Weekend progress, part 1: Carburetor work, again!

On Friday the Suburban died while on a run to Home Depot to get some salt for the progressing snow-storm. Luckily Tami was out and about, and was able pick me up. At lunch I did get it started (must have just flooded it), and I put a few gallons of gas in it. Fired up fine since then. I've noticed over the last couple of days though, that the idle is a little rougher and rougher. I've been fiddling with the adjustments, but really, I'm no carburetor mechanic.

This weekend one of my objectives was to deal with the rough idle. I get it started (again, no problem starting it up, so that's positive). It's got a Holley 4-barrel carburetor on it, which is pretty simple to adjust, theoretically. First and primary adjustment is the fuel level. There's an adjuster with a lock screw on top of each fuel bowl, and the fuel level should be just under the sight plug. Basically, the site plug is a screw in the side of the fuel bowl. You take out the screw, and adjust the fuel level to the point where it is just below the screw-hole. So sitting still no gas spills out, but if you rock the truck or bump it, a little gas will dribble out.

I pull the sight plug out and there's gas spilling out. Ok... the level is too high. In the process of adjusting it downward, I managed to ruin the gasket on the lock-screw for the adjuster. I had kept all of the left over items from the Holley 37-119 Renew Kit I used last week, and *hoped* there would be an extra gasket in there. But... no luck. What I did have though, were a bunch of extra gaskets from the metering blocks, which are kinda big, with lots of holes in them. Luckily a little trimming with scissors, and I had a new gasket.

Now the Holley is adjusted, and leak free, so I fire it back up. Idle's high, so I adjust it a bit more as well, and you know, it feels really solid. It actually seems a lot quieter too for some reason. I don't know if the idle was just rough enough before, or if it was just running so rich that the motor was gargling or what, but it sure sounds better now.