[NeighborsComplaint]

I decided on a whim to try out the Holley 800 spreadbore I had laying around. Should be an easy swap right? I ordered a Holley trick kit and rebuilt the car and dropped the primary power valve down from 8.5 (original) to 6.5.

Of course my dual feed lines were to short center to center ( I knew that) so I bought a 3/8" inverted flare T and inverted flare to hose fittings for a temp "hose job" rather than go through the trouble of bending and flaring new hard lines until I was sure I liked the way it ran.

I had a Chevy Quadrajet throttle bracket to use and went to install. Started with the original mounting studs and the thick base gasket ... studs were too long and the carb studs hit the underside of the float bowls.

I picked up some shorter studs and went with a thin gasket. I tried to fiddle the locking nuts on but there still wasn't enough clearance between the top of the stud to the bottom of the float bowls. I tried short bolts (3/4" long) and of course they couldn't be angled into the holes in the carb flange without hitting the float bowls ... back to the studs. I gently wedged a flat-blade screwdriver between the gasket and carb base flange to raise the car until just a couple threads were exposed and started the nuts. Then I had to back the screwdriver wedges out a bit at a time until I could drop the carb and finger tighten the nuts.

Speaking of tightening the 4 nuts down ... that was nuts. I had to run to the hardware store and buy a bifold door bottom pivot just to get the thin, stamped adjusting wrench they come with so I could tighten the nuts as no normal wrench could work on two of the nuts..

Fired it up and was immediately overcome by the smell of gas. Shut her off to find all the hose fittings leaking like a sieve. I used Edelman fittings and found that their inverted flare fittings don't match their inverted flare distribution block. They only threaded the fittings part way and they run out of threads before the inside flare makes good contact.

I am bending new steel lines tomorrow with brake line and tube nuts that are full body-threaded right up to the underside of the nut. Honestly, I don't remember this stuff being so difficult. Hey, it's a simple carb swap, right?