<VV> interesting carb problem discovered

[Ray Rodriguez III]

Lets see if I can make this short....   Yesterday I decided that rather then let my hot rodded 140 engine sit in the garage any longer (its been sitting 2 years now) I would swap it into the 66' Corsa I just bought (with a stock 140) and try it out.  

I'm swapping all the accessories onto the hotrod 140 from the stock 140...  including carbs etc.....

Now I already drove this car about 1,000 miles.  It needed a tune up...  carbs seemed a bit out of sync, and I figured the timing was off cause I was getting some backfires through the carbs on decel....   but overall the car ran and drove fine.  I've never driven a properly running 140 vair before... so admittedly I didnt have anything to compare it to.....

WELL!...  when I pulled the carbs I found that the passenger side primary was almost entirely (I'd say over 90%) blocked off by a defective gasket....  the gasket under this carb didnt have a hole in it!!!!!  It was just slightly torn on the left edge... allowing just a little tiny opening for air/fuel to pass through.

So....   first off how the heck was the car running so decent with this little problem..... and second (rhetorical) how the hell did the person installing the carbs/gaskets not notice this and do something about it!!!!!   Scary.


The other unfortunate thing is now I wont have any good comparison to see how "hot" the hotrod 140 is... since the stock 140 obviously couldn't have been running up to potential with this little gasket issue!....    of course thats assuming the hotrod 140 actually runs and doesnt explode as a result of my amateur mechanical endeavors... I'll let you know how I made out in a couple days.




Ray Rodriguez III
CORSA member
66' Corsa 140/4 coupe
65' Corsa 140/4 coupe (under construction)