Oil vs gas leak

[Mike T.]

Re: Oil vs gas leak

Stu - I've always liked Berryman's B12, the aerosol (sp?) carb cleaner. They used to, and maybe still do, offer a large container of Berrymans with a dipping bucket. Seriously strong stuff and definitely be careful of splash in the eyes but it works wonders for built up varnish and I believe it will work on that white/yellow stuff you're finding too. As to the 'Blue' Holley gaskets, they are popular for people who expect to change jets or make adjustments often and need to take apart the carb. The stock gaskets will work fine to seal but if you think you might want to 'fine tune' your carbs with jet changes, the blue gaskets are reusable and won't tear and disintegrate like the standard stuff does with repeated tear downs.

[Domenic T.]

Re: Oil vs gas leak

Stu,
This is a confession, but several years ago I bough all the cosmetic plating from Coswell for the carbs, nuts&bolts, you name it. We always prided ourselvs as a A to Z shop.
I couldn't find the room to set it all up and in CA and you can't use any chemical that you can't drink here without unreasonable restrictions and cost. SO I sent my 3 carbs to Eric Jackson as he machined the warped parts and did beautiful work on the cosmetics. Also send out all plating as now I only work on A6 compressors and a few other vette parts. kinda slowed and shrunk the shop down tod do all my cars & planes. My kid is next door and takes all the punishment of working with the public.
Guess I got old & a bit lazy. I never used the blue gaskets because I tried not to use any Holley carbs. When the Q-jet came out I fell in love with the performance & milage. I am a stock freak so my 67 has to be all original with the 3 Holleys. My 63 will have the old faithful Carter AFB.

DOM
PS, Yep I was looking in the wrong post, forgot there were 2.

[Stuart F.]

Re: Oil vs gas leak

Mike and Dom;

Thanks for your comments and insight. I've learned a lot, or if I might say, relearned a lot about Holleys. I am far enough along on this one to see what is wrong with it. That alone will make son happy as it will run a whole lot better when I get it back together. As an example; the power valve wasn't even finger tight, and all that yellow crud had really plugged things up big time.

Dom; I know what age does to slow one down. I am limited by my bad vision and after awhile working on something my fingers start to cramp up. To say I've lost my precision abilities would be an understatement. My sons still refuse to accept this and ask me to do things yet that I'm just not up to any more.

Mike; Thanks for the info on blue gaskets and on Berryman's. I don't intend to do performance adjustment on these carbs.

Stu Fox

[Domenic T.]

Re: Oil vs gas leak

Stu,
We may be getting old but you drive what I think was the best year ever in corvettes. The first one I saw is still in my mind and I have a 67 BB 435 almost done, BUT my passion is starting on my 63 project that I bought a few years ago, opps 1971, all of 150.00. Nothing like hearing & feeling the small block rev. And I might say watching one beat a BB.

DOM

[Stuart F.]

Re: Oil vs gas leak

Back in the day for me, big blocks were just coming in so in my youth and wilder days I never had the pleasure of running against one, but I did play around with any number of fuelies up through 65s. I ran from them all mainly because of gearing. I ran a 3:36 and most of them had 3:70s or 4:11s. They would fall for the same game, I.e. 30mph on up, and I'd just wind away from them. Mine runs better than ever now so maybe, just maybe my son will go out cruising together some Sunday morning - he with his 69 L-89 and me with my old L-76 63. I know he will just try to show me off, but I might surprise him when I'm still in touch up around the century mark when he turns chicken. Shame to talk this way, but it gets my blood pumping, Ha!

Stu Fox

[William F.]

Re: Oil vs gas leak

In my experience, Holley blue gaskets seal better and are leak free longer than the old brown gaskets in addition to being reusable. Holley uses thes in all there vintage and other carbs now. Think they do come in genuine Holley rebuild kits as well as being available individually. Some O'Reilly's auto parts stores carry the individual gaskets. Get a Holley catalog or go to their online catalog to make sure you get the correct ones.