Carb rebuild and SA Intake Swap
 

My air vent solenoid took a crap on me so I decided to take the air horn off to remove the plunger and block it off.

Aparently I have one different than I've read about. THe rod is bent because I read a post that sterling said to whack it with a hammer to break the plastic... it just bent and put a gouge in the plunger! LOL This isn't a threaded hole. It uses the 3 holes. Do I just use a soft plug to block the outer hole? (SEE PIC)

With the horn off I noticed lots of crusties in the bowls. So I figure it's time to rebuild, even though it ran Great! Maybe it will run better. :nod:




Plus since the carb is off now I'll swap in my modified SA intake.
Question there:
Intake came with a spacer that had the inside cut out to be open. How badly would this hurt low end? I'm doing the RB header at the same time (Have all the parts) Not concerned about matching up the vacuum ports as the ported for the dizzy is still there and I need one manifold vac for the pcv.

How important is the splash portion of the plastic spacer? One side of mine broke in half. Is it a psuedo heat shield? I can easily wip out a stainless heatshield like the RB one if need be. Just don't want to spend $140 on a new one, if the shield portion is redundant.

Thanks guys! More pics as things unfold!

One of the SA spacer.

i would use the one with independent runners

Seems like your secondaries or other vacuum operated items may not work right with that center piece cut out. Might kill velocity. Just gob some JB weld into the vent hole.

that sheild thing, doesent seem like it's that important..im sure that it help's with heat somewhat tho. i just broke off the rest of it since what happened to you, happened to me also.

:AA:

That gutted spacer would not only screw up airflow tremendously (pointless huge vacuum pocket between the barrels)... but it's gonna leave a number of vacuum & bleed ports on the bottom of the carb misrouted to mani vacuum.

The heat shield function is helpful, especially if you're not running the stock exhaust shields any more, but it's not hypercritical. But sealing the bottom of the carb to the proper ports is kind of important.

Gutted spacer was used on a rally car.

I looked closer, and all the holes line up fine.

I'll use the non gutted one. If you look at the Runners each rotor has both runners connected for a little bit on the intake itself. The FB intake would be the same if it wasn't for the shutter valve.

LOL no epoxy on my carb or intake. That's why I smoothed out all the ports on the SA intake. Looks like the soft plug that fits the water ports in the motor, will also fit that port on the carb. I'll squish that guy in there with some #2 and cap the vent port if the motor doesn't need the extra air.



I did a search, and I only found one post talking about the two different Hygrade Carb kits, which of course had no diffinitive answers.

My parts book shows:
79-82 #1401
82-85 #1556

I've found posts with just one of those numbers in it, that people have used.
What's the difference? I'm temped to buy both just to get to the bottom of it! Sucks when you have an '82 like I do!

Got her started last night! They sure are loud with open header. Waiting for my V-Band clamp to show up then I can build the rest of the exhaust back to the pipe split.

I'll get some pictures tonight.

Quick question: How exact does the fuel level need to be? I've got one right at 1/2 and the other is say just under 3/4 full.
Do I need to pull the top again? Each time I do to adjust, one of the needles doesn't seal! LOL have to do the tap tap.

Thanks!

It is very important to have both at 1/2 and especially level with each other. You might try whacking the top with a screwdriver, cause the needle and seat sometimes just stick a little. You usually don't need to re-bend the little tabs on the floats, that is a last resort. But you DEFINATELY want the fuel even and a 1/2 in both bowls. It will cause lots of trouble tuning otherwise.

Sterling's website will help a ton with that part of it. sterlingmetalworks.com

Thanks for the link! I've read through there alot. I've also watched him on the boards. Seems he says 9/16 float height. I did that and the levels were almost above the glass. So I've been adjusting slightly till I get them right. Just wanted to know how "exact".... "exact" was lol. I'll adjust my front one, one more time. Should get it.

My floats didn't have the levels right before I took it apart. They were both about 7/8 of the way up.

The tap tap worked each time. Strange that they would stick with the needle in the "open" positive.


Thanks!

Finished!

Sorry it took so long to post. Clutch slave went out and trashed my clutch. So I finished rebuilding my spare trans and installed all that!

So both rebuild kits didn't have the right accelerator pump. So I epoxied the hole that the original was covering so far so good.

Got the float levels set. Knocked 22mpg on the freeway. Best it's ever seen. Still only getting like 14mpg in town though. I'm thinking ignition upgrade next. Header shows some power gains, but it still seems to fall flat about 6000rpm. Fuel filter is new. I'm using the stock air cleaner, with the baffle removed and the black plastic removed. Maybe it's not enough air? Or the pump not keeping up....

Doesn't start quite as easy as she used to, but I did trash the plugs. Those are next to get replaced. I didn't realize that with the exhaust manifold off, when you pull the intake 90% of your coolant goes into the engine! She was a cranky bitch to get started. Runs good now though! Only complaint is some light studder/miss on a light throttle coast. Otherwise cruise, acceleration, etc are bitchin'.