1969 dodge coronet 4 door
318 with a carter BBD 2 barrel
The car was lacking power under high RPM/Full throttle and slighly cut out like it was starving for fuel.

The carb had a "remanufactured" sticker on it from 2006, but the carb looked a lot older than that.

So, I got a rebuild kit to clean it up. I took it apart and cleaned it thouroghly, got A LOT of dirt crap out of the bowls.

Careful to put it back together.

Car starts fine, revs great in park/neutral. ON THE ROAD, Now it lacks EVEN MORE POWER from half throttle up and starts missing like it's starved for gas, but it doesn't actually die...

I should have left the dirty carb alone.

So what do I do now? Take it apart and reclean it?
Buy a new remanufactured carb?
Any ideas? It's little things like this that drive me crazy!


thanks

eight

Sometime they get rebuild some much they they have a internal problem.I have a few of them even rebuilt them on past owned cars .And took one of a parts car that worked great .But did you check your float level and snap in that retainer in to hold float down. leave any check balls out?What about fuel hoses at tank and at pump .Ive seen them swell the inside diameter down or split and suck air.Hows the fuel pump and pressure .And is it a new gas filter

"Take it apart and reclean it."

You may want to try and find(borrow) a carb that you know is working properly and try it. Might not be the carb at all.

If it had that much "crud" in it you possibly have a rusty tank and or fuel lines. Replace The Fuel Filter or even double up on one for a while.

I have two fuel filters, even before this rebuild.

There is one before and after the pump. The one after the pump is new within the last 500 miles.

I have a feeling that it may be the floats, but to be honest I didn't really mess with them. I have no idea it would run so crappy even after I just cleaned out/regasketed the carb.

Both check balls are in place according to size (double checked).

I thought giving a good clean and new guts could only improve performance...I guess I am learning as I go?

thanks for the input guys!

eight

How many years since tank or sending unit has been checked? They can plug up a bit. (screen-sock on sender).

You can get a rag and compressed air and slowly enter very slight pressure into the fuel opening .With fuel line off at fuel pump.And see how it looks and how it flows out.If you get hardly anything time to drop the tank

I had two filters on my car when I first got it running.. Read somewhere( I think the edelbrock site) that the inline filters are not designed to be in front of the pump as it could suck some of the paper element into the pump and ruin it... Mine only has one on it now....

Just an opinion.I never liked the Carter 2 barrel carbs, their 4 barrel offerings however are great.If it were mine and I've done it before I would ditch it at the earliest opportunity.If you want a 2 barrel fit a 350 Holley or even a Rochester(some simple mods will be required).Or give that teen what IT REALLY WANTS...a good dual plane intake and 600 cfm vac Holley,Carter or edelbrock carb.

I tried to get away from that carb a few times .And get the holley replacement economaster never could find any

thanks for the replies guys.

I know there are a lot of things I could do at this point. I am not ready to start dumping lots of money into this motor.

I may just end up throwing a 4 barrel on it, but then I have my exhaust to mess with etc...

Once I get the ball rolling with car projects, it is really hard to get it to stop.

I'll try another cleaning and thorough inspection... if that doesn't do it, it may be time for some bigger and better upgrades instead of tinkering with the little 2bbl.

any more thoughts?

eight

I am not saying throw heaps of money at it.Look at a wreckers or whatever means you have available to source a second hand intake(virtually any alloy dual plane 4 barrel is going to be an improvement and will allow a 4 barrel carb).A Holley square bore vac sec should be dirt cheap second hand and kits and tuning for those carbs are everwhere.I have to be resourceful living in New Zealand(parts can be hard to come buy and expensive)You live in the States;you should be swimming in options for low-bucks....best of luck however you go.Exhaust is not an issue at the moment for you;concentrate on the carb issue thats where your power will come from...The exhaust wont hold you back any..

Check the fuel line near the floor I had a police car that was sucking air threw porosity in the line changed the hose back at the tank and problem solved As stated check your fuel pressure but be careful air will pressurize and possibly give you a false reading if you pump is good Also on that model carb check your metering rods they can be set wrong and causing some of that problem. It is easy to work on carb so why ditch it? one ;last thing if you are reading over 20-21 inches of vacuum its too lean and hence part of your problem

thanks for the input. I will mess with it some this weekend.

I will first check the fuel pressure and carb vaccumn, last I checked several months ago it was at 17-18 pounds of vacumn.

As far as the metering rods go...I just put them back in the way they came out...so I don't imagine it could be something like that.

I'll keep you posted. I am also going to ditch the double filter and just run one good one after the pump and see if that helps.


thanks.!

eight

There is little to no adjustment on the metering rods on a '69BBD. Maybe none. I can check later when I am out in the shop, I have a couple torn apart.

You didn't check your float height from what I read. Start there.

If the inlet turns while attaching the fuel line it will alter the float height, it doesn't take much.

They are great little carbs. Very-very simple!

You still haven't told us the condition of the tank filter. Does the car run OK from a dead stop when you floor it? If there is a supply problem, the motor should run fine for a few seconds, until the bowl runs low/dry. I've had sending units that looked like someone painted it with brown paint, and the tube needed a drill bit to clean it out.