Too Much Information. 😊
Not long ago I bought an all original, number matching 1968 Firebird 400. One of the earliest projects was to rebuild the original 7028265XF QJ to address a few obvious carb issues. This was in the summer of 23. I hope to wrap up the bulk of the restoration soon and focus on optimizing the performance. The first thing I would like to do is verify the carburetor is performing as an OEM should.
On this forum I recently read that someone addressed the fumes smell after turning off the car by switching to Shell Nitrogen infused gasoline. (I do think this made a difference, Thanks)
I read about how the carb bowl can boil away the gas requiring the pedal be pumped more than a few times to fill the bowl. After two days, I do have to pump the gas at least 1 time, and it will often start in the second try. After a week or more it may take 3 possible 4 tries to start. Is this indicative of the fuel having evaporated or leaked? (I did epoxy the well caps during the rebuild.)
I installed a “Narrow Band” A/F mixture gauge in the car, but haven’t installed the correct O2 sensor just yet. Will that be of use, or should this really be a “Wide-Band” gauge? How can this be used to make adjustments or improvements in the QJ? Or should I rent a tailpipe A/F gauge?
I think I also read somewhere that I can spray something on and around the manifold and carb to indicate possible vacuum or other leaks. What was that spray? I would like to confirm there are no hidden issues.
And finally, since the QJ is 57-years old, and about 100,000 miles, are there physical items that may have worn away that I might want to consider replacing.
