I'm not expanding my collecting interest just yet, but I'm posting this because it is an abject lesson in how NOT to advertise a car. What you see below are the sum total of photos presented of this car. The seller could not have done a poorer job. It might be a very nice car. If only we could see it. https://norfolk.craigslist.org/cto/d/chesapeake-1973-oldsmobile-toronado/7378898605.html At least take the cover all the way off!
Yeah it’s very poorly presented, and that hood picture with the disjointed light bucket has more questions than answers
Guess it’s the hood opening. Hadn’t considered it since the car cover side shot makes it look closed. I’m thinking Jwdtenn that a smot is like a smatch, which is a spotted scratch. The smot is a deep spot that is kinda at the surface.
Yes, which is unfair to the car. He doesn't mention that the carburetor is aftermarket. I wonder why he replaced it. He's got a fuel line with a pressure gauge on it, too. What's he trying to accomplish? The original quadrajet is a good carb, and rebuild kits are readily available. I rebuilt the carbs on both of my Toros. New fuel pumps are readily available as well.
Likely, the guy didn't try to do it, just spent the lucre to get it done 'quickly.' For all their faults, a Q-Jet can be built to work quite well, not leak out of the jet wells, not leak vacuum through the throttle shafts, without a bunch of hard work.
The quadrajet was one of the best carburetors ever invented, and it appeared on millions of cars over the decade-and-a-half that it was produced. I'm curious to know what some of these faults are.
He's got an aftermarket intake as well. Toro's stock intakes were a low rise design, allowing sufficient clearance for the air cleaner. The only way you'll close that hood is with out the stock air cleaner or a cheapy aftermarket one. Initially the Qjet had some novel needle & seat parts that the techs were not used to seeing so it was the old addage "if you don't understand it, it must be junk". They offer a lot of tunning adjustments and most people don't want to take the time to understand the adjustments. So like the needle & seat issue, most would rip it off and put on a Holley. This "Qjet is junk" thought has prevailed since the 60's. That said, it made for a glut of good Qjets for cheap.
I worked in a shop that specialized in carburetor rebuilding/tuning (including performance), from early '98 to mid-2002, and everything to my boss, the rebuilder, was fair game. Know anyone that can correctly rebuild and dial in a Solex Mikuni (think Mitsubishi), the first time, with no mistakes? He could. So when I tell you what I observed from him working on M4MC/M4ME Quadrajets, you can believe me. I do not lie. 1) Quadrajets can suffer from leaking primary/secondary wells. This is usually from water in gas. His fix? The small discs that are peened into place can become loose and leaky from corrosion. He would re-peen the metal gently back over the disc, then seal them with JB Weld. He also performed a similar repair on Thermoquad carbs, where the jet wells were glued; usually, the glue would break down, causing the well bottom to separate and leak. He would clean the old adhesive, apply thin beads of JB Weld, rubber band them, and let them sit for 48 hours to cure. 2) Q-jets have an inordinate amount of throttle bodies wearing out. Usually, that means disassembly and re-bushing. But he would use a punch and hammer, gently reforming the aluminum around the shaft to close off the vacuum leaks. Then he would lube and test the throttle linkage, verify no links or components were bent out of shape from long use. 3) The '70s and newer throttle bodies had either caps over the idle mixture screws, or 'limiting caps' that gave a very narrow adjustment. He would make two cuts on each side of both caps, then use a mini chisel, struck between both cuts, to fully access the mixture screws. 4) He was a whiz at dialing in the mixture control solenoid, and the air bleed at the top center of the airhorn, to 'open' or 'close' the 'window' of the AFM, using a scan tool to read solenoid dwell and oxygen sensor operation, as well as a 4-gas analyzer to verify emission compliance. I guess you could say that a few of the Q-Jet's problems were just a mechanic's lack of knowledge, but the others were items requiring repair above what a shop manual covers.
Every one of those repairs is considered "old hat" now by the guys who know these carbs, but 25-35 years ago most people had no clue about what to do. It was easier just to put a Holley or Edelbrock on it and go. Some folks had an idea that the well plugs were leaking, but cleaning out all those tiny passages, adding bypass air and fuel (which required drilling with very small bits on smog-era quadrajets), fixing worn throttle bushings, adjusting the AFM on the part throttle APT screw (which was NOT readily available or obvious to most mechanics), or later on adjusting that mixture solenoid? Those were all things only engineers of the carbs understood or very good techs who had lots of experience. Car starts running rough or having problems after a few years of ownership? Taking it down to Joe's Garage on the corner was not going to cut it with the wear-out and adjustments needed and forget about a dealer - the dealer mechanics were flat-rate and they'd just buy you a new Service Replacement carb (for $500) and slap it on and call it good when it likely wasn't calibrated correctly. Carbs can mask a ton of problems by just dumping more fuel in the engine and most people were understandably frustrated by the inability of most shops or mechanics to figure out why their car ran odd or was a pig on gas when fuel economy mattered most.
Now you know why I prefer EFI (even Bosch's mech EFI systems) to carburetion. Carbs actually take a bit of artistry to keep running well (ask any Ferrari mechanic, any race mechanic, anyone who deals with multiple carbs, as they need synchronization), versus a decent tech who knows that a scan tool and a pile of parts doesn't fix the car.
