to use the Keith Dorton 2300 with the adj air bleed to add tuneability.
If you have a programmable ignition, you can run a more timing at idle which will raise the idle speed allowing you to close the throttle blades and covering up the transition slot more. It would be hard to do with a stock distributor though.
It's actually easy. Either move the vacuum signal to manifold vacuum (where science says it should be instead of a hack version of idle emissions.) and/or remove the mechanical advance degrees equal to the amount of additional advance you added to the distributor.
Ported vs unported depends on the canister calibration. Get a manifold vacuum canister and let the smog era die. If you're running a canister calibrated for port, connecting it to manifold vacuum kills your advance during throttle tip-in. I connect them based on their intended purpose but will switch to manifold type when available. Or, you could play with no vacuum advance at all (only mechanical advance), this has worked fine for me. I know people who prefer locking out advance entirely but those are mostly circle track setups.
looking forward to your deeper dive into the 4-corner idle adjustment on the holley carbs. that, plus lean drop/vacuum tuning and the other "weekend warrior" friendly tuning theories will be real helpful for people who might give up and go straight to the other brand carbs. shoot, even fuel pressure overcoming the needle / seat is another (possible, if not rare) headache people might not realize trying to tune a double pumper holley.
Another issue I rarely see covered that I have experienced on at least three holley's. For the idle mixture to be correct My idle set screws are only out 1/2 to 3/4 of a turn. I know I can drill out the idle air bleeds but how will this affect the intermediate circuit and transitioning to main Jet?
My holly street warrior lost fire from the pasitive on the battery and when it reconnected it back fired real loud do you think it blew the power valve .the reason i ask is because when i crank it up and try to excelerate it wont react to the peddle. Its a 302 c6 headers
Can you replay how you properly set the idle mix screws without a a vacuum gauge . All the “tutorials” and literature say to put a vacuum gauge on. As you know most of us racers don’t even have a vacuum port to access for a gauge.
I have always been told and have been planning my project engine under the assumption that Holley's are for racing and Edelbrock's are for daily driving??? Is this something you've seen or is that just myth??? Reason i say this is my project a Ford 300 w/240 head, and i want to keep it very close to stock just to see what i can get out of that engine by just refining the parts it already has.
@powellmachineinc3179 Non-fixable problems, or are there ways to refine them out with a little ingenuity? I am just relatively new to all this and trying to gain information as I go.
Oh dog. I can't wait to hear about all the messages you're about to get from ''experts''. Especially the ones that don't realize a lot of carb problems are ignition problems.
@@powellmachineinc3179 In that case, mention you should always use manifold vacuum when setting up your idle settings (while using a vacuum gauge). That should do it! lol
Drilling holes in the blades ?? 1050dominator SBC i increase the idle air bleeds to 62s IFR to 28s vac12hg , new blades without drilled holes 20mpg drag drivw combo, cruise 16 AFRs
I love those people who have a mildly worked engine is that they over size the carb with a 750 double pumper and then wonder why they can’t adjust it to work properly and then get pissed when I tell them to down size the CFM to a smaller cab Oh well can lead a horse to water but can’t get them to drink
I have commented a few times. So, I am a Mobile Boat Mechanic. The information you put out here is fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing!
Our pleasure!
The more I listen to your excellent explanations, the more I appreciate your deep store of knowledge and experience. Keep them coming, please.
Much appreciated
Thank you for doing this series! Its very beneficial to hear the rights and wrongs from a professional 👍
Glad you like them!
Most tuners will not share this information. Thank you !
My main issue was I couldn't get them to idle. The problem was fixed with Mr. Johnson took the well caps out drilled the wells out with a drill Chuck in hand. Then replaced the plugs and drilled out the orifice for idle fuel controlled by the idle mixture screws.
It took 3 steps up in size to correct the issue.
At that point I had 1 1/2 turns out on the idle screws.
Prior to this I had to have the throttle blades front and rear open way to much. With this it was way rich and would foul plugs and wash the cylenders down. Oil smelled like gasoline.
Mr. Johnson sat me in a chair and drew on his board drew on paper talked way over my head and went back over that with layman's terms .
I certainly needed the layman's terms. He was very generous to me. Giving me that knowledge for free. I just wish I would have went to him much sooner.
He told me a lot of stories about himself, smokey and many others.
One good guy.
I was very fortunate to get to meet Ralph Johnson.
I had several holley carbs that I had bought trying to get one to work on my engine. Took them to several carburetor shops in my area to have them fixed.
I had no clue what was wrong with them.
Finally, my engine builder told me to go out to crane cams and meet Mr. Johnson. I didn't feel comfortable going out to meet him because I was young and didn't have a clue. I figured he wouldn't have time for me.
I put it off. Bought all those carburetors and spent money having them gone, though.
Finally I got desperate and went to meet Mr. Johnson. He welcomed me in and listened to my problems.
I went to him several times and he tought me a lot about the holley carburetor.
By no means am I an expert. But I did get to where I could help many others.
This video will help many.
Ty! I appreciate that
@powellmachineinc3179 nope we all appreciate you and sharing your knowledge.
I had absolutely no idea how to read a plug properly. Yet again thank Daniel.
Absolutely 💯
Great explanation of a controlled drip fuel system! Kids today are super afraid of them. They don’t even want to learn. Hell even new snow blowers are fuel injected. You are a great teacher, you explanation with out a script or lesson plan is dead on and easy to follow. You are an asset to the engine community thanks for the videos! Side note a good vacuum gauge can tell you a lot about the heath and tune of a motor.
I really appreciate that!! 💯, I try hard.
Nice video man.....Been a MANY Carb. cussed at and called junk....When most of the time it is a person not knowing how to work on them! They always get the blame!
Definitely
Nice video. The way you explain things is awesome, easy to understand. Ty
Glad it was helpful!
I’ve come back to this video again for a second time. I just swapped my mustang to carb with a set of Promaxx 185 heads and under carbed it with a 650. Taking jet out and still fouling plugs. Just now got it to be too lean, bogging and stuff with a 64 in the front. Buddy she screams at wot though. I’m getting ready to put 65 in front and recheck plugs after a drive. 66 blackened the plugs so I hope it be good. Probably need a wide band to make this easier on me like you said.
Right on!
Great explanation Daniel,,Most probs with idle speed,butterfly position and transition,is that a lot of folks aren't running enough timing at idle,and /or manifold vacuum timing,as you explain in the part 2 video.More timing at idle also gives you more manifold vacuum as throttle blade is more closed,as added timing raises idle rpm.. I myself have my dizzy set at 20 deg initial,32 max,no vac,I will be playing around with vacuum,I fell into the common thought that it might be possible to draw vacuum at WOT,pulling in timing and detonating with the dizzy at full advance,,cheers
Definitely! Ty
Where was this video in 1973 when I was tuning the LT1 350 I put into my Vega? I could have used this information.
I wasn't bor till 74, so u were a little early
@@powellmachineinc3179 Yeah, I'm older than dirt. But being a teenager in the 60's was a hoot, given the cars and the music.
He got into the world as soon as he could 😂
Too Much Too early ….. Remember, Tech has to catch up
I tossed the big holley on my 455 in favor of a thermoquad. Still runs great, no dead spots.
As always, thank you!
💯
Hi Daniel, Have you ever opened the secondary throttle blades to get more air to get a Holley to Idle? I have and got my adjustment back! I mean not even a 1/16 of a turn did it. This was on a 780 3310 . Now maybe it was off in the first place, but that helped me. I tried putting pieces of wire in the idle restrictors on some carbs to see if that made a change! The hole in the throttle blades I guess is the way it's should be done but you have to sneak up on it right! On the street it gets alittle frustrating , but when you get it right and the plugs last,It's miller time! I really like this series Daniel thanks for the time and effort!👍💯%
Yes, but we set all the throttle blades before hamd
Love your tech tuning videos, I used to read plugs by color and timing mark,I never realized how much more by cutting the plug ,still learning at 68 years old lol . Love to learn more about power valves ,I always though they were transition from idle to mains i was wrong lol. Cheers from Australia.
Glad to help
I had a tri-power 389 Pontiac as well as several 4 barrel carbs over the years and can say that a properly tuned carb. will run with the best and leave some change in your pocket.. thank you for bringing the past to the present..
I agree with your explanations and commend you for taking the time to explain it to those who have never had to deal with a carb. I do Holley, Rochester, Carter, Mikuni etc. My mentor in the 70's was a Marine Sargent mechanic. He was a smoker and followed all of the passeges with smoke. Your talk about the Wideband and it's an absolute must to tuning properly. I do domestic stuff and have since 1976ish but also do EFI which is a WHOLE DIFFERENT BALLGAME with numbers.
Thanks for putting out your videos for folks to understand what's going on inside, be it carbs or motors or cams. You do a SUPER job of explaining it.
Awesome, we appreciate you
thanks for the video carbs have really changed since i used to work on them cleaned up one a while back where we had to drill and tap now is already done makes it much better
Right on
I could listen to this man for hours. It helps tons thank you😉
Happy to help!
Great timing Daniel, just two weeks ago when we took my buddies LS2 C6 vette into the tuner after doing, Heads, Cam, Exhaust and other little thing. I was talking to the tuner about my 306 sbf build, (still having a heck of a go round with the machine shop, eager to put your custom cam to work) about does he tune/dyno Carb cars, he does but suggested I look in Sniper2 or Aces Killshot. I have and certainly there are upsides, there are downsides as well, namely reliability. For now, I'm planning stick with a Carb for my project.... Road Race toy.
Most tuners want efi because they don't understand carbs
Very good information. Thanks
My pleasure
Back in the day , well before any of us regular guys knew anything about wide band sensors ...we guessed . It was guess ...then test ..then do some more guessing until we thought we had it right . For us guys with old cars , the cost of installing 8 sensors is cost prohibitive , if not entirely out of reach . However , in my mind , installing 8 sensors and buying software to support them , is the only way to actually know . Are we dead lean in one hole and fat in four others ? A guy cant tell without the hardware and a way to read it . I only watch a couple of car channels , you and Brand Racing engines always teach me something . Thanks for the hard work .
A, cut open metering block, sounds great! That, will clear up many questions. Thank you, for your time and expertise! You, da man!
Very welcome
Great content as usual. A couple of very misunderstood things I see a lot when tuning for cruise the car should be in the high 14s not 12 cruising down the interstate at 60. Also the idle intermediate main and power circuits compound one another and the idle circuit is still at play at cruise. Hope you have the time to cover these two common misconceptions
I took a little deeper dive into carburetors after your video and based on all the possible adjustments and tuning parameters, I’ve decided I’m a direct fuel injection man! 🤓🤪
Enjoy all your videos, Thanks !!!
Glad you like them!
Much of my tuning issues have been attributed to fuel droplets getting centrifugally worked out of the main flow of the intake. So, I'm lean when cold (unburnt fuel). I installed a carb with a smaller venturi, and smaller jets, and achieved enrichment with the relatively low (altitude and engine wear) vacuum available. Better performance, better fuel-economy.
Agreed on the PV restrictions being the "jets" to tune for WOT if the cruise jetting is perfect, however there are precious few carbs other than the very high end Holley/etc and boutique "carb guru carbs" that have readily adjustable PV jets.
I do like Holley's however the Edelbrock AVS-2 carbs are considerably more adjustable for the average guy that has an O2 in his car since the carb has the main jets as well as vacuum operated metering rods that are available in an alarming array of different sizes, along with different step up springs to determine when they are in the power
"step". I rather enjoy setting up a marine engine on the dyno with an appropriate Edelbrock carb as you have infinite control where the engine will spend most of it's life with simple parts changes rather than a master class on tuning emulsion bleeds on a Holley.
dont do much carbs anymore but when i did was back in late 70s mostly 3310-1 would make them 4corner idle but the first thing i always did when i got the carb out of box was take apart and surface the front and rear and bottom of the carb , never seen one flat. then would set the slot to somewhere around .035 to .040 and leave alone then start out by adjusting the rear to get correct idle if that didn't work then did some drilling on butterflys next before i started drilling anything else and most of the time every time ran good and didn't have to go any further except for some minor jet changes these were mild street cars.
Sounds like will be a good series on HOLLEY carbs on the carb circuits how they work. I have watched where on dynos they have heat, AFR sensors on each exhaust port to tune engines in but in saying that it becomes a different story when it hits the track, on the forces of acceleration, deacceleration and cornering. 👍
Definitely
I learnt a conceptual great point from you, good Sir. Main jets are for part throttle and the power valve holes are for wide open!!! Yes, off course, when pointed out. I just purchased 3 Edelbrock VRS 4150's. Two for a Clevland tunnel ram. The idea of 8 sensors is great advice, as maybe a dyno shop has such headers. For a guy in my budget. Pandamonium is how I would envisage a tunnel ram's inertia's fuel flow!!!!
Actually a TR does very well
@@powellmachineinc3179 Good to hear! I looked at my old 4150 metering block and it only got 2 emulsion holes, as you well know and they do a good job. It will be interesting to experience the modern update to that great foundational design.
An old man back in the 80s said that most carburetor problems can be fixed with a timing light.
Yeah, idk about that
That is absolutely the truth. So few people understand ignition timing. Even if you put a time and light on a late model vehicle if you could that suckers idling in a nearly 30° advance. Vacuum advance from manifold vacuum is absolutely critical if your car is going to run right at all
Don't need a timing light to see the timing on a modern engine. You can watch the timing with pretty much any decent scan tool. I work on modern vehicles every day, and have never seen one have 30 degrees at idle. LS and LT engines with radical cams are in the lower 20s at most. I'm not arguing with you, I've just never seen that.
@@mikeday8826 I know you're correct. Everything I work on is old school with a distributor. The ability to tune these modern engines is pretty incredible. I can get it very close with the carburetor and mechanical and vacuum advance but EFI is pretty incredible
Great Information! Thanks a lot for your time explaining . Can’t wait for the next episode !
Thanks for watching!
There is never a need to drill holes in the throttle blades. If you cannot get enough idle air, you need more timing at idle, and/or need to open the secondary blades. But not to the point that the transfer slot is exposed.
Another issue is all the new metering blocks with the IFR jet located above the fuel level in the bowl. then the fuel is not dampening intake pulses which pull the fuel through the block. This results in inconsistent fuel flow, and the fuel coming out of the feed orfices in droplets.
Moving the IFR jets to low in the fuel blocks below fuel level, the way Holley engineers designed them to be, greatly improves idle stability, fuel delivery, and mixture screw response. And the larger the cam duration/overlap, the larger difference the change makes.
Well you should not view/listen to anymore of these videos. Clearly Daniel does not know what he is doing - according to you. Also it appears Daniel does not have any experience tuning carbies over the last umpteen years. You might wish to point us all at the videos you have created which explain how it should be done. In them you can list your experience over how many years. How many racing engines have you built and how successful were they? Did you do inlet manifold and cam combos til you found the right ones? I am sure all the rest of us would like to learn the right way to do things. Are you Smokey Yunich the second?
Couple suggestions for explanations you might do from questions i get is 1. Booster styles 2. Pump shot cc and cams .
Waiting for episode 2 😊
Eps 2 has been out a long time
@@powellmachineinc3179 something wrong with my RUclips lately I’m not seeing certain content
@@Nothingtoseehere363 I've seen the same issues
This is great after watching your previous video tuning the 602 i was kinda hoping for this
Especialy if you can say Carborator like Booty Barker said it lol , I'm not making fun at all i love our accents from across this great country !
Lol, trust me, I'm good I know I'm country
@@powellmachineinc3179 I really really enjoy your show sir and thank you
This is great stuff here, keep it coming!
Thanks, will do!
Thanks for the video. Can you touch on what carb changes/ adjustments you made to the 604 asphalt car w/ overboring .030 the cylinders? Also, cover more about properly adjusting/ cc sizing the primary & secondary accelerator pumps along with the different plastic cams (selection & hole adjustment) as it would apply to asphalt circle track racing? Thanks again!
excellent tutorial thanks for sharing ,cleared things up
Glad it helped
@@powellmachineinc3179 Thank you Again your efforts are not wasted
Thanks for sharing, most people keep it top secret…
Sounds like a master course in Holley tuning. On to Ep#2
We are going to try and keep it basic, don't want to get stuck in the weeds
So, in 1976 this video wasn't. There was a BBC in a 1996 Chevrolet Caprice. A 2 door of course. I bought it from my high school Geography teacher. He bought it brand new off the lot. Those days A "fella" had to find a book or two on the Holley carb. No internet, really no other sources of information were readily available. Carbs were Science and a science that not many would share, unless you would pay em. And there is no learning and self reliance doing that! Might have been on the 4160 and 4150 carbs. Ordered them, they arrived and then several hours were spent reading and getting some kinda understanding about the jist of the carb operation. The BBC had been pulled and treated to 12.5:1 compression ratio pistons, Manley roller trunion rocker arms a Torker 2.0 intake and a Holley carb, may have been the 850. Oh yes, and a solid lifter cam with a decent lift and a bit to much overlap for the street. Also a bunch of machine shop work.
Now the fun part. No matter how methodical I and my friends were at adjusting the solid lifters and idling at 800 or so rpm we were Never Able to hear the da da dah dat da da dah dat of that big ole cam at idle.
Reading the books and it became clear that the power valves needed to be checked. Yep 6.5 they were. However I only had a bit over 5 at idle. Power valves were open or mostly open at idle. Dropped down to 4.5 power valves and struggled to close and vacuum sucks that I found. Power brake booster, looking right at you! Got the idle vacuum up to almost 6.5 and the idle sounded great and could be adjusted. As soon as I heard the 6.5 was probably fine 98.9 percent of vehicles. That triggered the POWER VALVE memory and short story.
FYI that big chevy went on to run 13.17 at 103 mph in the quarter mile. Fast fun and reliable.
Oh yes, the factory gauge package had an engine vacuum gauge. It was about all we had other than a timing light and the factory tach.
A open pv at idle is of no consequence as the main circuit cannot function at idle.
Ohh, to many years have gone by now. Guess I'll never know what "fixed" that messy idle.
Thanks for more information. I still have that carb in the basement, somewhere. Seems that they have gone up in price considerably since I purchased my 850.
Also yours is a good example of how far book learning can take a guy/me and the benefit of years of hands on learning can take you.
The wide band sensor is the best advice
Definitely
Thanx for the Education!
Our pleasure!
Great information so far! Can’t wait till the next one!
Awesome! Thank you!
Oh man this is the gravy i wish i had learned 40 years ago. My nephew is going to inherit his fathers '33 Ford coupe that's soon to get a 427 FE side oiler. I told his father to send that engine out to a highly qualified machine shop to be gone through to make sure it is rebuildable, Whether or Not it needs it! Correction; it has to be rebuilt. It has sat in a garage forever and that engine is way too valuable to send to some hack shop. I'm going to get your info tonight. Got it. My brother in law lives just outside Chapel Hill, North Carolina and i'm in Upstate New York. I'll make sure he get's your info so he can get the best help with his motor from someone that knows there stuff in the business . Preferably you but i'm sure you wouldn't mind pointing someone in the right direction if your plate is too full. Like i've said all along, you know your shit. And some people are just full of it.
Absolutely, lmk I will get him sorted out
damn were was this school when i was in school 30 yrs ago this is good info...ive always been a Qjet guy but holleys seemed like some devilery to me
Glad it was helpful
I'm loving this type of videos is there anyway you can do a series on quadrajets I run pure stock class dirt track in SC and NC we have to run quadrajets or quadrajunks as some people call them 😂😂
Maybe
Use a vacuum gauge in series with the afr gauge amen! You will see everything working...even the squirter shot when you hit the gas pedal.
Absolutely
Great video. Looking forward to the next one .thank you.
Thanks for watching!
The Right questions to a knowledgeable will get you answers, just DON"T argue to try to change to your own opinions.. Mouth shut,Ears open will get needed help..
Awesome video!
Thanks!
This is the kind of information that back then a guy would have to work under a old head hotroder to get, listen up class is in session.
Definitely
Great Video, going to love the series.
Glad to hear it!
I'm going to have to watch this one a few times. Great explanation. When I make my headers for my 1000+ hp Chevy I6 292 with the Ryan Falconer V-12 head should I put 6 AFR's in the header tubes and where in the tubes? Thank you for your time.
6-8" ish from the port
@@powellmachineinc3179 Awesome. Thank you.
Yw!
Great shit 🏁.... What I run on my dirt car... My biggest problem is I run a power valve block off an its killing my plugs at idle 🤦♂️... I have to run it so lean at idle it kills the sound of my cam 😂
Pv and main jets do not effect the idle circuit
I've experienced a similar problem on my drag car that I drive some on the street. You need to work on the idle air bleed and or idle fuel restrictor. Another area might be you need to put a "jet" in the hole for the transition slot. That would be in the main body not the base. that separates the tuning for each. The easiest remedy is to put the power valve back in and tune it from there, especially if you don't have an O2 censor, or if you don't understand in detail the idle and trans slot. You will almost never get it for part throttle, idle and wide open and especially if cruise is in play, without a power valve.
So, growing up around Holley and Carters, I have learned quite a bit. You are now making it more understandable compared to, say, Bill over at The Old Mans Garage, that insists on CARB use only. I am looking forward to the rest of the series. Will you be discussing Pump Shot, Pump Cam choice and adjustments also?
Yep, we will cover it all
Great job on the video.
Thank you!
I want to learn everyday of my life! 👍
As do I
Great video thanks and keep them coming
Thanks, will do!
Awesome content!!
Glad you think so!
Legend Daniel 👍
Lol, thank you
Thank you for the lesson. Is there a particular wideband that you like to install?
Any quality one is fine
Awesome content! Don't worry about the length of the video. I look forward to many more in this series.
Do you have an opinion on which location is preferable for the idle feed restriction in the metering block? And why one is better for one situation versus another?
Thanks again!
It doesn't matter, but the upper location is easy to tap and holley moved to that location
I learned quite a bit . Thanks D.
Glad to hear it!
Great video and great explanation u definitely learned me something and I appreciate u bro✌🏿
Glad I could help
Very interesting keep it going
Thank you, I will
Interesting on the intakes being difficult or weird to get to work right with a carb. My particular project right now involves the Dodge 440 Six Pack and the non-factory intakes, Edelbrock STR and the Weiand Six Pack intake. Both, particularly the Weiand, are what is recommended for the SS Dodge Six Pack cars. But the issue is the outboard 2300 on the Six Pack do not have accel pumps. Metering plates not blocks. This makes the single planes difficult to tune. I am in the process of creating the old Direct Connection Mechanical Six Pack that used to be sold. Instead of the center hung float bowl you have to run the side hung to get outboards with accel pumps. Apparently it's as simple as changing out the center hung for a side hung bowl to fit a 2300 with a metering block on the intake. My question is I am wondering if I want to use the Keith Dorton 2300 with the adj air bleed to add tuneability.
Thank you! Awesome content.
Glad you liked it!
Good stuff..thanks for the knowledge
Absolutely
Great video my friend
Thank you 👍
Videos like this make me wanna put a carb on my spare 5.3 in a junk car just to learn
Definitely
100% correct
Ty
If you have a programmable ignition, you can run a more timing at idle which will raise the idle speed allowing you to close the throttle blades and covering up the transition slot more. It would be hard to do with a stock distributor though.
Most race stuff is locked anyway
It's actually easy. Either move the vacuum signal to manifold vacuum (where science says it should be instead of a hack version of idle emissions.)
and/or remove the mechanical advance degrees equal to the amount of additional advance you added to the distributor.
do the power valve circuits physically join into the main jet circuits?
Correct
Thanks for sharing !
My pleasure!
What about the ignition timing at idle? The ported and unported vacuum debate is unresolved even to this day
Will do
Ported vs unported depends on the canister calibration. Get a manifold vacuum canister and let the smog era die. If you're running a canister calibrated for port, connecting it to manifold vacuum kills your advance during throttle tip-in. I connect them based on their intended purpose but will switch to manifold type when available.
Or, you could play with no vacuum advance at all (only mechanical advance), this has worked fine for me.
I know people who prefer locking out advance entirely but those are mostly circle track setups.
looking forward to your deeper dive into the 4-corner idle adjustment on the holley carbs. that, plus lean drop/vacuum tuning and the other "weekend warrior" friendly tuning theories will be real helpful for people who might give up and go straight to the other brand carbs. shoot, even fuel pressure overcoming the needle / seat is another (possible, if not rare) headache people might not realize trying to tune a double pumper holley.
Absolutely
I’m a quadrjet guy!
Another issue I rarely see covered that I have experienced on at least three holley's. For the idle mixture to be correct My idle set screws are only out 1/2 to 3/4 of a turn. I know I can drill out the idle air bleeds but how will this affect the intermediate circuit and transitioning to main Jet?
Excellent video. Keep up the good work...we much appreciate it.
Thanks, will do!
Tuning a drag car with a two step without it loading up, when someone takes their time staging would be a good subject to cover.
My holly street warrior lost fire from the pasitive on the battery and when it reconnected it back fired real loud do you think it blew the power valve .the reason i ask is because when i crank it up and try to excelerate it wont react to the peddle. Its a 302 c6 headers
Some times increasing the secondary opening will allow the primary to be closed.
Correct
Do you do Q-jets? That could be part 3👍
I try not to.... I'm going to do a edelbrock/qjet vid
Nice job thank you!
Our pleasure!
Can you replay how you properly set the idle mix screws without a a vacuum gauge . All the “tutorials” and literature say to put a vacuum gauge on. As you know most of us racers don’t even have a vacuum port to access for a gauge.
Will do
ive gotta holley QF on my chevelle thats fixn get tuned up.
Awesome
I have always been told and have been planning my project engine under the assumption that Holley's are for racing and Edelbrock's are for daily driving??? Is this something you've seen or is that just myth??? Reason i say this is my project a Ford 300 w/240 head, and i want to keep it very close to stock just to see what i can get out of that engine by just refining the parts it already has.
The edelbrock has some definite inherent problems
@powellmachineinc3179 Non-fixable problems, or are there ways to refine them out with a little ingenuity? I am just relatively new to all this and trying to gain information as I go.
Which video is the camshaft give a way one?
It's linked in the description
It would be nice to get info on stock engines
It's all relative
Perfectly timed video series! About to tackle idle issues with my 230/236 @ .050 cam SBC. Speaking of, would you consider that a "big" cam?
Depending on Lsa it's moderate
@@powellmachineinc3179 it's s 110LSA. Thanks again. Would you mind touching on replaceable air bleeds like on the new quick fuel brawler?
Will do
"Dead nuts" I've only ever heard one other smart guy use that term.
Lol, well...
Oh dog. I can't wait to hear about all the messages you're about to get from ''experts''.
Especially the ones that don't realize a lot of carb problems are ignition problems.
I'm ready
@@powellmachineinc3179 In that case, mention you should always use manifold vacuum when setting up your idle settings (while using a vacuum gauge).
That should do it! lol
Drilling holes in the blades ?? 1050dominator SBC i increase the idle air bleeds to 62s IFR to 28s vac12hg , new blades without drilled holes 20mpg drag drivw combo, cruise 16 AFRs
I have trouble tuning a walbro on a my RC plane engines!
Definitely
I love those people who have a mildly worked engine is that they over size the carb with a 750 double pumper and then wonder why they can’t adjust it to work properly and then get pissed when I tell them to down size the CFM to a smaller cab Oh well can lead a horse to water but can’t get them to drink
Whats a "wide band"? An orifice in the exhaust to measure gas usage?
O2 sensor