A friend of mine is trying to work some bugs out of a new car. The car shifts hard into second gear goes about sixty feet and lays down. He said the alcohol he is using is eighteen months old. I told him to drain the tank and put fresh fuel in to see if that solves the issue. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Gday
Not much info there but i'll hazard a guess and say the bowls are running dry, not enough fuel supply or flow past the needle and seats.
Cheers

quote:

Originally posted by Paul Dilley:
Gday
Not much info there but i'll hazard a guess and say the bowls are running dry, not enough fuel supply or flow past the needle and seats.
Cheers

X2

If he is using 18 month old fuel especially alcohol, what is his maintenance program. He run filters? tank sealed? foam in the tank?. Yearly carb clean and kit. The list is long. Stuff is corrosive. He run an additive?

I'll check with him today to see about his maintenance program. I know he runs additive in the alcohol because he gets that from me. The other stuff I'm not sure about, but I will ask today.

18 months sitting sealed in a drum shouldn't be any different than 18 days sitting in a sealed drum.

If he doesn't own one, borrow a GoPro and mount it facing a fuel pressure gauge. Then make a pass and see what the fuel pressure does. If it goes to zero on the launch, the car could make it past the 60 ft. before it lays over with empty bowls.

I would suspect a fuel supply issue but since it is so easy to change carbs out I would try a different one to help narrow down issue.

Or you could listen to Ed and change your converter........

As for the alcohol being 18 months old that should not be an issue at all. I have ran some thatvwas 8 years old and could not tell any difference from new drum.

quote:

Originally posted by Curly1:


Or you could listen to Ed and change your converter........

And later you are going to b1tch that he is messing up the thread.

quote:

Originally posted by CURTIS REED:

quote:

Originally posted by Curly1:


Or you could listen to Ed and change your converter........

And later you are going to b1tch that he is messing up the thread.

oh yeah.....poor little ed is just misunderstood....

seen a sprag in convertor do same thing

My friend took the carb apart today and called and said the back bowl was dry. Cleaned everything and when he took the needle and seat out it was hung in the closed position. Changed needle and seat now the new one won't shut off. I suspect the float is saturated as being part of the problem, but he says the needle and seat work fine until he puts it in the bowl. He also says he can hear air going into the bowl. I'm stumped. I've been racing since the 1970s and have never encountered this kind of problem. Suggestions?

As I said in my first post I would change out carb to quickly determine what direction to go from there.

quote:

Originally posted by imakehp:

oh yeah.....poor little ed is just misunderstood....

Dave

I'm under no illusion of who and what he is but I have seen Beetlejuice.

I just don't see the value of trying to derail a thread when you don't have too.

Curtis

Remove the back (new) needle and seat, turn it upside down and tap the needle lightly with a hammer. This will help seat it into the brass and seal it.

Sometimes replacing the needle and seat causes more problems. I preferred seasoned ones myself, the older they are, the better they seal.

I fought this same issue over a year ago, changed everything fuel related and it ended up being a sprag in the converter. Car would 60ft fine, run great through low gear and right after shift to high gear the pitch of the motor would change and it felt like someone hooked a trailer up to the car.

quote:

Originally posted by Rawe Power:
If he doesn't own one, borrow a GoPro and mount it facing a fuel pressure gauge. Then make a pass and see what the fuel pressure does. If it goes to zero on the launch, the car could make it past the 60 ft. before it lays over with empty bowls.

If he notices the fuel pressure drop, he might want to check the vent. I have seen them do goofy things when the car is under hard acceleration.