I know a lot of folks sing praises for Holley carbs, but I have never had luck keeping them tuned. I have a Motorcraft on mine, and she starts and runs great. The motorcraft carb is the best carb for the 289 IMO.

 

Good job,

I'm with the Autolite! Very nice carb.

1). Sounds like your accelerator pump is working just fine.
Any chance you have someone who could gun the engine while you stand off to the side at the rear and view what the exhaust looks & smells like?

Be Very careful here! Make sure you stand off to the side and keep away from the car. You want to find out if it is flooding or starving for fuel. If the car somehow jumps into gear and you are behind or holding onto the car, the results could be really bad!

2). Let me get back to you either tonight or tomorrow on that. I need to look at a schematic, and right now I'm out on a business trip. Basically you need to have your choke wire come off an "ignition" only supplied power feed. There maybe a wire in the engine compartment that is designed just for this. Or you may have to put a jumper in. DO NOT under any circumstances splice into your wiring harness. Someone else on here may have all ready done this and knows exactly where to pick this up.

Let me know what you see and smell if you can follow #1. Please be careful!!!

 

Yeah, Autolite sold out to Motorcraft back then, so they are the same carb. I really like the 4 barrel 4100. A very dependable carb. The problem with this Holley sounds like it is starving for fuel. I would make sure the fuel pump is working adequately and that the filter is clean. Then if that didn't work I would adjust the float so that the bowl would be fuller. Or, as Mustangood suggested it just may be too big for the intake to handle, assuming it is a stock intake. A lot of people think that putting on a bigger carb will give you more power. But it takes a combination ot things like an intake that breathes better than the stock intake. Get some numbers off that carb and post them. If it is a 600 CFM carb, then you are OK, but if it is a 750 CFM, then it is too big for a stock 289 engine to handle.

 

The mixture smells rich to me when I checked it.


how do I find the number for the carb? is it on the outside somewhere?


BTW the intake is not stock. It's a brand new Edlebrock that the previous owner installed months before I bought it.
It originally had a 2v on it (according to the VIN).

 

If it is an edelbrock performer, then it it nothing more than a stock intake but it is aluminun. Get those numbers of your carb so we can help you.

 

I thought your intake looked awfully shiny

 

the number is 80457-2, which is a 600 cfm carb.

Seems right to me.

-Allen

 

Hi Allen,

What did you see when you "gunned" the engine? the reason I ask is that if you have that great of a hesitation, and it is caused by an overly rich mixture, it should be very visable.

The other question is, was everything working well when you bought the car, or has it done this since day one. If it was running fine when you bought it, did this progressively get worse, or was it fine one day and "sick" the next.

I'm between flights, so I may not be able to reply until tomorrow. In the mean time there is some great talent on this board, so hopefully someone can chime in. If you get a chance cruise (or limp <g&gt by a local school with an auto program. This is good stuff that a teacher can use, and you can benefit from.

 

If I floor the pedal after coming off an idle, it completely stalls. I didn't check to see if there was black smoke, but I smelled a gassy smell.

I dont remember ever gunning it when I first bought the car. Like I said, I JUST bought it a few weeks ago.

The problem occured when a car in front of me stopped and I had to move into another lane quickly. I gunned it, and it stalled a little bit, but then I took my foot off the pedal and it did fine.

 

Good observations. Too bad we don't know for sure whether or not it ran right when you got it, but...
So we've determined the Acclerator pump is working correctly. We think it is getting rich when you get on it, but we aren't sure. It would have to get real rich (which is why I wanted to know what's coming out the tail pipe) in order to cause that bad of a hesitation.
Here's the tricky part. Overly rich could be carb or ignition. I've run up to 750 CFM Holley's on fairly stock small block Fords before. Not the smartest thing in the world, but definitely didn't hesitate like you are talking about. Your 600 is a good fit. Down the road some porting would really help out.
As for now, do you have acess to a digital Multi-meter? or even a cheap radio shack analog meter. I'm not ready to say your carb is good, but not feeling comfortable asking you to look down the carb with the engine running. there are some simple tests you can do to check your ignition system without having your body around a running engine.
If you can get a multi meter, do the following.

Engine not running!!!

1). take distributor cap off distributor but do not disconnect any wires.
2). Using a socket and wratchet turn the engine until the points are open.
3). turn the key to run but do not start.
4). Black probe on the negative battery terminal Red probe on the coil terminal that the wire does not go to the distributor.
What is the voltage reading on the meter?

Test 2:

1). Black lead of meter on positive battery post
2). Red lead of meter on coil terminal that does not go to distributor (key still on).
What is the voltage reading?

Test 3).
1). Turn engine by hand until points are closed
2). Black lead on coil terminal that goes to distributor (small black wire not high voltage cable)
3). Red lead on negative battery terminal. (Key still on)
What is the voltage reading?

Turn off ignition.

These three tests are looking for corrosion of the electrical system that is supplying the voltage to your ignition. If you do not have the proper voltage you will not have a fully saturated coil. Kind of like Pee-ing on a forest fire <g>.

Turn engine by hand until the little rubbing block is on a high point of the distributor cam. Use feeler gauges and check the gap on your points. What size feeler gauge will lightly drag through the opening on the points?

Gotta run.

I'll look for your reply tomorrow,

Please be careful with this.