Holley Street Avenger Corrosion!!

[protour73]

I read a while back about Holley Street Avenger carbs that had a corrosion problem, so with the thought in mind of doing some carb cleaning, I got a rebuild kit and tore the carb apart and found this. Has anyone seen this before? Is this the problem that Holley advised about in the past? Or is this something else like the type of gas(ethanol?) put into the car?

Also noted two different floats, brass in primary bowl and the modern material in the secondary bowl?

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[bsclark]

You should call holley's tech line.

I recently had an issue with a carb that was a few years old. My ranchero started having all kinds of strange problems, I pulled the primary bowl and found a small white pyramid shaped thing lodged in a jet. I cleaned everything out and it was fine for a couple months. It started happening again and when I pulled the primary bowl this time I found "blisters" in the inside of the primary bowl itself. There was what looked to me like sugar inside and around the blisters.

I called holley to see if they could help me catch whoever was sugaring my gas tank. The tech asked for the seriel number from the choke horn and based on that alone he had me send the carb back so they could exchange it. No reciept, no warrenty, no nothing! They had my new carb back to me licketty split!

I was and am still very impressed with the way I was dealt with. I work at a hot rod shop and deal with parts companies every day and it's not often that things get resolved that smoothly.

[TT302Z28]

Is that electrolosis? Almost looks like it in the pics.


I love Holley too but it is becoming easier to buy Demons. The first one I bought I felt like I was cheating on Holley.

[MonzaRacer]

Actually looks like some of the stations near you are selling gas mixed with methanol, usually see that type of issue with methanol or large amounts of ethanol and water contamination,,,like gas station has a leak.
Really!

As for
Demon after giving them a chance, then getting crap, then supposedly getting better the crap shows back up.
Good luck, what I cleaned them with is CRC Tyme1 carb soak . comes in 5 gallon can with basket.
Also if you can find one of the kits to do the zinc fix when restoring older carbs give it a zinc dichromate bath, seen a lot more of this on newer holleys without the zinc plate.

[Pro Stock]

Holley lost their Volvo Marine contract about a year and a half ago because of substandard zinc in their castings, maybe this is part of the problem.

Dale

[protour73]

Well this was a fun little adventure.....sent the carb off to Holley and they got it on Wednesday. Took untill that afternoon before they got a look at it, and the tech called me back. The carb will NOT be covered under warranty, as the damage was due to "water contamination" or "corrosion from alcohol" They asked if I ever ran E85 in it, NO..... I explained that there is fuel in the bowls in a temperature controlled garage over the winter months. They said, I need to drain the bowls when sitting for long periods, or use a Sta-Bil type product. I asked where in the owners manual does it instruct that.......it doesn't.

My point to them was that it is Holley's responsibility to tell the purchaser how to properly maintain the product. So basically I was screwed.....I explained to Shawn the Tech, that this was a horrible non-solution and I was extremely upset.

Thursday morning my cell rang, It was Shawn from Holley Tech Support. He talked to his manager and they agreed this was not a good ending to this issue and he offered to send me a brand carb for $75, which was their warranty repair charge (normally for the age of my carb $100 is the cost).

I explained that it was against my principles to have to pay anything, but $75 as opposed to $400 for a new one, was the lesser of two evils. New carb arrived today and will go on the car tomorrow.

I don't think this is an issue with the Dichromate finish on Holley's. I think the Street Avengers are a zinc finish....which apparently is vulnerable to corrosion from the Ethanol in the fuel. Lesson learned on this one and buyers beware if you are thinking of purchasing a Street Avenger from Holley. Drain the carb if sitting for long periods, or use a Sta-Bil type product. Previous to this I did not, I know many folks that don't and never had a problem.

[Skip Fix]

A few years ago we dynoed a motor of a friend. We kept getting white trash sticjing the carb float. Pulled off the dynoes fuel filter(one of those SS mesh Oberg types) and it was full of that type corrosion. The previous motor he dynoed was a alcohol motor a month or so before and they hadn't flushed the system.

Carter AFBs with no dichromate finish often look like that. I think the dichromate helps on the corrosion and the alcohol in just about all the pump gas is going to do that to all of us.

[mnm99]

Well this was a fun little adventure.....sent the carb off to Holley and they got it on Wednesday. Took untill that afternoon before they got a look at it, and the tech called me back. The carb will NOT be covered under warranty, as the damage was due to "water contamination" or "corrosion from alcohol" They asked if I ever ran E85 in it, NO..... I explained that there is fuel in the bowls in a temperature controlled garage over the winter months. They said, I need to drain the bowls when sitting for long periods, or use a Sta-Bil type product. I asked where in the owners manual does it instruct that.......it doesn't.

My point to them was that it is Holley's responsibility to tell the purchaser how to properly maintain the product. So basically I was screwed.....I explained to Shawn the Tech, that this was a horrible non-solution and I was extremely upset.

Thursday morning my cell rang, It was Shawn from Holley Tech Support. He talked to his manager and they agreed this was not a good ending to this issue and he offered to send me a brand carb for $75, which was their warranty repair charge (normally for the age of my carb $100 is the cost).

I explained that it was against my principles to have to pay anything, but $75 as opposed to $400 for a new one, was the lesser of two evils. New carb arrived today and will go on the car tomorrow.

I don't think this is an issue with the Dichromate finish on Holley's. I think the Street Avengers are a zinc finish....which apparently is vulnerable to corrosion from the Ethanol in the fuel. Lesson learned on this one and buyers beware if you are thinking of purchasing a Street Avenger from Holley. Drain the carb if sitting for long periods, or use a Sta-Bil type product. Previous to this I did not, I know many folks that don't and never had a problem.


I wanted to bring this back. I too had the same problem around a month ago. There IS A DEFECT with the zinc coatings on certain dates of manufacture. When I started having problems with Idle the tech asked me what the number was on the top of the carb. I don't remember what the range was, but he told me there was a recall on certain dates because of the zinc falling off / bad castings . I ended up sending back the carb ( make sure they pay shipping ) and they gave me a brand new one. This should be a sticky!

[protour73]

I wanted to bring this back. I too had the same problem around a month ago. There IS A DEFECT with the zinc coatings on certain dates of manufacture. When I started having problems with Idle the tech asked me what the number was on the top of the carb. I don't remember what the range was, but he told me there was a recall on certain dates because of the zinc falling off / bad castings . I ended up sending back the carb ( make sure they pay shipping ) and they gave me a brand new one. This should be a sticky!

Marc, that was not the case with this situation. The recall covered the partial "flaking" of the zinc coating. I sent the carb back to Holley, and they examined it and said that this situation was NOT covered under that recall. But thanks for resurrecting an old thread.