Wood

Hey all!
1983 olds delta 88 with the original 307, with the ccc quadrajet.

Lately I've been having trouble getting the ol' girl started. Car won't start if it's been sitting for more than 8 or so hours, due to no fuel. Only way I can get it started is to either fully depress the gas pedal about 15-20 times (It'll barely catch enough to turn it over) Or dump a cup of gas down the carb. Otherwise it'll just crank all day long. Once the car is running, there are no problems with fuel starvation. I drive the car about 100 miles a day back and forth to work and it runs great and averages about 20 mpg. After it eventually starts lol.

I replaced the fuel pump, no change.

This is a problem that I believe showed up fairly quickly; the car would always turn right over after just tapping the gas about half an inch to click the choke closed. There was never any pumping of the gas pedal to get the car started up.

I'm leaning towards the idea that it might be the accelerator pump, but want an opinion from you guys before I start ordering parts and tearing apart that mess underneath the air cleaner

joe_padavano

The very first thing you should do is to pull the air cleaner top and look into the carb while someone pumps the accelerator. Do you see fuel squirting out the accelerator pump jets above the primary bores? If so, fuel is NOT your problem.

If you are not getting fuel, the next thing is to check the fuel level in the float bowl. You can do this through the bowl vent. The special measuring sticks make this easy, but you can use a lightweight stick like a coffee stir stick and mark it at the correct height for your carb (from the data in your Chassis Service Manual).



If the float level is close but there is nothing from the accelerator pump, then suspect the pump or a stuck check ball. If the level is very low, verify that you have a fuel filter installed with the check valve oriented correctly.

Wood

Well, Got around to checking the accelerator pump today.

After sitting for around 48 hours, the accelerator pump jets have nothing coming out. Can crank for hours, no change. After dumping gas down the the carb, car starts up and runs normally and I drove it to work 100 miles today.

When I got home, shut the car off and immediately pulled the air cleaner. The accelerator pump was squirting the primary bores perfectly fine when pushing the throttle...

Let the car cool off for about 4 hours, and tried the accelerator pump again. Got about 4 pumps until it went dry. Started the car up for about 10 seconds, shut it off and tried again, pump was squirting fine again!

Looks like the bowl is going dry/ is very low to begin with? Maybe draining?

I need to try to find a way to measure the bowl fuel level, but until then, I have a few questions-
Even if the bowl goes dry, shouldn't cranking the engine bring fuel to the carb to start the car? I can crank for 10 minutes and there'll still be nothing from the pump jets....

As for a stuck check ball- I haven't messed with anything around the fuel filter since almost 3 years ago- when I changed the fuel filter itself. I was told check ball problems only occur when either the incorrect ball is installed, or the ball gets rusted and seized in- which definitely shouldn't be the case, since this car has been my daily for about 4 years now.

Please educate me, let me know if my thought process here is lacking something.. never claimed to be an expert on the magic that is a quadrajet

olds 307 and 403

Try a new fuel filter with the check valve. It could also be a leaking needle and seat or the bowl plugs leaking. The newer Qjets rarely leak at the bowl plugs but I have seen seepage. How hot is the weather? The ethonal fuel does evaporate faster if it is hot out and your 307 is running at 200 degrees+, it will happen more often.