Cautionary Note - 1904's

[powerband]

I took the winter-dormant Tri-Power 250 out in the unusual warm weather the other day. Cranked and pedaled' the carbs to get some fuel in the no-choke mod'd 1904's and it fired up as usual. Carefully warmed up the 250 and let the cold gear oils stir on a short backroad cruise. Back in the driveway I smelled gas and immendiately shut it down. The rear carb was dumping gas out of the glass float chamber onto exhaust headers - hssss, hssss, hsss!. the front carb was dripping slowly as well. After cooling down, (and calming down), I started assessing the problem. Initially I considered the cold as probably shrinking the carb gaskets.

After disassembling rear carb I have other concern to share: The leaking carbs had both been freshened using my preferred stock of cork/composition glass bowl gaskets. The gasket had deteriorated to crumbs where exposed to fuel. I now assume the solvent nature of alcohol in current fuel was cause. I had an unused 'jiffy kit" hard composition gasket left over ,(I had sealing problems in past with this type on 1904's), and coated both sides with copper spray and installed / tested OK for leaks.

I just ordered two more "jiffy kits" for the hard composition gaskets but now concerned about related problems with all my old cars. I still have a stack of my cork/composition "preferred" 1904 bowl gaskets and will soak one in some modern gas to see if assumption is correct .





Have Fun (carefully)

 

[rbohm]

8) that is one of the issues i have with most holley carbs, they run fuel through a gasketed area. and unless the gaskets were designed to deal with modern fuels, they will deteriorate much faster.

 

[66 E100 Pickup]

I've read that if the bowl dries out, the gasket also goes. It's definitely a weak spot for some of the Holley designs. I haven't been religious about starting up every couple weeks, but no gasket leaks yet on my 1904. It has a metal cover.

John/Fresno

 

[jahearne]

Ya, mine were a constant source of leaks. I had a tri-power with a 1960 in the center and 1904's outers. Beautiful works of art, but I rarely drove with the hood up. Not only the leaks from new gasoline, but the float levels had to be set by trial and error. Always a problem, but if I were to do it again, glass bowls would be my choice cause you can't beat the look!