'55 carb question - having troubles

Tom in TN

Tom in TN

Senior Member
Got a '55 Fairlane with a bored out 272 and one 2bbl, took it out for a drive last weekend. Pulled up to a light and it just choked down and quit. Turned out it had flooded and was dribbling gas from the linkage side of the carb. (EBU carb)
Finally dried out, cranked and made it back home.
Had a different carb (EAB carb) and went thru it and put it on. Car ran fine up the road and back in front of my house, pulled it up toi the garage door and....it started blowing black smoke out the exhaust and then died...and was leaking gas from the linkage side of the carb. Won't crank, 'cause it's flooded... :(
What the heck?
2 different carbs doing the same thing? :confused:

Anybody got any insight or experience that I could use to figger this out?
 
to much fuel pressure from fuel pump, check pressure going to carb, 2 to 2 1/2 # is all you need, if you hadnt tried another carb with the same results i could give you 3 or 4 other things to check
 
What those guys said plus check for rust/scale/crap in carb, fuel line and filter. Never know with these old cars.
 
Fuel pumps have an internal check valve and can fail being stock means nothing, you need to run a pressure test on the pump.There are numerous posts all over the web about folks having problems with Carter AFB and Edelbrock Carbs which are very sensitive to excess pressure.If I had a dime for everyone that said "the fuel pump is stock" I would be rich :D some stock pumps have registered in excess of 8 psi.Do not buy the regulators with the dial on top "back in the day" when Filt-O-Reg made them in the USA they were good the Chinese knock offs from Mr. Gasket and Spectre are garbage,http://www.summitracing.com/parts/qft-30-804/overview/
 
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If you have a steep grade on the drive, that may be the problem. I had a Chev that couldn't be parked on my steep drive facing up hill. Down hill it was fine.
 
ole don, i have to classic cars, both have an edlebrock 600 cfm im running on them. parked up hill both will flood the carbs, an edelbrock problem i guess
 
Along with all the other good advise, I would check the float level too. Wouldn't hurt to set it a tad lower than spec.
 
Just for those keeping up... I out a new fuel pump on it and put the first carb back on - runs good.
Will take her out for a short trip tomorrow ansd see how it goes.
I'll let ya know...thanks again...
 
Well, it looks like you guys were right. New fuel pump made all the difference.
No flooding, no gas leakage and it runs like it should.

Thanks for your help!
 
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