Preparing for a Hot Summer

Thanks to the rise of fuel injection systems, automobiles with carburetors aren't as common as they once were. Yet for those who own cars manufactured before the late 1980s, faulty carburetors still manage to cause a fair amount of problems. If you would like to learn more about diagnosing some common carburetor issues, read on. This article will discuss two symptoms to be especially wary of.

Rough Idling

Rough idling is often the result of a lean fuel mixture. This term refers to fuel that contains a greater proportion of air than it should. When the amount of air entering the combustion chamber gets high enough, the engine tends to misfire. This is often experienced as a rough or choppy feeling when sitting at idle.

Rough idling may have several causes where the carburetor is concerned. Perhaps the most common are air leaks located between the intake manifold and the carburetor. Such leaks can be addressed either by tightening the bolts at the base of the carburetor or by replacing the gasket located beneath the carburetor.

It may also be the case that the rough idling is caused by a improper mixture setting on the carburetor. This can usually be fixed quite quickly by making an appropriate adjustment to the carburetor's mixture screw. This screw regulates the amount of fuel allowed into the carburetor when idling. By incrementally turning the screw in a counterclockwise direction, the amount of fuel can be increased, thus promoting an appropriate air-fuel mixture.

Engine Flooding

This problem involves so much fuel entering the carburetor that it spills out through the bowl vents. If this causes the spark plugs becoming wet with fuel, your car may not be able to start at all. Worse still, if fuel manages to spill out of the carburetor onto a high-temperature engine, you may have a serious fire hazard on your hands.

A dirty needle valve is the culprit behind many cases of engine flooding. Such blockages of dirt and debris may prevent the valve from properly closing. In other words, there is no way to prevent more fuel from flowing into the carburetor. The good news is that cleaning the needling valve is often all it takes to eliminate the problem.

Engine flooding can also be the result of problems with the float inside of the fuel bowl. This float, which functions in much the same way as the float inside of a toilet's tank, is responsible for determining the amount of fuel that can enter the bowl. This issue can be resolved either by adjusting the float's fill level or, if the float has become damaged, replacing it entirely.

For more information, contact Dean's Auto Repair Inc or a similar company.