I bought one of their Quadrajet custom built and tuned for your engine, SKU:QB1c; nothing but problems.
On April 3, 2020, I received one of these. It was flooding. Please follow the sequence of events below that lead me to this diagnosis.
Mid-July, new engine was finally ready.
I installed new engine into car. NOTE: engine has stock style mechanical fuel pump installed.
Early September, on initial startup of new engine with new carb, allowed cam to break-in for 30 minutes. Checked for leaks, adjusted timing, mixture, fast idle and curb idle. Drove car for about 20 minutes. Re-checked all settings and adjustments. Ran engine a few more minutes. In all, engine was run for about an hour then shut off.
Next morning, engine started right up with no problems. did more checks for leaks, etc. Engine ran for about 30 minutes. Shut engine off. Waited about 5-minutes to re-start engine; it started right up.
The next time I drove the car, started engine and allowed it to warm up for about one-minute. Put it in gear and engine stalled. Could not restart engine; it behaved as though it were flooded and the aroma of gasoline was heavy in the air. I figured the car needed more time to warm up and some adjustments. I let it sit overnight.
Next day, engine started right up and allowed to fully warm-up (about four-minutes) before driving. Performance was sluggish in such a way that it was consistent with flooding but dismissed flooding as cause since carb was new. Explored vacuum leaks or ignition issues instead.
After accumulating about 12-hours of engine running time, I readjusted the rocker arms. I hooked up a remote starter switch in order to turn the engine (without starting it) as part of the rocker adjustment process. I began on the driver's side. Three rockers into this process, I smelled gasoline. Considering I am working inside my garage with the air cleaner removed from the carburetor, I didn't think much of it until I saw a drop of liquid fall from the outside of the carb onto the intake manifold. I discovered fuel was seeping out between the air horn and main body, the part of that gasket which is exposed outside the carb was completely soaked with gasoline.
Seeing that, with the carb not being touched and the stock style mechanical fuel pump operating at cranking speed, there's fuel leaking from between the carb body and air horn, I can only conclude that the carburetor is flooding due to a bad needle/seat, mis-adjusted float, or bad float. I've been banging my head against the wall for weeks trying to figure out why my engine was manifesting the symptoms mentioned above, never taking into account the possibility of a professionally built carburetor being defective.
Considering what I paid for this carburetor, to say that I am disappointed would be an understatement. I expect shoddy work from today's repair shops where they hire inept monkeys who can't wipe off [censored] after taking a dump unless they're plugged into a computer that told them where to find their own [censored], which is why I do all automotive work on my cars myself. Each time I become the victim of incompetence, I say to myself that I can [censored] this up myself for free and learn something along the way rather than pay someone to [censored] it up for me with nothing to show for it. I've rebuilt several Q-j's for my own cars myself. The first one (back in the early 1980's) turned out a bit crappy. After learning from my mistakes, I got better and the last few were flawless. The only reason I didn't rebuild my original carb, against my better judgment, was, now that I'm in my later years, I wanted to save myself the time and inconvenience of doing all that work; I had plenty to do with the engine install and all the details that go with it. The bench work to do the carburetor is no issue for me, it's going through the calculations for jets, rods, etc., so as to optimally dial in my application that's tedious. After researching performance Q-j builders, these guys appealed to me the most, so I elected to engage them for this task. Not only did my experience with their end product leave me thoroughly dissatisfied, it made me even more resolute in my resolve that if you want something done right, do it yourself.
I am so utterly disillusioned by this whole thing that I would have preferred to simply return this carb for a full refund and be done. However, being that I am a realist, I am aware that "All sales are final. No refunds for carburetor purchase...". Furthermore, despite its being in operation for only two-months (this past September to mid-November), unfortunately, I did not discover this issue until seven-months after receiving the carb which puts it just over one month outside the time frame for return for service: "Contact QP within 6 months of original purchase if your QP built carburetor has issues that cannot be tuned out with enclosed tuning guide". This is the area where they earned the one star. They offered to examine/inspect/repair the carb, catch is I had to pay for shipping the defective carb back to the shop. They never told me what was causing the problem, only that: “It was disassembled. Changed the needle/seat. Set float changed the air horn gasket and assembled. Tested and needle/seat holds pressure. Also changed the fuel filter for you.”
I got the carb back on 12/10/2020. I had no occasion to open the package and inspect it until 01/30/2021. Upon simple checking of operation (throttle valves and choke valve open/close) the choke valve was jammed. In, what I can only surmise as a bonehead rookie mistake, one of the linkage rods was not installed correctly which caused the choke mechanism to bind. Albeit was a three-minute fix, it should not have been necessary to fix the “fixed” carb in the first place. How many inspections/hands did this carb pass through before sending it back to the customer? None of them noticed the choke valve was jammed? Where’s the pride in workmanship? What’s their standard for quality control? I now wonder what else is wrong with this “professionally built and repaired” carb? I am beyond disillusioned, disappointed, and dissatisfied, I am downright disgusted.
My experience of being sent a defective carburetor twice may be an isolated anomaly but it’s a cautionary tale nevertheless.
