I’m in the process of cleaning a Carter carb off a 54 Pontiac straight 8 flat head. I’ve never worked on anything this old and have little carb experience. I noticed the float while loading up boxes and figured it was a float from a sending unit. That’s the kind of ignorance we re dealing with. What I’m doing is taking one apart while putting another one together from a pile of parts all the while cleaning both. I’m having trouble removing the bowl cover. It’s getting caught on the vacumeter piston link. If I could remove the link I feel like that would do the trick. What am I doing???
I just answered my own question: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ual-carb-setup-for-straight-8-pontiac.973874/ Here's the linkage set-up: How to tear it down:
I let the kroil sit for about 6 hrs yesterday to no avail. Good news is out of the three carbs one is complete and it’s innards are pretty clean. No signs of residue or build up.. (how is this ethanol crap legal?!) so if it ain’t broke don’t fix it right?! I bagged the good carb and put it in storage for later use. So I now have one seized carb, one carb in pieces, and one that is good to go. (For now) moving on to installing the steering.
Do some research on ethanol grizz. Its not the evil your led to believe. A lot of people are running e85 with a ton of boost. People have also been adding it to their gas for years, it's gas line antifreeze. Well almost the same but still alcohol.
I will. Was my ignorance THAT obvious? All I know is my lawn mower hates it.. or at least that’s what the owner’s manual heavily stresses. Maybe it just says that so they can void the warranty?
It does help combustion by adding some oxygen in the mixture to give better burn, albeit faster, and give the cat converter(s) a better chance to complete whatever combustion didn't finish in the cylinder. So for your wagon, it's beneficial. For this Pontiac, where no knocking was the worry, not so much.
Beginning in late '52, Pontiac was re-tooling their assembly line for the 287 V-8 which was planned for introduction on the '53 models. After having given in to squabbles initiated by the Buick- and Oldsmobile divisions who didn't want Pontiac to cut into their action, Pontiac continued carrying over the straight 8 until serie's end, beginning with the Tri-Five type models. Pontiac didn't re-tool again for '54. So, this means that the '53s an -4s are the only pre-Tri-fives which will accomodate the V-8, bolt-in. This also means that to do so wouldn't be removing the vehicle's identity, because it was purposely designed to have the V-8. In fact, because of design changes, the straight 8 is de facto foreign to these cars. Dropping a 389 and up V-8 would not only lighten the vehicle. it would also improve handling, by displacing the concentrated drivetrain weight towards the middle of the car. Depending on if your car is automatic or not, you could even keep it Hydramatic. Once you get your straight 8 running, if it'll even run, you could evaluate the condition of the engine and possibly sell it to a collector who's restoring a '33 to '54 Pontiac or wishes to replace a 6-banger. Depending on what you could get for a good running straight 8, you could use that money to get your sleeper V-8 and maybe have some cash left over, even. Or, if the buyer happens to have the engine you're looking for just sitting around, a swap might occur. I know it's your car and am not trying to tell you what to do with it. I'm just giving you excuses to go and do it
When tuned properly (roughly 30% more than gas) E85 is like 100 octane. Ethanol is helping American corn growers and isn't polluting like MTBE, the thing is it degrades older rubber fuel components. You just need to replace old lines and seals with ones designed for it.
I need to verify this, but IIRC, anything made from HNBR (high-Nitrile Butyl Rubber) withstands alcohols.
