Hey guys, me being the youngin that I am, I don't have much experience working on carbs at all. I'm about to dig into the one on my 87 wagon, it's got some issues such as:

-Won't idle when cold

-Idles at 1500rpm with A/C off

-Idles at 500rpm with A/C on

-Rough/lopey idle

-Sputters/dies going around hard rights

-Crappy gas mileage (13mpg city)

 

The fuel supply problem going around hard right turns is the most interesting thing. The car will shake and sputter if I have my foot on the gas, if I take my foot off the gas it often dies. It will also die if I push the clutch in while coasting around a turn. Sometimes the reading on the tach will stay stable, but I can put my foot into the floor and have nothing happen- then suddenly the car will make a HUGE backfire and belch out some black smoke. This is the only time it smokes- all the rest of the time you can't see a thing coming out the tailpipe.

 

The idle is really rough as well, it almost feels like it's not running on all cylinders at idle. But as soon as I put any pressure on the gas at all it starts running smoothly again. When I first start the car it won't idle at all, then a few minutes later it will drop almost to zero RPM, the warning lights will come on, then it will rev up to about 1500 RPM, then drop again, then almost die, then rev again- it just keeps repeating that cycle. Once the engine is warm the idle is stable, just very rough.

 

I was thinking the problem while going around turns could be the carb float. Could that be it? Could the float be causing those other problems as well? Or is this carb just a basket case?

 

I would just throw a Weber on, but cash is severely limited right now.

 

Aside from the carb the car is tuned properly- new filters, new cap, rotor, plugs, and wires; timing is set properly, etc. When I changed the plugs 2 weeks ago the #3 and #4 looked blackened from running rich, and the #1 and #2 showed normal use.

It could be more than the carb itself.

 

PCV, EGR system

Head gasket problem

Piston rings

 

Seems to me that you're eating your oil, and when you go around hard rights, all of your oil sloshes to the left side and is getting eaten up.

 

You're sure bet is to redo all seals, gaskets, and rebuild the carb.

Forgot to add, the car has a new PCV as well. The lines are all oil-free now, it doesn't seem to be sucking any more oil in. It's running nice and cool and isn't losing any coolant. It's leaking some oil from the valve cover gaskets, but the consumption hasn't increased at all in the 8 months that I've had the car- and this stuff only started a little while ago. I have no oil smoke at all- not even when the car is sputtering, and not even after a hard start after a week of sitting. I haven't compression tested the engine, but as far as I can tell it's solid. With the problems going around hard rights, it really seems like a fuel delivery problem- the engine just seems like it isn't getting any gas. Wish I had an A/F gauge to prove it with.

 

What do you suggest checking in the EGR?