Please read thru this and see if you guys can lend some wisdom please!
A friend's old-school mechanic said that if you are using an Edelbrock carb (mines a 1406) with electric choke (normal choke is ok), there is a manufacture defect/issue where there is a vacuum leak. The guy said use your finger plug the hole indicated by the picture below. (the hole is blue because i took this after I stuffed it with sealant) You'll notice the car suddenly run smoother and you might be able to feel the air with your finger.
That's what the mechanic said...
When I posted this over on the Lincoln forum, I got varied responses, basically they're saying that Edelbrock designed the hole to pass air across the electric chokes heating element to keep it from burning up after it warms up.
Here's some of the posts and links they provided:
it is a controlled vacuum leak
http://www.earlycj5.com/forums/showthre ... tric-choke
http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/94150 ... choke.html
If one plugs the hole, one should have a way to disconnect the power from the electric choke after the car warms up.
The type of electric choke operation on Edelbrock carburetors goes all the way back to the Carter AFB. Maybe not the most brilliant design concept but at the time it worked (more or less). Strange idle is pretty much of an indication of the choke not being correctly adjusted for the engine and the typical cold engine starting temperature where the car is driven. Plugging the vacuum port as suggested or has been done may well result in a better idle but it is defeating the purpose of the port and probably resulting in a fuel rich operating condition after the engine has reached normal operating temperature. I'm going to suggest if plugging that minor vacuum leak improves engine idle there are other things going on with the engine and analysis to determine what they are should be performed. There are either other vacuum leaks somewhere or timing is off either from incorrect adjustment or a problem with the distributor's vacuum advance motor. There are tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, carburetors with that exact setup and we all know there are not tens or hundreds of thousands poorly idling engines out there.
Edelbrock (or Carter) may have routed the vacuum leak (or controlled air intake port) through the fuel stream which may not affect the air-fuel mixture. If you don't use the electric choke, you can plug the hole. I would expect the choke coil to burn up if the hole is plugged. That would be bad.
So bottom line is, should I leave it unplugged or plug it?
A friend's old-school mechanic said that if you are using an Edelbrock carb (mines a 1406) with electric choke (normal choke is ok), there is a manufacture defect/issue where there is a vacuum leak. The guy said use your finger plug the hole indicated by the picture below. (the hole is blue because i took this after I stuffed it with sealant) You'll notice the car suddenly run smoother and you might be able to feel the air with your finger.
That's what the mechanic said...
When I posted this over on the Lincoln forum, I got varied responses, basically they're saying that Edelbrock designed the hole to pass air across the electric chokes heating element to keep it from burning up after it warms up.
Here's some of the posts and links they provided:
it is a controlled vacuum leak
http://www.earlycj5.com/forums/showthre ... tric-choke
http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/94150 ... choke.html
If one plugs the hole, one should have a way to disconnect the power from the electric choke after the car warms up.
The type of electric choke operation on Edelbrock carburetors goes all the way back to the Carter AFB. Maybe not the most brilliant design concept but at the time it worked (more or less). Strange idle is pretty much of an indication of the choke not being correctly adjusted for the engine and the typical cold engine starting temperature where the car is driven. Plugging the vacuum port as suggested or has been done may well result in a better idle but it is defeating the purpose of the port and probably resulting in a fuel rich operating condition after the engine has reached normal operating temperature. I'm going to suggest if plugging that minor vacuum leak improves engine idle there are other things going on with the engine and analysis to determine what they are should be performed. There are either other vacuum leaks somewhere or timing is off either from incorrect adjustment or a problem with the distributor's vacuum advance motor. There are tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, carburetors with that exact setup and we all know there are not tens or hundreds of thousands poorly idling engines out there.
Edelbrock (or Carter) may have routed the vacuum leak (or controlled air intake port) through the fuel stream which may not affect the air-fuel mixture. If you don't use the electric choke, you can plug the hole. I would expect the choke coil to burn up if the hole is plugged. That would be bad.
So bottom line is, should I leave it unplugged or plug it?