metering block modification?? $200+

[TheRoaringEagle]

took my camaro to get the carburetor tuned, thinking it ran too rich. left it there! overnight and got a phone call from the shop owner saying that there were a lot of problems.

he told me all holley 4160 models come out of the factory needing major modifications concerning the metering block. not plate, but block with the jets. and that to addition to the 200 i owe him for tweaking my ignition and estimate of 200 for adjusting the carb, i need to pay another 200 to have the metering block drilled to spec. 600!!! i then asked what carb should i have bought that wouldn't need such extensive mods, including all makes and models such as edelbrock, double pumpers, demons.. and he then told me that ALL carbs need this much work.

is this true? i just find it hard to believe there is no factory aftermarket carb that works well for my crate engine from GM.

and i've read in my holley book that metering block mods should be a last resort and holley's usually only need small adjustments for street engines

he then added that i needed a new fuel pump and it would cost 70 of labor to put it in. saying my press dropped from 4 to 0... i have a fuel press gauge right before the carb and it always shows 7-9 through most of the range of throttle...

[Shaker455]

No! not "all" carbs need that kind of work but a custom built Holley like the ones I offer would have had the right been right from the get go!

I offered help to avoid this type of a deal....I wished you responded

The 4160 metering block do not need extensive mods so ask him what exactly he did.

[TheRoaringEagle]

i did not have them do anything to my carb. i left it over night and they fixed the ignition, distributor was off and firing order was off too. very much my mistake. i ended up paying less than 150. the car runs a lot better now.

asfor the metering block, they intended to drill some of the restriction out for one of the circuits.. theres a bit of a stumble when transitioning from part to full throttle - but not all the time.

but i'm not going to be rapidly accelerating anytime soon, going to be easy on breaking in this engine, and the rain doesn't help - keep fish tailing everywhere. so i figure i will wait a little bit, especially since i'm broke hehe.

thanks for your offer, where are you located? i want to defin. have a hand in understanding and tuning the carb myself.

[Shaker455]

I'm in New Hampshire.

Right now I'm building an old 4150 vac sec model 3310 750 CFM and giving it some modern features, the customer also sent me a 4160 3310 that was running on his car to use for parts.

One of the reasons I choose the older 4150 was that it has a boss in the back for a rear squiter in the event somewhere down the road his set up changes and wants to convert to a mech sec.

So far I've used the baseplate and the front metering block from the 4160 along with some other misc parts....this is what I've done so far:

Baseplate=
Slab front shafts to gain airflow and crisper throttle responce.
Add 4-corner idle circurt
Teflon bush front and rear shafts

Mainbody=
Remove entire choketower and blend like HP series mainbody
Remove casting flash step in venturi's
Remove and replace ineffcent straight boosters with HP .160 downlegs with shear step for improved signal and atomization as well as a CFM gain.
Activate idle circurt passage
Install new front airbleeds
Quick change vac sec spring kit

[MonzaRacer]

Hey shaker I bet for all that and the suppossed mods that guy eagle took his car to would over a grand!
Heck the last carb I did similar except for blending and the air bleeds and changing boosters as I bought an older drop booster carb (actually had to drill the idle air bleeds out a little) I also ,out of my own pocket had it replated for looks, for a friend I only sold it for $450 plus new parts and I bought the carb at a swap meet.
Its amazing that people are still selling older 3310s at swap meets pretty much complete for less than $75. 4 of which I have brought home and slipped in new metering block and float bowl gaskets and swapped out the old power valves and they ran good.
It amazes me when people sell good carbs that may only need some minor work to run good and then buy a new carb and have to start over on the tune in of the fuel system.
Sounds a little fishy to me because I will terar down, clean anad replace all the "kit parts" and do some basic tuning for under $250 plus parts. And I do a lot of flashing polishing, doing the shaft bushings, power valve ant blow out kit, and I have a guy who will replate the parts too. I have a buddy with a decent running engine on a run stand and I try to get some fuel into these units and make sure they work good.
I dont do a lot of carbs anymore as I call a few shops that do them to my satisfaction and have had no come backs, unlike my experiences with BG carbs. Those people need to get thier s**t together and start a better QC dept.
I have had 4 in the last 6 months that were litterally packed full of machine shavings. We pulled one them apart and put the metering blocks in a vibratory cleaner and removed a full table spoon of cuttings and trash from both metering blocks and it still runs like crap.
Heck a fella came to me and ordered a new carb and left me his old 750DP and it ran 300 percent better with this old criusty carb on in place of one the BG carbs.
I like BArry but he needs to put his company under a microscope and fast.
Eagle, good luck I hope your car runs better, andI bet if thats a vac sec carb it needs either a heavier or lighter spring in the secondaries and maybe a bigger accel pump shooter as I think most carbs are too small in shooter area, or so I have found.
Lee

[Shaker455]

Lee,
I've reworked some pretty messed up BG carbs including what you described plus all the drilled holes in the metering block including the emulsion holes being drilled with a dull drill and it wobbled and made all the holes extremely oversize.

I had to machine brass press in slugs with the correct hole size to regain control over carb....was the 3rd unit the customer went thru.
Jeff