I put a new Holley 600 (Model 1805C) on my 289 about 8 months ago, and today the engine quit at a traffic light...finally got it cranked...but ran rough and just when pulling into drive it quit again. Popped the hood and there was a lot of gas coming out fo the left side right where the bar/rod is that works the secondaries. Pulled the breather, and there was a lot of gas in secondary side of carb. Never happened before. I didn't even open up the secondaries at all today before this happened. Any ideas???

 

Are the secondaries able to move? What jetting is in it?

 

Secondary floats could be sticking on car and flooding. I had a similiar problem a fews years back. Turned out my secondaries were not opening and gas would evaporate and then refill causing crud that plug floats up. Pull carb and take secondary bowl off and clean up good.

 

The carb is almost brand new, put it on in early January and haven't put much mileage on the car since then due to it being down for tons of other stuff. I did fire it up again later today, and let it run for 4-5 minutes and it didn't flood. So..I think I've probably got some kind of trash in the fuel system that's intermittently blocking a needle valve. If I had it to do over, I wouldn't have bought a model 1850C Holley, as they have no way to remove and clean needle valves or adjust floats. I have a good Holley in-line filter right before the fuel pump, but no filter between the pump and carb. Plus, the gas tank/lines are original 1965...so must be full of who knows what. So...will pull the carb and try to pour/shake out all the gas, and install another in-line filter between pump and carb and see if that helps, until I can get around to installing a new fuel tank one of these days.

 

I've had that happen before and it was gunk between the needle and seat.

 

If you have had that same gas in the car since January (9 months old) - you probably have bad gas in there and need to clean it up - the gas-ahol now will turn to lacquer in a few months. If you are going to have the car sit for a while, add some STA-BIL fuel stabilizer to help with this.

 

Yeah, gas quality sucks these days compared to what it "used to be". I pulled the carb off and gave it a good shaking out, and also installed a 40-micron filter betwen the pump and carb, and it's running a lot better now. I have driven off and on over the months, and new fuel (and Lucas octane booster) added at times. I do plan to replace the old original gas tank and lines, though, as soon as I can. After 48 years, who knows what kind of crap is sloushing around inside. Plus, it looks like someone has patched a few leaks in the top of it over the years with some kind of reddish-orange sealant. Time for it to go!