Brass DCOE floats questions

[Tim_in_MD]

Hi folks--

For your pleasure, a stupid question followed by a valid question.

Stupid: If I can see a pinhole on the side of one of the brass floats, that means that it is bad, yes? I can't necessarily get any gasoline to come out of it, but it's got a hole. And it is in the carburetor that is currently giving me fits, with no idle circuit, gas coming out the venturis, and fouled plugs.

Valid: What is the preferred reliable source for brass DCOE floats, assuming they are available?

I'm assuming that this is the issue. I've had all the jets out, have blown through passages with compressed air, etc. The idle mixture screws on this carb don't have any impact on idle except when I shut them fully--idle speed rises slightly. Yes, the carbs are synched.

Thanks for any info/insights/insults.

[AlanM]

By removing and shaking the float you should be easily able to determine that the float has fuel in it. If so, by shaking or squeezing the float slightly the fuel should be able to be made to come out.

Put the float out in the sun for a while, to cause evaporation of the remaining fuel and simply soft solder over the hole. You can test your handiwork in a small container of petrol looking for bubbles.

With the other problem. Is your float height set accurately? With your gasket and float in place on the carb top, hold it at with the float axle uppermost and measure 8-8.5 mm between the float and the gasket. I find an 8mm allen key (8mm across flats)an easy way to deternine this.

You aso need to test that your needle valve is sealing well and is not massively oversized. 2 x 2.00mm needle valves will flow enough for 250 Hp at 3PSI.

[Lee]

Hi folks--

The idle mixture screws on this carb don't have any impact on idle except when I shut them fully--idle speed rises slightly. Yes, the carbs are synched.

Thanks for any info/insights/insults.

To adjust idle mixture, you must set the idle screw so that the engine runs at a very low RPm, such as 500RPM. If you adjust idle mixture and RPM increases dramatically, close the idle screw a bit more. There must bit as little air coming in to properly adjust idle mixture.

[Tim_in_MD]

But if I set the idle that low, I lose cylinders 1 and 2. Hence my problem.

[scottt]

I just got a bunch of little Weber parts from Pierce Manifolds. They had everything I needed in stock, I'm sure they'll have floats for you.

http://www.piercemanifolds.com/

[reuben2002]

I'd recommend switching to the solid floats, they are some kind of plastic, and never have this problem. Just don't weld/hot solder the floats as it doesn't take much fumes to cause a problem.