[Shotimes] Had a Flashback Today (OT) ...becoming long....

[George Fourchy]

Hey..

I finally got my truck smogged today, 6 months late.  If you aren't interested in
working on Holly carburetors, delete this message.  But if you remember fiddling
with power valves, adjusting float levels, and other stuff like that, you might
enjoy my little adventure.

It was due in July, but I didn't need it right then, with the convention and all, so
I paid the registration but didn't smog it, and they sent me a receipt for the
money, but not good for driving it.  I knew that it might have a problem passing,
since it hadn't ever been on the NOx dyno before, and it definitely was not current
regarding tune-ups.  So I just let it sit until I had time  to play with it.....like
I ever have time to play with any of my toys.....thanks, Eva!!

So last week I took it to be smogged.  It failed, but not for NOx.....it was over in
CO by about 80%...allowed is about 1.5%, and it had 2.8% or so.  Not a gross
polluter by any means, but still not legal.  (I did learn that I can go up to 2250
ppm of NOx....lots of room to play with timing and mixture, when all systems work
OK....good to know.)  The guy gives me breaks in pricing, and I send my friends to
him, and he gave me an idea....it might have a failed power valve.  If any of you
besides the Dons and Sergio and Mike and Al remember your carburetors, you'll recall
that power valves add extra fuel when the load increases, but the throttle position
doesn't....like being in cruise-control at speed and going up a slight hill.  They
fail 
over time, allowing their allotted extra fuel to be added to the mixture all the
time. 
That happened to the boat I had a while back, and it sure made it run rich with all
kinds of black smoke.  This wasn't running that bad, but it had symptoms of being
too rich, mostly shown at the gas station.  It used to get 13 mpg when new, but more
recently gets about 8 or 9 at the most.

Power valves used to be cheap.....5 or 6 bucks at the parts store.  Now they are 30
bucks for the same part.  Not much call for one nowadays.  They had to order it.  It
arrived, and I put it in today.  In the carburetor on the boat and on the Boss (or
what USED to be on the Boss), the power valve is in the secondary jet plate.  But
the truck doesn't have a secondary jet plate, just the secondary bowl.  The valve is
in the primary jet plate, which I didn't figure out until I took the whole thing off
the intake.  That is the thing about Hollys...they are easy to work on while on the
engine, with their 4 big screws that hold the bowls onto the venturi and throttle
plate assembly.   

So I took the back bowl off, with the carb on the engine, and son of a gun, it
wasn't there.  So I took the whole thing off....it had been removed a few years ago
when I got an Edelbrock manifold to replace the leaking stock one, so wasn't too
grungy.  But it had been since new, 17 years ago, that the carb had been taken
apart.  I put the back bowl back on and took off the front one, with the jet plate. 
There it was, in the center of the jet plate.  I swapped the two valves, and was
ready to reassemble.  Then I noticed the float was a bit higher (with the needle
closed, in an upside down position) than parallel with the bottom of the bowl.  I
remembered that the Boss was REALLY sensitive to float levels, and that it wanted to
be just level with the bowl.  That car had little screws that came out the sides of
the bowl that you could adjust the level to, so that the fuel was just at the bottom
of the screw holes.  And the floats are so easy to adjust, with that screw and lock
design that goes through the top of the bowl.  It was all coming back to me (a nice
feeling!)....I had all the Helms manuals for this truck, but they have been
misplaced since 1999.  They might be in the shed....that's another story.

So I adjusted the float and put it back together.  The gaskets are not cork, but
made of a reusable material...at least it would have been reusable if I'd done this
within 10 years of new.  The gaskets were compressed to the point that they would
not seal again.  So I went and got the complete kit, and used the new gaskets, and a
new small O ring that seals the tube that feeds the rear bowl from the fuel inlet. 
After a couple of attempts to get the bowl and jet plate exactly sealed properly, it
ran fine and seemed to be smoother.  (I was able to put the power valve in the kit
back in the first one's individual box, and get a refund for that...50% of the kit
price!)  

I had a good feeling about it now, and at the smog station, it ran about 10 of the
allotted 30 seconds at each speed before the machine said it was finished.  That is
a sure sign it passed.  It turned out to be extremely clean, even with its twice
since new changed plugs, and original plug wires.  (I REALLY neglect this engine,
tune-up wise....but it just runs and runs and runs.)  It has no cats, but has EGR.

It remains my favorite vehicle of the fleet, even over the SHOs.  I'll need one with
a much higher towing capacity (2007 F-350 diesel dually w/6 spd manual) in a couple
of years, when the new boat shows up, but I'll give this one to my new son-in-law,
to keep it in the family.  He's going to get a boat too (we're conspiring behind our
spouses' backs), just right for this one to tow.

There is a page for it on the website, but the pictures never got posted....I'll do
that one of these days.  It's a 1987 F-350 4-dr crew-cab long bed with 460 V-8 and
C-6  3 spd ATX, with 117,000 original miles.  Single rear wheels, medium brown
metallic with cream pearl center panels (all new paint in 2002) in the side body and
roof.  Aluminum 16 inch alloy wheels w/Michelin tires, R-134 a/c conversion, and a
Grant all wood steering wheel.  In 1992 I added JBA headers with 4 inch collectors,
going down to three inch dual exhaust.  Sounds good, but is a little loud on a long
trip.  It was built about 2 months before Ford went to EFI in their pickups.  I'm
sure glad I have this one.  

George