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Thread: A Carb builders worst nightmare

  1. #1
    Hotcrusader76
    Here is copy of a letter sent to Holley from a customer (not mine ) who had a fire after installing his Avenger. Who's fault do you think it is on this one?
    My truck caught fire My letter to Holley
    06/14/03 11:24 AM Edit Reply
    I have a Holley truck avenger that is installed on a suburban with a 388 stroker dart heads 230 solid roller cam.With an edelbrock carb this truck through the turbo 400 and transfer case and the big 14 bolt rear put out 365 hp 350 tq to the wheels.That was with jetting it in my Driveway and making a small timing change on the dyno.Unfortanittly that carb would not run on hills.
    Well the truck avenger has been a chore.Mind you I understand a carb needs to be tuned to each individuall engine.And I dont mind doing that.It took me one day to get the mixture screw responsive.Basiccly rich but carb on and off numerous times to check primarys not open to far,and adjust secondaries to compensate.
    Secondary needle and seat pluged up from the factory.I had to take it apart and reasemmble it for fuel to flow though it.
    Main jetting was not bad but to get the main jetting correct and have a smoothe pull through the power valve was time consumming to say the least.Probablly 10 small jet/powervalve changes to make that work the way I wanted
    The secondary spring setup is another pain.They either open to quick But if you slow them down they dont open enough.I planed on fabbing up an adjustable arm betwwen the primary and secondary.(Does Holley offer such a piece)But Figured I should check the secondery jetting First.
    So I started on that today.Pulled it apart 3 times.
    Well the last time aparentlly one of the CHEAP rubber gaskets for the tube between the primary and secondarie bowls must not of seated proberlly.I gave them a quick look and seemed to be in thier normal position.I guess I did not look close enough.So I fired it up
    You guessed it Correct.Fuel pissed out everywhere.. Fire .I am not happy.The Hood was open I shut it right down ran to the garage and was able to put it out on the 3rd bucket of water.
    I am glad this is an old truck and not one of my firebirds.
    Basic fire damage:Wires ,Cap all the wiring on the firewall , dist, ect.all the vacumm lines,Of course their is melted plastic all over the carb.That needs to come totally apart.It could have been much worse If I was going down the road the truck would be gone,Not to mention my sons quad in the back.How do you explain that to a 10 year old that thier is no money in these tough economic times to replace it.
    My [censored] with your product is that with all the fine tuning required with this carb .And the amount of times it needs to come apart to do that you would use quality parts.Mind you this carb cost 389 dollars.All it is is a 4150 with some sort of metering block change and a cross over vent.
    The fuel cross over bettween the primary and secondaries is a pain to work with gets stuck the gasket slid over the end of the tube to easily.Basic Junk
    I will be changing the float bowls to ones that except a n fittings and running my own line
    It sure would be nice if you were to supply those bowls with a fuel line for me.
    I would be happy to send you a picture of the mess I have
    It seems to me that this carb is very unresponsive to jetting changes.Nothing like my old 4150.
    Again it seems to me that this carb is an overpriced 4150 that I can not recomend to anyone unless it proves itself offroad and will run while the truck is standing straight up and down.
    I will be posting this letter on Several internet sights I frequent

    [ June 14, 2003, 01:44 PM: Message edited by: Hotcrusader76 ]

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Posts
    10,871
    My take is that the transfer tube wasn't installed correctly and leaked. Not Holleys fault.
    I would also not take my carb to this guy for tuning (but that's just me). Nor have him do any business letters either.

  3. #3
    Cas
    let alone putting out gasoline fires with water!
    with that comment alone, I'd say Holley has no responsiblity at all.
    I wonder if he knows about spring loaded needle and seats for off road applications?

  4. #4
    HighRoller
    Those damn Holley carbs!!!I had a similar experience with my boat when I went to change a power valve and either put the old one back in by accident or got it in backwards(possible?).Result?Raw fuel puking into the cylinders and making the engine a hydraulic flame thrower!!!Here's a play by play of my buddy and I.
    Okay,crank her over...HOLLLYYYYFU*&INCHRIST STOP!!"
    I turned around to see my buddy dancing on the gunnel of my boat avoiding a torchlike flame coming out of the gap between the manifolds and heads!!!!!It would have been funny as hell if it weren't happening on MY boat!!We doused it with the extinguisher and he thought my boat looked very"Christmas-y".I didn't see the humor.....And no,I didn't blame it on my Holley carb,I went and bought a brand new Holley and promptly put over 100 hours on it that season with nary a problem!!

  5. #5
    comin' unscrewed
    Is this guy related to Jeff Foxworthy?

  6. #6
    miller19j
    Lets see I took this thing apart several times and put it back together incorrectly and now its broken resulting in a fire and its your fault.
    That makes sense to me

  7. #7
    malcolm
    I can't say I blame him. The Holleys I've installed lately have run like shit for no reason. Is it to much to ask to have it run at least OK right out of the box? I'd never buy a new one, might as well by old ones if I'm going to have to go through them anyway. Just a little venting, and 2 cents.

  8. #8
    Hotcrusader76
    malcolm:
    I can't say I blame him. The Holleys I've installed lately have run like shit for no reason. Is it to much to ask to have it run at least OK right out of the box? I'd never buy a new one, might as well by old ones if I'm going to have to go through them anyway. Just a little venting, and 2 cents. I agree with you on that point, biased or not. I have gone through four Demons that were out of the box brand spanking new and three of them needed some attention before running.
    From day to day I get to see all sorts of Holleys, factory and custom builds. It amazes me on how many shoddy builds I come across, incorrect or error in the idle orifices, main and idle air-corrector bleeds being out-of-tolerance for their application, etc. These are all things you would never catch as a novice unless you had records of correct sizing or a trained eye.
    Today I took apart a clients carburetor for a Pre-OP6 overhaul which happens to be from a very reputable boat manufacturer's motor only to find one of the emulsion holes blocked off. Why? That is a ass-backwards band-aid modification, and it runs!....fat or course but it runs.
    If Holley wanted only one emulsion hole per main than why do the HP Versions have three holes? Hmmm...makes you wonder if that boat companies carb guy really knew what they were doing.
    Ya learn something new everyday, functional or not.
    [ June 16, 2003, 09:16 PM: Message edited by: Hotcrusader76 ]

  9. #9
    HOSS
    Cool! Closed the hood with fire underneath. Then douse with not 1 not 2 but 3 buckets of water. I saw this guy on Jackass. He lit his balls on fire then tried to put them out with WD-40. cry

  10. #10
    spectras only
    Hotcrusader76 , I'll agree there's something wrong going on with holley lately. A young guy dropped by with my friend complaining some idle issues about his brand new holley he just installed on his S-10.First of all the float levels were way too high, The locking screws on the needle valves were stripped and to rub salt in the wound ,I pointed out to him that it was a factory holley rebuild that Lordco sold him as new .Fortunately they exchanged the unit for him,but this shouldn't happen .

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