Edelbrock Performer 600cfm #1405

What would cause this carb to dump massive amounts of fuel into the engine; with no throttle input and even after the car is shut off? I mean it was literally pouring fuel into the primaries. Massive flooding.

Was previously running just fine. I had just changed the metering rod springs, and was taking it for a test drive around the block. Ran perfect until I got to a stoplight, and then the carb took a ****.

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Well the Edelbrock tech seems fairly confident that the problem is too much fuel pressure, but I'm not so sure. Unless my fuel pressure reg is prone to catastrophic failure. Although I don't actually have a gauge, just one of those Mr Gasket regs with the preset notches on it.

He also suggested sunk floats,debris in the needles & seats, or low manifold pressure causing the metering rods to stay open.

I didn't think it would be sunk floats, high fuel pressure, or low manifold pressure because the car was running fine just previously. I think those issues would have shown progressive symptoms.

Today I took the air horn off to look for debris and check the floats. I didn't find any debris and the floats are not busted. So I put the carb back together.

Then I just simply tried to start the car. She did start and run. I observed the carb for signs of flooding again, but it didn't happen. She ran fine, I let her warn up and then shut it off.

If the fuel pressure regulator had failed, did it magically fix its self? I think it must have been some debris holding the needle open.

Discuss.

 

Edelbrock tech is right. Floats too high (you checked that), fuel pressure to high (like over 5.5 psi, you checked that) or some dirt, etc got caught in the needle & seat (you pulled the top off and probably dislodged that, hence the unknown solution). It would only pump fuel through if the needle and seat are not closing due to fuel pressure, float issue or debris. I think you're okay!

 

I speak from experience btw...

 

Yeah I know you've had a few Edelbrocks.

I didn't actually check the fuel pressure, as I don't have a gauge to hook up to it. I'm not sure how good those Mr Gasket cheapo pressure regulators are. But like I said, it seems to have fixed itself. Typical RX-7 fashion.


I wish it would have fixed itself before it died in the road and then got towed overnight, costing me 300 bucks.

 

Next time just tap on the top of the carb with a wrench etc to rattle the needle & seat. And the el cheap fpr, well, I use a BG FPR with a guage. I have a cheapo i would give away to any worthy victim or gambler.

 

My Edelbrock does that. It will be idling fine and then all of a sudden will go pig rich and blow a ton of black smoke. It also doesn't like to rev and even lead to a no-run condition in the RX-4 wagon. The starter was also bad but fortunatley PercentSevenC was behind me and gave me a push. We were at the top of a hill too so I needed just a fast nudge out into traffic and let gravity roll start the engine to clear out the excess fuel. I got lucky. It worked out in the end.

Then most recently when it blew black smoke was after I set the fuel pressure right to 5.0 according to the Mr. Gasket guage. It was happily idling then all of a sudden bogged down, blew black smoke and didn't want to rev. I played with the pedal and it cleared itself out and started to idle again. Right before I fired it up I checked the fuel filter I installed in the engine bay in front of the reg and it had small chunks of crap from the tank. One must have gotten through the filter and into the carb, lodging a needle open for a little while. Reving the engine must have jarred it loose because the problem came and went quickly. It must have been small enough to fit through the primary jet because it hasn't happened since. Or maybe it's still in the float bowl!