It's got gas...

...going into the intake, rather than squirting out from all the worn out gaskets in the old Holley 4-barrel. And to set the record straight, this 71 Suburban does smell a *ton* better now that the carburetor is rebuilt and working as it should.

This past weekend was pretty successful. I managed to get the Holley carburetor rebuilt, and I finished lowering the truck back down to normal human height.

I grew up on fuel injection, so this whole carburetor thing is pretty new to me. Even my first car, a 1986 Audi 5000, had fuel injection (although it was some sort of hydraulic injection system, it was still direct injection into the cylinders).

So the first challenge for me was figuring out just what carb this is. I knew it was a Holley, that much was obvious. There are list numbers stamped on the choke tower or the airhorn.


Mine reads "1850-3". Here's where it's a little tricky... that list number doesn't correspond with a Holley model number at all. Had to do a little googling, and digging around on the Holley.com website, and I finally figured out that it's a model 4160: "600 CFM Four Barrel Street Carburetor; Manual Choke; Vacuum Secondary; Street Performance Carburetor for the Budget Minded Enthusiasts; Calibrated for Excellent Street Performance".

Gooood. Now I know what I'm working with. This is progress. All I want to do is a simple rebuild, so I call AutoZone to see if they have the Holley 37-119 Renew kit in stock. Bingo. Things are looking good.


This box actually says "TricKit". That's supposed to be the high-performance kit for these carburetors, with different jets, etc. The sticker on the side is correct though, and the contents of the box confirmed it, this is actually a 37-119 Renew Kit.

The instructions in this box are thin, that's for sure. There are an intimidating number of parts in the box, and the instructions basically say to take the old carburetor apart, and put it back together in the revers order. Right, sound straightforward. Let's get started...


I get to taking the Holley apart, and it's dirty, as expected. I soak the parts in lacquer thinner to un-gum them. Honestly though, I expect this thing to be covered in a little black soot, but this thing doesn't seem bad. I think it's really just that the gaskets got old and leaky, otherwise, I think this thing was alright, not too varnished up at all.

I took my time and I figure the whole thing ended up taking a few hours. Several distractions throughout the afternoon, but really, it couldn't have gone much smoother.

Here it is shiny and rebuilt:


Installing it back on the truck is simple - just four bolts, attach throttle cable, vacuum lines and gas line, pour a little gas in the bowls to get it started. Fired up pretty quickly and I adjusted the fuel levels in both bowls, which is also really simple.

As many parts and gaskets and o-rings as there are in the rebuild kit, rebuilding a four barrel carburetor (at least a Holley) is really super simple. I'm still stunned at how complex the machine is with all the fuel passages and the metering blocks, etc. Funny how computers makes modern systems seem so much simpler.

Either way, I'm good to go now, truck runs and drives real nice now, and... no more stink! Not bad for $20. That takes us to tomorrow. Goal: removing gigantic home-made lift blocks that are *welded* to the axle. I'll keep you posted...