Holley Help

hippie · Apr 14, 2009

Ok so heres the skinny on what I'm doing, I have a 2.3 bored and stroked with 12.5 to 1 compression,Esslinger ARCA head,Holley 4412-C carb,custom made zoomy header in a small pulling tractor, My problem is #'s 2 and 4 run smooth nice color on exhaust #'s 1 and 3 run rich,pop fart,stumble above idle, also I noticed the squirters dribbling fuel from 1500 all the way to 8,000 rpm's, Ive swapped the intake,plugs, wires,went through the dist. (Mallory Unilite) everything looks good but I cant get the damm thing to purrr. Anyone got any ideas?? :dunno:

skippy · Apr 14, 2009

If the following link doen't help,call the number at the bootom of the page.Holley tech assistance will help you to figure it out,they don't charge anything.

http://www.holley.com/TechService/

Mark_88 · Apr 14, 2009

Nice link Skippy...plenty of information there...

Hippie...what kind of fuel pump are you using and what is the PSI set too? Sounds like you may have it set too high...and it's blowing through...if you can get a vac tester and test the fuel pressure/vac it might help quite a bit...I set up my carb with the vac tester as outlined in the instructions and it smoothed right out (thanks again to Skippy for the suggestion)...

Other than that...timing might be slightly off...

4b316 · Apr 14, 2009

Are you running the carb with the bowl facing forward?We had to turn ours sideways and that took care of a few problems.We ran a different jet from front to back.Are you running the restricters in the idle circuit?How about posting a picture for us?

Mark_88 · Apr 14, 2009

My 5200 has the bowl facing forward and I've never had a problem with it...but I just read somewhere that may be a problem for some carbs...never heard of it before...

When I was having problems with my carb recently I did notice that fuel was just dumping down the tubes...but it wasn't anything that settings could fix...the carb was just plain full of gunk...once that was out it went back to normal...

shadetree · Apr 14, 2009

These folks wrote the book on moding the 2.0/2.3 for ally types of racing. Call their tech line. You are using their head, so why not let them tune it for you.

www.esslingeracing.com

shady

Kenneth S · Apr 14, 2009

1 & 3 plug wires crossed.
1 & 3 have a bent valve or other valve train malady (with a compression ratio like that, and a big cam things get tight in there).
Intake manifold has different flow characteristics for cylinders 1 & 3, than for 2 & 4. Does the intake have a plenum, or does it separate cyls 1 & 3, and 2 & 4 to an individual bbl in the carb.

The more info that you can provide on the engine the better.

hippie · Apr 15, 2009

Thanks for all the responses. OK manifold is stock D port,plug wires are not crossed,fuel bowl faces forward,using Holley electric fuel pump,not sure of pressure,already talked to Carey and the gang at Esslinger,I've adjusted the carb by vacuum gauge,timing is at 35 degress at 3800(total advance)fuel level is correct (float bowl)carb was new out of the box last season kind of ran that way last year to I guess but I only had stock motor then,upped the jets to 75 then to 74 and then back to 73 which it came with.

Kenneth S · Apr 15, 2009

You have the Esslinger cast iron D-port ARCA head, the stock carberated D-port manifold is kinda piss poor as far as flow goes (the runners are designed to solve clearance issues for rather than performance), the best intake is the Esslinger Part# E2724-5K intake that is designed for their ARCA D-port head (a much more efficient intake), or your problem could be just a couple of bad plug wires. Judging by your jet sizes you are running a 500 cfm 2 bbl, the main problem with a 500 holley is that the fuel enrichment holes that are drilled into the metering block where the powervalve screws into are way too big for the 2.3 making it run too rich, racer walsh sells a kit that makes holley 2 bbl's run better on a 2.3 http://racerwalsh.zoovy.com/product/RWA1218/carb_restrictor.html

hippie · Apr 15, 2009

The head is an aluminum one,the reason I'm running the stock manifold is for clearance reasons I didnt really want to cut up a $1500.00 hood so the carb could stick out if I have to so be it but I'm trying to avoid it. and I've switched around the wires. I've been messing with these engines for 25 years, my wife used to race mini-stock so been wrenching on them a long time I just have never seen this before.

Mark_88 · Apr 15, 2009

This is the 500 CFM carb...sounds like it is just pushing too much fuel for the engine to burn properly...I've read where this requires a regulator to restrict the fuel flow because the engines (unless it's punched out et al to utilize the fuel and you want it that way) usually aren't meant to have that much fuel...

I've heard the 350 CFM is a better carb for the 2.3 and doesn't need to be regulated...my 5200 is rated at something like 250 CFM and at times it would flood...especially in wet weather...

Kenneth S · Apr 15, 2009

The problem with the 500 is that the two holes that supply more fuel when the power valve opens are way too big for a 2.3, a trick is to drill the two holes big enough to accept a lead shot to be compacted it to the holes (don't drill too deep into the metering block), then drill a hole thru the lead around .017"-.020" in dia that prevents the engine from going way too rich when the power valve opens, if you have a cam with a lot of overlap that causes a low vacuum when idling will open the power valve too early, to correct that get a power valve that opens at 3.5 - 2.5 inches of vacuum, if you were to try one of those power valve block off plugs you would have to go 5 - 7 jet sizes bigger so as to have the right air - fuel ratio at WOT, but it will be too rich from off idle to all most WOT.

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