Gurus,

I have a 68 Camaro with a 350, Edelbrock 600 Carb with an electric choke, and an electric fuel pump. The car was running fine, and all of the sudden it began to run rough. It will not hold the idle in gear or in park. Any suggestions as to why this would happen and what I should look at??

Thanks,
C.J.

Dirty fuel and plugged a hole internally to the carb.
Too much fuel pressure.
Vacuum leak.
Sporatic ignition spark.
Choke not open.

Just some suggestions coming to mind.

An old saying..."many a carb has been tuned by changing spark plugs"

Check a ht lead hasnt partly dropped off....
A plug died.

I'll change the plugs and wires and see if it takes care of it. Before this happened I filled the tank (93 Octane) and put in stabilizer for the winter. I put in the amount for a 12 gallon tank. Would the fuel stabilzer make it run rough and not hold the idle?? It was running fine before and after I filled the tank, and added the stabilizer. It's strange how all of the sudden it was running so rough.

Check to make sure your fuel filter is not clogged or dirty,maybe try cleaning the carb with some carb cleaner.Also check your timing make sure your dist. didnt move a little.

An old school quick side of the road carb fix
Take the air cleaner off, increase rpms put your hand over the top, create a huge vaccuum, pull your hand off before it stalls...repeat 4 or 5 times

Check the PCV valve is clean..and the fuel filter as mentioned above.
Even if 1 of these fixes, do the rest anyway..they are part of the annual maintaince anyway.

An old school quick side of the road carb fix
Take the air cleaner off, increase rpms put your hand over the top, create a huge vaccuum, pull your hand off before it stalls...repeat 4 or 5 times




I don't think I'd recommend this New Zealand!:noway:.....If the carburetor let's loose a huge, flaming backfire, you could wind up with flame broiled fingers, just like Burger King's chicken fingers!:yes::thumbsup:

If one is stupid enough to put ones head over a carb, they deserve singed eye brows
A flame wooshing out of a carb, I mean, singed hairs on your arm...no big deal...
It not like someone is pouring gas down a carb to try get it to fire for the 1st time, timing way out, flames back, the guy panics, throws the container of fuel in the air and flaming fuel goes everyware...
This issue is not pouring the fuel, the issue is they guy is not prepared for a back flame and what could happen...

I ha
For it to flame up u need the timing order way out for valves way off to ignighte the fuel from the cylinder back up into manifold and carb...
I have yet to see a carb flash back from a high vaccuum, its imposible....the engine is sucking EVERYTHING back into the interals, not blowing it back out.

A lean condition could cause the carb to backfire and panic the user!.....This procedure just seems waaaay too dangerous!

A lean condition and back fire is thru the exhaust...like a poping when backing off the throttle going down a hill.

Where is your vac. advance plugged into on your carb?
Any idea of base timing or total, more importantly in this cast would be base or idle timing.
Did you recently pull the dizzy, can it move freely by hand...?
Did you give it a good hard run and now it's running like shh...?

It sounds like a vacuum leak. You can test for this by idling the engine in park/neutral and covering the primary bore. If the engine stalls, no vacuum leak. If it remains running, it's getting air from somewhere else. The additive you used may have left deposits on the plugs. DON'T USE ANY ADDITIVES OF THAT NATURE!!! You are throwing your money away. Keep the engine tuned and they aren't necessary.

Some of the stabilizer must have plugged the carb. I cleaned the carb and it runs fine. Thanks for the replies!! Happy New Year!!

CJ