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Diagnose a Quadrajet carburetor problem / Re: Should I ditch my current carb on my Pontiac 301 powered 79 Trans Am?
« Last post by Ponchonutty on September 07, 2025, 06:53:15 AM »
Not sure why?  I can from my desktop and it says there's been 4 views???
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Diagnose a Quadrajet carburetor problem / Re: Should I ditch my current carb on my Pontiac 301 powered 79 Trans Am?
« Last post by quadrajam on September 06, 2025, 07:18:57 PM »
  I cant seem to be able to zoom in on the pictures....??...??

QJ
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Diagnose a Quadrajet carburetor problem / Cruise and Part Throttle Lean Condition
« Last post by Zach on September 06, 2025, 07:17:18 PM »
Howdy, replaced the factory exhaust with 2.5 inch on my 77 trans am I also added a o2 bung out of curiosity, since I KNOW the previous owners were running it very lean (found the APT was bottomed out when doing a rebuild and some other oddities, manifolds basically white in the inside) Seems my idle and WOT are in good numbers, maybe a tad rich low 13s, about where it ended up when using rpm and vacuum guage. My main concern was everything in between. My cruise, part throttle and heavy throttle. Cruise generally is around 16ish, heavy and part throttle can get as high as low 19s until I WOT then it is fine. I also do get excessive lean popping at deceleration especially when down shifting the 4 speed. Letting off the gas quickly at medium rpm’s can hit low 20s but I feel that is normal for the small primaries. Car does run very good no hesitations gets up and goes relatively good despite being a 77 Pontiac 400, at least to me, I do not have a good base line. Just wondering if this is normal for a quadrajet or if something needs to be addressed.

Car and carb is stock everything, rebuilt the carb with a cliff kit a few years back. Unsure of jets rods and all of that but it is all stock for a 17057263 carb# besides what is in the usual cliff rebuild kit, although I believe I have the original power piston spring. Apt is already pretty rich 4ish turns out, brought it out from 3 and it helped a little bit. Curious if anyone has a solution or where I should start I am thinking jets or rods but want to make sure instead of going the wrong direction I can get a carb running good but I’m far from knowledgeable enough to get it perfect. Lemme know if more information is needed as well… thanks
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Quadrajet Carb Talk and Tips / Re: Marine Quadrajet, e-10 fuel, stored 5m a year, how often should I clean/rebuild?
« Last post by quadrajam on September 06, 2025, 07:05:48 PM »
   Sounds like a good idea to me but I would also add a dose of STABIL to your
fuel tank for the last outing before storage.

QJ
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Diagnose a Quadrajet carburetor problem / Should I ditch my current carb on my Pontiac 301 powered 79 Trans Am?
« Last post by Ponchonutty on September 06, 2025, 06:13:52 AM »
So some of you read my long winded potential issues with my current Frankensteined quadrajet in which a Holley reman, warped correct carb was swapped around with an Olds tagged unit.  He suggested to me to get another core to do the build since the original carb wasn't a matching unit and would negate the costs making it right.  The builder used the necessary parts from the reman unit in order to keep the idle up circuit as well as the AC cut off when WOT. 

What prompted me wanting to have the carb that was on my turdbird rebuilt is that I could never get a happy place with idle.  The throttle would stick just off idle and got worse the warmer it got.  Well, I think the throttle shaft was bent slightly because when the Frankensteined carb was installed, I still had that issue.  He had to use the shaft in this carb I have now.  I wonder if something else could be swapped wrong causing excessive lean conditions since 2 totally different carbs were mix-matched together?

I handed my car off to my buddy who owns a carshop and is capable around these carbs but not to the level as many of you on here.  Right off the start he recommended getting another carb and throw it on to see how drastic of a change might be seen.  I got another off of a Pontiac 400 out of a 74 Grand Prix.  I haven't had a chance to talk to him to see if he's been able to do this as of yet.

So lets say the current carb is indeed the issue, what do I do from here?  Should I use the 74' carb or should I find a carb off of a late 70's to 80 301 motor?  Where do I draw a line as to how bad is too bad?  Like this 1980 Pontiac carb here.  It looks crazy nasty however the seller said it's all completely free and it's just covered in dirt from sitting on a shelf for decades.  Also one more thing is that I installed a 2004r in this car and the geometry for the TV is extremely important so as not to smoke it.  It's one of the main reasons I want to stay with a quadrajet versus another brand carb or even fuel injection.
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Quadrajet Carb Talk and Tips / Marine Quadrajet, e-10 fuel, stored 5m a year, how often should I clean/rebuild?
« Last post by LouC on September 05, 2025, 10:44:24 AM »
 Got a related question to the one about the fuel filter. My Q-Jet is an original marine unit on my 1988 OMC/Chevrolet 4.3 V6. I have averaged about 6 seasons between it needing a cleaning/rebuild, this boat is run on E10 gas and stored for approx 5 months each season. Just rebuilt it with Cliff's Marine kit this week.
Usually what leads me to doing a cleaning/rebuild is unsteady idle, stalling, or poor high rpm performance. I'm thinking I should maybe do it at 5 seasons to avoid trouble, thoughts?
Also instead of storing it with e10 fuel in the carb, I was thinking of dumping the fuel filter at winterization and then filling a new one with E0 gas like VP racing fuel. These filters are big like and oil filter so they hold a fair amount of fuel. Then run the engine for about 5 min so the E0 gets into the carb while fogging it. The thought here is the carb will be full of E0 gas when sitting over the winter, might reduce the build up of deposits.....thoughts?
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Quadrajet Carb Talk and Tips / Marine fuel filter question....
« Last post by LouC on September 04, 2025, 02:07:18 PM »
Finishing up with a rebuild using Cliff's kit on my marine Quadrajet and I have a couple of questions, I know how the marine filter goes with the spring going in first, and the open end of the filter facing the fuel line. For the housing nut, do you use the white plastic gasket, or the dark colored one? Also, on some instruction sheets I have seen reference for a seal that goes between the filter itself and the filter housing nut, is this necessary?
Thanks!
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Quadrajet Carb Talk and Tips / Re: Which quadrajet
« Last post by Photokinetics on September 04, 2025, 08:28:22 AM »
Thank you for your replies and the information! I bought Cliff's book over 13 years ago and have rebuilt a couple of carbs using it,  I have spare carburetor parts somewhere in a box, but since  serious Life changes I haven't been able to do what I like to do, so I'm pretty excited to do another carburetor and to tune it to make another engine very happy! It's been a slow process but I find I need to build another workbench! 😎
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Diagnose a Quadrajet carburetor problem / Re: 1979 Firebird Trans Am aka the turdbird has problems
« Last post by Ponchonutty on September 04, 2025, 06:29:43 AM »
Here’s a video.

https://youtube.com/shorts/zVpcvFY8sj8?si=6tn45XKpGjVJ1K5w
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Diagnose a Quadrajet carburetor problem / 1979 Firebird Trans Am aka the turdbird has problems
« Last post by Ponchonutty on September 04, 2025, 05:35:35 AM »
Thanks for letting me in Cliff.  So here's a long winded tale of my issues.  Bought a 79 Trans Am with matching Pontiac 301 and Th350 that was gone through mechanically.  Sent carb off to Classic Carb Rebuilders in Eden NC.  I knew the carb wasn't right from the start due to the Holley reman sticker on the side.  Also, the throttle would always hang up just off idle so fine tuning it was impossible.  CCR said the carb was warped and since it's not the original carb I should look for a better core.  Found one that was listed as a Pontiac one but was for an Oldsmobile.  He then called me asking if I needed all the extra brackets on the old carb.  I said yes, I need those because one bumps up idle when the AC is on and the other shuts off the AC compressor when floored.  He said he never seen such a thing (first red light).  He also said the old carb was full of rust in the bottom of the bowl.  So, I replaced every single fuel related item including the tank.

Got the carb back and it still would hang up at idle.  It would bump up about 400 rpms. when it would do it.  So I messaged CCR again.  He stated that possibly the shaft he used from the original carb may be slightly bent and for me to send it back.  I do then when he gets it he calls screaming I am name bashing on FB.  I assure everyone I did not.  I merely mentioned I still had an issue that I have to send the carb back to him on another's post.  After him yelling at me he said he was going to blueprint this carb and make sure everything was in tolerance.  Grand total of about $800 I still have what I believe is carb problems.

For the life of me I can not get the mixture to richen up at all.  It starts great.  Off, part, and 3/4 throttle is fine.  Floor it and it slows down.  Sometimes will even backfire.  I do have a wideband and its showing it's way lean like in the 20's cruising and pegs at 50 when WOT.  Only time the wide band shows decent numbers is when the choke is on.  The secondary does indeed open.  I can see fuel pumping through it.

Before anyone mentions a plugged exhaust, I just replaced the original exhaust with a Pypes kit.  Also swapped the trans to a 2004r but had this issue with the original one.

Carbs are outside my comfort zone.  Had I known about this site I would have given it my best and tried to rebuild it myself.  Right now the car is at a buddy's shop.  He suggested getting another carb to see if it changes anything for the better.  Found one that's in great shape to see if that corrects anything.  Cliff, if I drive to you, would you wanna rebuild another?

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