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Old 12-11-2017, 08:26 AM
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Tom Vaught Tom Vaught is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2001
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Decided today to talk about Holley Carb SAFETY PROCEDURES.

There are lots of stories out there about Carb issues and people losing their car in a fire or people getting hurt badly or even death from a Carb/Fuel System issue.

1) If the carb/engine have set over the winter or a period of more than a couple of weeks, get yourself a fuel resistant squirt bottle or a squirt oil can (paint it RED vs Blue or Silver) and use that (with gasoline) to squirt fuel into the CARB VENTS of the Holley Carburetor. This method will restore the fuel that evaporated from the fuel bowls when the vehicle and carb sat for a period of time. DON'T DO the pour a half of a glass of gas down the venturis of the carb and expect it to run properly. 1) High probability of a Backfire and potential carb fire. 2) The Fuel Bowls WILL still NOT have the correct amount of fuel in them to have a close fuel/air calibration and be able to run properly. Squirt the fuel in the vents, check the fuel level with the carb "Sight Plugs" and at least when you bump the car sideways you see some fuel sloshing out of the opening.

2) NOW go to WOT 2 times on the accelerator and then let it sit for a few seconds and allow the fuel to vaporize in the intake.

3) At this point (if you are working with a helper) you should have a pail of water and a lightly soaked T-Shirt (wring it out so that it is just barely damp to the touch) and a fire extinguisher close by. USE THE T-SHIRT FIRST IF YOU GET A BACKFIRE THRU THE CARB. 99 TIMES OUT OF 100 THE SHIRT WILL WORK VS BLASTING YOUR ENGINE WITH FIRE RETARDENT CHEMICALS. Just throw it over the carb. The fire will go out.

4) The Choke should be set or the driver ready to lightly modulate the throttle to keep the engine running. Once you have the engine running, you are good to go, unless the engine sits for long periods of between fire-ups.

PART 2

If this is an initial fire-up and not a restart after weeks of storage, you still need the Damp T-Shirt and the Fire Extinguisher mentioned above as well as the Timing Light and Tools to adjust the timing and fuel on the engine. You want the timing to be right on the engine before you try to set the carb, not afterwards.

If you have a remote Electric Fuel Pump make sure that it works before you attempt to start the engine. Turn it on and look at a fuel pressure gage to see that you have fuel pressure. If no gage, turn the pump off and open the sight plug and see if the fuel level is right with a slight bump of the fender.

If you have leaks of the fuel system FIX THEM before trying to start the engine.

Speaking of leaks, I have posted this before.

Friend has a car. He can't get it to run.
Diagnoses that the mechanical fuel pump is bad.
Friends tell him install a Electric fuel Pump vs change the PIA to get to Mechanical Pump (Ferd vehicle with "crash loop" around fuel pump).

So he works on the Electric fuel pump installation, it gets dark, he goes to bed, goes to work, and the next afternoon he continues on the fuel pump install. (Doing the wiring of the pump).

So the pump is installed, and he needs power to run the thing apparently. So after the fact, we know he hooked up a hot wire from the battery to the area where the pump was installed. Wire was on the ground burned. Close to the wire was a in-ground drain set-up to wash a car outside. Fire inspectors say the drain had fuel in it because it burned the bottom of the car, my friend over 90% of his body and set the house on fire by migrating to the basement drains.
Basically a barbeque deal with my friend involved.

So what happened. The fuel line was "Jerry Rigged" for the fuel pump install and leaked into the car wash drain. My friend touched the hot wire to the pump and a spark occurred. Drain became a barbeque with my friend as the meat.
He died from that deal.

So the fuel system issues cannot be ignored or "Jerry Rigged".

That is all I have for today. Like they used to say on the old Cop show: "Let's Be Safe out there"

Tom V.

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"Engineers do stuff for reasons" Tom Vaught

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Last edited by Tom Vaught; 12-11-2017 at 08:33 AM.