Ihave an 84 camaroz28 with a 305. I have a 9 month old Holley 650cfm direct spreadbore replacement carb. I recently took my car to a shop to have a new fuel pump put on because the old one leaked a little bit. I replaced it with a Holley free flow mechanical with a 7psi shutoff. It starts, but the car will not idle. It dies out after a few seconds of giving it gas. I never had a problem with the car with the new carb or the old fuel pump. Only since Ihad the pump changed. Ithought i would mention that i had my rear brakeline replaced (only because i know there is a brake assist from the carb) if it matters.Spark plugs are not fouled. I even went as far as to remove the carb and have that checked. I am lost in the dark here. If anyone has any suggestions or pointers please feel free to let me know. I appreciate it.

 

Are you leaving somethong out? The car ran fine but had a fuel leak. You took it to a shop to have the pump replaced and now it does not idle??? Why is the shop not correcting this problem? Maybe they kinked a line and at idle the pump does not pump up enough to feed fuel. Maybe the pump is deffective.
And I fail to see what a rear brake line has to do with the assist. The old carb should have had a fitting where the vacuum hose hooks to it for the booster. Is that the rear line you are speaking of?
Also is you direct replacment carb a computer controled cab? Does it have any electrical connections? Does your car still use a computer? And was it a new carb or a holley rebuilt. I have found that the only good holley is a new (non rebuilt) holley.

 

Thanks for responding. No it is not a rebuilt holley. As far as i know it is not a computer controlled carb. I was informed by most that there were not any computers in the the carbed 84s.There are no computer connections on the new carb, however, there were a few things that i did not hook back up off the old one. EGR is blocked and all of the emissions are hacked. I thought the same thing you did about the fuel pump being defective. I failed to mention that i first had them install a pump i got new from napa brand new. That was the first time i had the problem. I thought the pump was defective as well, so i got a high output holley pump. If the fuel line is disconnected and you crank the car, fuel flows freely. No lines appear to be kinked. The car will not run at all past 10 seconds. It does sound like it is being starved for fuel though.The old pump leaked a few ounces a day. Nothing major. The guys at the shop don't know squat. They told me the carb was shot. I took it to be checked. For a fact it is not.
The booster is what im talking about, it is hooked up. I thought there was a slight chance it was relevant. If you have any ideas.......

 

When you had your carb checked where there any adjustments done like the air fuel mix and the float and was the carb used before, if so, how long was it setting before you put it on your car.

 

The guys at the shop said your NEW carb is shot huh. I am not posative about the other 49 states but in California there was computer controled carbs. I had an 84 with one. What you lost if your was computer controled was an a/f solenoid and a Throttle Position Sensor. The TPS is kinda important because it tells your computer theposition of the throttle which in turn tells everything else the position. The distributer is also computer controled. If you went from a computer controled carb to a non computer controled then you also need to change to a non computer controled distributer (and maybe a TCC controler for the tranny)
Also did you make sure there are no massive vacuum leaks? Also there would have been three lines on your stock pump. An in, out and return. Were the proper lines used? You stated fuel comes out fine so I am assuming so and if your pump only had two the return was just blocked off.
When you start your car and it dies does it start right back up? Have you looked down the carb (with engine off) and pumped the gas to see if fuel would spray?

 

Yea, I have to pick up another distributer. Does it make sense that all of a sudden it would stop running though? It was running like that for nine months. I also heard from someone else to check for vacuum leaks. It has been hard to check due to the weather and work. I will investigate further on possible air leaks this wkend.
What is a tcc controller for the tranny? How much?(ballpark) What exactly does it do?
The return line is in fact blocked. There is fuel spray from the carb manually.
Even when the car is at normal operating temp and cuts off, it is reluctant to start back up again.
I'm thinking its like you said, either the distributor or vacuum leak.

 

Being in California I am mostly unable to modify a car in any way that will make it not pass a smog inspection. But maybe Your computer adapted to allow it to run or was in a limp mode. Has the battery been disconnected or gone dead around the time this happened? Does yous holley have any electrical connectors other than the choke? Do you have a check engine light on? Does that light come on when you first turn the key?

 

Yes, I recall someone telling me that because it is the original distributer it might me in a sort of limp mode.
Yes, the battery is now dead. Im not sure whether it is due to the fact that it isvery cold and hasnt run since the first of Jan or because it was in limp mode for so long.
Do you think it is possibe if I get another battery and new non-computer ditributor it will alleviate my running prob?

 

Did you check the fuel filter? Wherever it may be located on your car, it really sounds like a fuel filter...

 

The filter should be between the pump and the carb. The q-jets had them in the carb. I don't know about the holley replacement.

You say you have plenty of fuel. Then you need spark to ignite it. You might want to look into a MSD distributer. (or any for non computer controled vehicles) The computer may be trying to relearn but is not going to do that if it just runs for a few seconds. You may also want to check timing by looking to see if the pointer on the rotor points to #1 on the distributer cap when the mark on the balancer is lined up. If you align the mark on the balancer and the rotor is 180 degrees out the first time the you should still be safe as it will line up with one more complete revolution. This way you have a good idea that the chain did not skip. There are plastic teeth on the cam gear which do break off some times.