[bb400ho]

hello. does anybody have someone or a place they would recommend to have a q-jet rebuilt ?
thanks Bryan

[1968GTO421]

Forum member CarbKing does carbs. He is also cited by the GTOAA as the carb expert. Here is his forum member page:

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...r.php?u=139391

And here is his shop website:

https://www.thecarburetorshop.com/

Forum member Cliff Ruggles has done Q-jets for decades but unsure if he is totally retired now. I use him for re-build parts-he is great to deal with!
Here is Clif's website:

https://cliffshighperformance.com/

Hope this helps.

[77 TRASHCAN]

I am pretty Jon does not work on carbs any more, been a while.

He does sell kits, parts and possibly carbs he has on hand.

He only takes orders by phone, on Mondays and Tursdays only. He does NOT respond to emails.

Jon???

[Cliff R]

Correct, Cliff is retired from rebuilding/restoring carburetors. At most I'll take in a couple of jobs every other month or so, usually cash & carry, and most of those are nice clean work sine they were just completely rebuilt or restored carbs someplace else.......and they don't do anything right. I have to pick and choose with that deal because I get at least half a dozen calls a day from folks who sent their carbs out, got them back and they don't work for chit anyplace.

Lots of reasons for that, but most of it is simply using low quality components, lack of attention to detail, and not having a clue how to set the carb up for the owners "new" engine build. The owners of these engines are often their own worst enemy making very poor compression and cam choices. That's actually pretty sad because anyone who knows anything at all about engines will tell you that you didn't make good choices when you have to add butt-loads of timing at idle and fatten the carb WAY up even get the engine to think about making any vacuum or idling very well.

That's not really a bad thing IF you know how to set up the carb and distributor for those folks and want to have a business doing that sort of thing or suppliement your day job.

What I am still doing is selling parts, rebuild kits, and custom rebuild kits with tuning parts. That's pretty much a full time deal all in itself these days and I really don't have any time to add to the plate anyhow.........

[bb400ho]

ok time for full disclosure. someone did rebuild this carb (me) and it just isn't right. I bought a kit from Cliff. I knew he and carbking were retired from rebuilding so i was looking for someone else that people have had good results from. The engine is an OHC6 that was rebuilt by someone else (forum member).it is a 1969 250 sprint from a firebird. the carb is from a 67 sprint 230. the car runs like crap until it gets warm and then is much better, i have been all over the timing and the choke air/fuel mixture but I'm thinking maybe my ultrasonic cleaner it good enough to get all the passages clean.

[Schurkey]

Originally Posted by bb400ho

The engine is an OHC6 that was rebuilt by someone else (forum member).it is a 1969 250 sprint from a firebird. the carb is from a 67 sprint 230. the car runs like crap until it gets warm and then is much better, i have been all over the timing and the choke air/fuel mixture

That sounds like a misadjusted choke. Could be too rich. Could be too lean. Self-corrects as the choke blade opens as the engine warms up and mixture distribution and vaporization improves.

HOW--exactly--have you assured that the choke is working properly?

There's four adjustments (at least) that have to be done to an automatic choke to assure it works properly.
1. Choke coil adjustment
2. Choke pulloff adjustment (some carbs have more than one pulloff.)
3. Choke-blade-to-fast-idle-cam synchronization
4. Choke unloader adjustment (usually the least-troublesome, 'cause no one changes the factory adjustment.)

Plus, of course, curb-idle and fast-idle speeds, and idle mixture screw adjustment.

Originally Posted by bb400ho

but I'm thinking maybe my ultrasonic cleaner it good enough to get all the passages clean.

Easy enough to check when the carb is apart by blowing compressed air through the passages. Aerosol carb cleaner can substitute for compressed air, and can sometimes solvent-out deposits as a bonus. This doesn't tell you if the passages are restricted, but it'll show if they're "blocked".

I'm not familiar with the OHC 6. Are you sure you have the correct gaskets including base gasket(s)? Does the intake manifold have an exhaust heated channel carved into the carb base gasket surface?

Heat riser valve still in place and functional?

Heated air intake system still in place and functional? (if equipped)

[Cliff R]

Might be as easy as a slight metering rod or metering rod and jet change. Typically when things work poorly until the engine gets fully warmed up and well heat soaked it just needs more fuel. On that older Q-jet you'll have to install a smaller primary metering rod and or jets and metering rods if it needs a little more fuel under heavier load on the primaries......

[TransAm 474]

Contact Ray Klemm at CRK Performance .... he is a fellow Pontiac guru, and I believe he used to work along side Cliff building Qjets for him, isn't that correct Cliff? He will also do the complete restoration, including plating, if you want that.

[Cliff R]

I've been sending the carb work to Ray Klemm for couple of years now. He's a one man show so running a backlog.

I've taken in a few here that folks talked me into doing and regretting it. Just too busy with other things to get to them in a timely manner and they were all previously rebuilt or restored and a complete MESS! Several were done by sources frequently recommended on this Forum so tread carefully in that area......FWIW......

[bb400ho]

Thank you for the replies, I will give this another shot . My choke is a divorced choke, it closes and the pull off was almost not opening at all. I adjusted that by opening the butterfly by hand until the engine ran better then adjusted till that's where it pulls off to. to be honest I don't know what an unloader adjustment is. (guess I need to re-read Cliffs book) Cliff can i buy metering rods and jets from you?

[srmmmm]

I had excellent success with Quadrajet Power in Texas. I'm running a 1971 Q-Jet for a Buick GS455 Stage-I (My college roommate at GMI worked for Rochester Products and owned a 1971 Stage-I and purchased a replacement carb for his car for my use).

The carb was fully refinished and rebuilt with the Stage-II modifications. On the dyno, the engine started and ran very well with no adjustments at all. Secondaries were too rich, but easy to bring back in to a reasonable A/F ratio with a rod and hanger change.

I would not hesitate to recommend their services.

[lrust]

Brent Flynn is a member here and does QJets.

[77 TRASHCAN]

Originally Posted by bb400ho

Thank you for the replies, I will give this another shot . My choke is a divorced choke, it closes and the pull off was almost not opening at all. I adjusted that by opening the butterfly by hand until the engine ran better then adjusted till that's where it pulls off to. to be honest I don't know what an unloader adjustment is. (guess I need to re-read Cliffs book) Cliff can i buy metering rods and jets from you?

Cliff sells metering rods AND jets, and anything else you will need!!!

[Schurkey]

Originally Posted by bb400ho

the pull off was almost not opening at all. I adjusted that by opening the butterfly by hand until the engine ran better then adjusted till that's where it pulls off to.

That's the "usual" problem. Good catch.

Originally Posted by bb400ho

to be honest I don't know what an unloader adjustment is.

The unloader pops the choke blade open about as far as the choke pulloff would, when the throttle is WFO. Helps to clear flooded spark plugs. As said--almost no-one screws with that adjustment, so it's almost always reasonably good.

This article got "edited" by site administrators. Heaps of typos were added, (the text is a mess) authorship was removed, and the off-site links were removed.
https://www.chevelles.com/threads/ad...roach.1131913/

[carbking]

Originally Posted by 77 TRASHCAN

I am pretty Jon does not work on carbs any more, been a while.

He does sell kits, parts and possibly carbs he has on hand.

He only takes orders by phone, on Mondays and Tursdays only. He does NOT respond to emails.

Jon???

I came to this thread late, sorry.

77Trashcan is correct; I no longer restore carbs, and have not for almost a decade. And I hate that, because I really enjoyed the work! What keeps me busy is the manufacture of carburetor rebuilding kits. My wife, son, and I offer more than 10,000 different kits for USA-produced carburetors from 1974 back to at least 1903, possibly one or two earlier.

Spent much of today making accelerator pumps for a Duesenberg J.

Retirement is a concept of which I have no knowledge

Jon

[Cliff R]

You should try it Jon. It was tough for me to walk away from all this work but I love it.

Since I like to be busy I still sell parts from about 4am till mid-day 4 days a week, and usually put in a few hours on Friday. The rest of the time I'm enjoying whatever time I have left while I still have my health and go do all that fun chit!.......