Re: NAPA carb kits.

Posted by Tim Cole On 2012/8/20 16:21:34

Before condemning gasoline, here is a little lab test.

a) fill a graduated cylinder part way with gasoline

b) add 10% tap water and shake

c) the change in water volume separated is the alcohol, the remainder is pure gasoline.

d) set the pure gasoline aside and soak the suspected parts in sealed container.

e) if the parts are still affected the problem is not with alcohol

My experience with carb kits in the old days was that some of them worked for a year or two and then crapped out, although I put one in my old 61 Ford and it was great, but I don't recall if it had a diaphram pump or a piston pump.

The Packard kits with leather pumps sometimes didn't do so good either and I found myself putting the old piston back in because there was too much resistance and the power valve spring would be overwhelmed. Then I saw people putting a screw stop to lock out the power valve spring which resulted in less than full throttle being available.
So we were always running into problems with carburetor kits.

Please note the above test requires time. I did some of these long term tests on DexCool anti-freeze and GL-5 reactivity to copper and the results were very illuminating.