I had a problem about 2 months back with my primary bowl going dry....well it's back. The car was running good for the last 150 miles and dumped on me today. My secondary bowl has fuel so I tried switching the needle and seats to get me home but no luck. I'm having my doubts in holley and may just throw this carb in a lake then get something else. Any ideas?

Are you just flat running out of fuel or are needles stuck? If car is sitting up ,, fuel can run thru the power valve and into engine but valve has to be busted bad. What model is it? Also if the accel pump is gone or cracked bad , fuel will run all over engine any time .

Ive been driving it around breaking in my motor and it was going fine. The bowl will just run dry and not fill back up so I tried the needle and seat from my secondary incase there was a problem the primary one to try and get home but still nothing. My guess is that it's something in the bowl thats wrong. The carb is a Holley 4150 650cfm that is new.

May want to look into AAA. About $40 a year. Free local tows. I have AAA+ good for free towing up to 150 miles. Works like a charm.Since i have had it for three years now i have never needed a tow. My wife did use it to get pulled out of a ditch on a snowy morning....For free. :)

get it running ,, check float levels to come to edge of site plug . check to see if fuel is even coming into bowl. if its been sitting , could have stuck and you are pulling fuel thru rear ... dont assume all of this is set from factory, need to check it out. make sure fuel pump is not going bad, hollies just dont go bad, people just dont understand them, my guess is that its a single feel line 3310?

don't rule out the fuel pump, lines, or even vapor lock. Car's mostly running on the primaries, so not unusual to have total no fuel yet still have some in the rear bowl.

Have you checked the in line filter at the bowl under the fuel inlet tube. Don't see how one bowl would go empty and not the other.

one bowl could go empty but not the other pretty darned easy, if you're just driving around town and never going over half throttle.

Sick67, what model Holley do you have?

Wasn't really thinking of it that way. :rolleyes:

The last time I was having this problem I dropped the tank and cleaned it out, put a new pickup and sending unit in, new fuel line all the way, re-routed it away from the headers, put on a new filter and had my mechanic neighbor show me how to set the float levels. I also pulled the line off the bowls and checked that nothing was blocking the inlet. The only thing I have not done was pull off the bowl which I shouldn't have to it's brand new but probably will. I was driving like a school girl since the motor is being broken in. Thanks guys I appreciate the help

Which Holley do you have ,, single or dual feed, Model #? . Drive it like you stole it.

Those old Holley main bodies are known for getting warped. Partly just heat cycling, but also tightness of the flange bolts and air cleaner. I'm sure the carb is good, though it might be out of square.

If you have it apart at any point, check the flatness of the machined surface where the metering blocks mount. Should be within about 0.003" of flat. Mine were about 0.025" out at worst. A machinest charged me 40 bucks to flatten both sides. That plus a basic rebuild kit, power valve protection check-ball, and a bucket of cleaner cost me about cost me about $95.

If the throttle shafts aren't too loose, then a rebuild is a great way to save some money and get a carb setup for your specific combo. Gotta get yer hands dirty I always say.

I think I'm keying on Doug's suggestion to check he inlets for (bad or plugged) filters.
What about the fuel pump?
How dry we talking? after it dies, does any fuel run out if you pull a lower bowl screw?
I really hate troubleshooting these problems that leave you stranded on the side of the road.... reminds me of my ignition troubles last summer.... yuck. Nuttin more embarassing than sitting on the side of the road or ina parking lot cranking the battery out of a bad*ss firstgen!

It's a dual feed. I'll have to pull a lower bowl screw to see if anything comes out.

my opinion is to junk the holly all mine gave me was problems changed to edelbrock and wala ran great and almost no adjustments

You can do this for the fuel pump test.. get a large quart container that you can see thru or in . Hook up a hose from the discharge side of the fuel pump. Use a remove starter and disconnect the coil wire or something that will keep motor from starting. Connect the remote starter to the starter if you are working alone or have some one to turn motor over from inside. Monitor how much fuel is coming out of that line into the container. Allow motor to turn over about 5 seconds and you should have a good solid 1/4 or so stream out of that fuel pump ... If not ,, you have a bad one or restriction into it. Be careful with the open container and fuel.
Follow that procedure thru into the float bowls. One person mentioned that you check the choke flaps. make sure that they are open when motor is hot ,, all the way. Need to simulate the condition that is causing your problems. Holleys are no diffearnt that anyother,, people just dont want to understand them. Its a lot easier to plunk down $200 for another carb and be done. You did not mention if you were getting fuel to the accelerator pumps. While motor is off , take a flash lite and look at the squirters,, open the throttle plates and you should see two streams of fuel squirt . If not then fuel is not coming to them.. Inside the float bowls at the botom is a red flat rubber disc that is the discharge check. Under it is a small BB that it works with . Those alonq with the fuel pump accelerator passages deliver the fuel form the full bowl.

What kind of fuel pump are you running, and how confident are you that it's operating correctly?

The situation you describe (works fine, then at some point after it's been running a while runs out of gas) sounds a lot like vapor-locking/heat issues to me. My first look would be at the fuel pump, especially if it's not electric. I'd also check the fuel lines from the pump to the carb to make sure they aren't close to headers. It probably wouldn't hurt to insulate the line anywhere that it's close to a hot spot like the headers. If it's a metal line, wrapping it in a 3/8" rubber fuel line near these places can work wonders.

BTW, you can easily check to see if you have gas in the front float-bowl by just pressing on the accelerator pump. You should hear (and see if you look down the throttle bore) gas squirting when you do it. I'm guessing you don't or it would have started.

Also, if you swapped N&S assemblies front<->back, you need to readjust your float levels in both bowls.

A final bit of experience: it can take a long time of cranking with a mechanical fuel pump to get gas to the carbs. After a car varpor-locks, and even after it cools down, many people think something is permanently broken because they crank and crank and don't seem to get gas at all. If possible (and I know it probably isn't on the side of the road, but just for reference), after a situation like this I try to manually pour some gas into the front float-bowl, hit the accel pump once, and fire it up. The engine running will get fuel up there pretty quick.

good luck.