mid-year crisis

Hey all, I'm having issues with my holley 1850. I just put the carb on the car. Carb is "new to me". While trying to adjust the secondary float, level, the car won't run with the float anywhere near the "sight hole". Bringing the float upward floods the carburetor with fuel before the float level gets even near the "sight hole". Yes, I'm bumping the fender to "see" if I'm close. Without ripping the carb apart completely, I'm thinking maybe a leaky (heavy) float??....anyone out there have experience with an issue like this?
Thanks in advance for suggestions

edit: primary float level adjusted fine.

2nd edit: Heavy float makes no sense....I'd be getting fuel out of the sight hole..... HELLO!!

65tripleblack

Power valve might be ruptured.

mid-year crisis

Thanks for the input Tripleblack, from memory, there's no way to check a power valve (other than visually) other than using a "power valve checker" is there??

SI67

I have read of a test: You fire the car up and let it idle. Then turn the idle mixture screws all the way in. If the engine dies, the power valve is not blown. If it doesn't die, that's because it's getting fuel that it shouldn't be getting---the power valve IS blown. Now, if you ask me where the idle mixture screws are (I bet you know), I'm out of my depth! I'm all too familiar with blown power valves, though. I had a series of blown power valves stemming from intake backfires after a bad engine rebuild.

If the power valve is blown, the car will be running eye-wateringly rich, and the plugs will soon get fuel-fouled.

troutster71

I recently had success checking a PV with my Mityvac. It has a suction cup like fitting that will seal on the flat side of the PV. Worked for me.

Cheers, GA

Sorry, not a visual method

tbarb

If the power valve was blown the car would never idle good on the primary side. If I understand your post, the carburetor adjusts fine on the primary side, correct?

If you lower the fuel level on the secondary bowl it runs normal.

PAmotorman

metering body warped and leaking fuel into the carb

mid-year crisis

That is correct...to the extent that a car will run "normal" on one float bowl!

PAmotorman- Thanks for the input. From other research I've done, it sounds like that's a possibility, as well as secondary float getting hung up on secondary metering "plate". I guess it's time to dig in!

PAmotorman

make sure the float pivot shaft is tapped all the way into the float bowl. if not the float can move back and forth and get hung up

mid-year crisis

Thanks again to those who responded. I wish I could post the resolution, but after tearing the carb apart I couldn't find any glaring issues, other than possibly a warped metering body. I ended up throwing a rebuild kit in another carb, runs like a champ.

1965corvettecop

I had similar issues with my factory Holley 2818. I sent it to Craig Woodruff Performance in Youngstown, Ohio. He Milled the body of carb, base plate, and put in new metering block. He recolored it too, so it looks new. I put a double pumper on in the interim period, and just left it on. But he did a nice job for good price, if you want that one fixed.

mid-year crisis

Thanks for the info