Awesome-X

I have an 88 camaro with a 355, it has ported and polished heads, a holley dominator intake, a new cam and new lifters, headers, and an edelbrock 600 carb. We installed the new cam and lifters and put it back together and took it out for a spin, well my buddy had the firing order off a little and it backfired and set the carb on fire...we were nowhere near anything I could use to put it out so in my worried haste I may have poured a slushie onto/into the carb...yeah it was a bad idea. I towed the car back home and it starts and runs but it wouldn't idle so my dad messed with the carb and got it to idle right and start on the first try, I drove it all of 4 blocks and shut it off and i had to crank and crank and floor the gas pedal and finally it started. its still rough to start but it runs/drives fine but I drove about 120 miles today and it took a full tank of gas...i pulled the carb and cleaned it with starter fluid but it didnt really help any. That slushie is like really thick syrup, do you think it could have ruined the carb? cause thats a really expensive carb! Also there is a light constant puff of white smoke when i start up the car. whats up?

Bullydawg

iTrader: (7)

Well, I am sure taking it apart and cleaning everything wouldn't hurt at all. Maybe even sea-foam it. I would take off the intake and do some intense cleaning though either way.

Awesome-X

Is there anything that would you would recommend to soak it in? I can take it off for a few days if need-be and I have about 4 cans of sea-foam and my father in law has an auto repair business so if there are any tools that would help...I just put the new intake on it 2 days ago so that sucks that I have to take it off. But if anyone knows something that will really clean this carb out please let me know!

Stekman

Carb cleaner.

Rolling Thunder

lol Well no offence but i cant help but kinda laugh about your slushie insident as thats the first time ive ever heard that befor lol. Good quick thinking though you did what you had to do befor something more serious happened i would have done the same. Now on you the real problem here wtf happened? Personally i wouldnt be overly concerend about the slushie. Although its not something it likes im sure but when you think about gasoline which if it werent so flamable would work great as a solvent vs a slushie the gas will eat that stuff up no problem. What i suspect happened is when the carb was lit on fire some of the internals gaskets or rubber components may have been melted causeing an internal leak. This can be confirmed if you look down the throttle bores while the cars running (wear safteyglasses incase of another backfire) youll probably see gas trickleing in steadily. This will probably be accompanied by black spark plugs, black exhaust smoke, and having to hold the pedal to the floor when starting especially when hot because the carbs being flooded. Now no need to be overly depressed about this as its not the end of the world rebuild kits and replacement parts are available as well as great online documentation about these carbs on edelbrocks web site. Just give it a good tear down and through inspection and repair as needed. Also check for proper float operation and good luck.

chas0218

did you fix the plug wires that weren't hooked up right? The reason why it backfired was b/c the plug was lighting the fuel before the intake valve was closed. It could be running bad from reversed plug wires so check that. then soak the carb in carb cleaner...be sure to completely submerge the carb. if the carb catches on fire again just blow it out with ur mouth. I have had it happen many times when i was adjusting my timing, shouldn't hurt anything unless u have a really old holley (pre-backfire protection check ball).

Awesome-X

Trust me I tried to blow it out but it wasnt a little fire. The paint on my hood bubbled up and I tried as hard as I could to get it out without resorting to liquid...oh, and my hard start thing only happens when its warm..not when its cooled off for a while, whats up with that?

Rolling Thunder

Well in a normal situation ide say its a carb that hasnt been tuned properly. See cars need to run alittle rich when first started up and the enging is cold once warmed up however it dosnt need this enrichment furthermore if it is left as enriched when the motor is cold when the motors hot it will flood the carb which is why you need to hold your foot to the floor to start it to clear its throat in essence. Carbs are supposed to be tuned with the motor all warmed up and the choke open so it has no effect on the enrichment. Then when the choke is closed when the motor is cold it gives the motor that bit of enrichment it needs. In your case however it sounds like the carb was set to start nice by over enriching it which is fine when the cars cold it will run like a top however when the car is all warmed up its running overly rich causeing the carb to get flooded and could account for part of the low gas mileage. However again this is under normal circumstances if theres somthing not right with the carb then its a whole different ball game.