Bought a rebuilt Q-jet off of ebay. It was a rebuilt unit from a parts store, shrink wrapped and everything. Anyway, the car runs super rich with it on there. It's on a 327 with headers, fuelie heads, performer cam and intake combo, HEI ignition with Accel SuperCoil.

I had to fight some choke issues and that all seems good right now. But when a let the car hold about 2000 RPM (in neutral...no load) the smoke starts rolling and it reeks of gas. Ideas on the culprit?

I don't know anything about this carb. Haven't cracked it open yet. Bought a kit to put in it but thought someone might have a tip for me on what I might look out for while I am in there...or perhaps something I should be checking before putting the kit in it.

thx

tap the top of the carb with the handle of a screwdriver. if the float is stuck down with the needle valve open, then it will run rich. the light tapping might free it.

how's it run otherwise?

If it is driving ok at higher rpm, and is over-rich at idle it may be high fuel pressure. The recommended range is 6-8psi. Some aftermarket fuel pumps will put out much more. Stick with a name brand pump like Carter or Borg Warner. I have tried several aftermarket types from Autozone and Checker with pressures too high.

Lately I have found rebuilt carburetors (and some new ones) to have metal shavings that get under the needle and cause flooding.

Bought a rebuilt Q-jet off of ebay. It was a rebuilt unit from a parts store, shrink wrapped and everything.
Good luck. Production-line rebuilt carbs were NEVER very good, and seem to be getting worse.

The rebuilders disassemble a bunch of carbs, throw all the parts into a big bin, and then mix 'n' match them as they're re-assembled.

Then they screw up the fuel curve by playing games with the air bleeds and jet sizes.

In the end, you get a "carburetor" made up of mis-matched castings; made worse by incorrectly-sized fuel and air passages.

First Guess: You'd be best off by putting that carb back on eBay, and starting fresh with a virgin core carb.

If you REALLY want to fix the carb you have, you better buy Cliff Ruggle's Q-Jet book so you can learn to size the fuel passages to suit the engine.

Amazon.com: How to Rebuild and Modify Rochester Quadrajet Carburetors (S-a Design) (9781932494181): Cliff Ruggles: Books
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61TBEng3NyL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg

Thanks guys for all the inputs. I'm not exactly sure what was wrong but after I put a kit in it, it seems to run much better. Go figure. Didn't see anything goofy while I was in there. No trash, needle and seat looked good. Float level was OK.

Did find out that it has #45 metering rods and 74 jets so it wasn't too far off from factory 74/45 setup (it came off a 350). Still seems to be running a tiny bit on the rich side but nothing like it was before. It doesn't knock your head off from the gas smell! I won't know if I'm completely done until I take it down the road.

I may have some questions later once I get into the fine tuning.

Thanks again!