CARROT TOWN Catch up
It’s time for our regular visit to Carrot Town Garage to find out what boss Stuart Davies and the team have been up to. Take it away Stuart…
Often customers will contact us to inspect a car that they have just purchased. A local gentleman, Mark, had just bought and imported himself a 1981 Corvette and he asked if we could check over the car and also sort out a running problem he had, as the car wouldn’t idle. Sure enough the car would start, no problem; but it just wouldn’t idle properly. It was fitted with the original Rochester Quadrajet carburettor which, regardless of what anyone says, is actually a good carb and C3s (thirdgeneration Corvettes) run very well with them when they are set up and working properly.
Our first job was to check all the vacuum lines were properly connected; you would never believe how many vacuum pipes on carburettors are connected incorrectly. This made no difference, so we whipped the old carb off and replaced it with a new one and... it still wouldn’t idle properly! So back on with the old carb. We turned the idle speed up so the car would at least run and spent the best part of a day checking connections and spraying around the engine with brake cleaner trying to see if there was a vacuum leak.
Finally, there was a change in engine note, but it was such a small difference. We kept trying and although small there was a definite difference. The leak was either coming from the EGR valve, or from the inlet manifold. The simplest solution was to make a plate and gasket and to blank off the EGR valve (most of the emissions system had already been removed).
Once fitted, we adjusted the idle and fired up the car. Success, the engine sat idling perfectly – who would have thought a tiny vacuum leak could cause such a big problem? We finished the rest of the inspection and found a few other minor faults, such as one of the headlights not coming up due to a failed actuator which needed to be replaced. While we were replacing the actuator, we lubricated the light mechanism so that minimum effort was required by the actuators to raise the headlights and so they both come up at the same time.
One key benefit to the inspection is to give customers an insight into their cars and we can point out work that is more pressing, versus work that can be done at a later time. After all, there’s no point in spending money if you don’t have to!
American SpeedFest 2021
Our first show of the season was American SpeedFest at Brands Hatch and it didn’t disappoint. We took our rare 1975 Greenwood Chevrolet Corvette Wagon 2+2 along to showcase and it drew lots of attention. It was lovely meeting people who are following us on social media and who have been following our story in Classic American magazine and on our blog.