When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I've rebuilt several Q-j's for my two cars myself. The first one (back in the early 1980's) turned out a bit crappy. After learning from my mistakes, I got better and the last few were flawless. I was rather preoccupied getting this new engine built and the car ready to receive it so, against my better judgment, I opted to have a "professional" shop based in Boerne, TX, that specializes in Quadrajet carbs custom build and tune a carburetor for my engine.
After installing it and accumulating about 12-hours of engine running time, I readjusted the rocker arms. I hooked up a remote starter switch in order to turn the engine (without starting it) as part of the rocker adjustment process. I began on the driver's side. Three rockers into this process, I smelled gasoline. Considering I am working inside my garage with the air cleaner removed from the carburetor, I didn't think much of it until I saw a drop of liquid fall from the outside of the carb onto the intake manifold. It was gasoline seeping out between the air horn and main body, the part of that gasket which is exposed outside the carb was completely soaked with fuel.
Seeing how there's fuel leaking from between the carb body and air horn even though the carb was not touched and the stock style mechanical fuel pump was operating only at cranking speed, I could only conclude that the carburetor was flooding due to a bad needle/seat, mis-adjusted float, or bad float. I had been banging my head against the wall for weeks trying to figure out why my engine was manifesting the flooding symptoms, never taking into account the possibility of a professionally built custom carburetor being defective.
Considering what I paid for this carburetor, to say that I was disappointed would be an understatement. I expect shoddy work from today's repair shops where they hire inept air-heads who can't wipe off poop after using a toilet unless they're plugged into a computer that told them where to find their own butt.
I was so utterly disillusioned by that whole experience that I would have preferred to simply return this carb for a full refund and be done. However, being that I am a realist, I was aware that "All sales are final. No refunds for carburetor purchase...". Furthermore, despite its being in operation for only two-months (September to mid-November 2020), unfortunately, I did not discover this issue until seven-months after receiving the carb which put it just over one month outside the time frame for return for service: "Contact QP within 6 months of original purchase if your QP built carburetor has issues that cannot be tuned out with enclosed tuning guide". This is the area where the builder would have earned one star. They offered to examine/inspect/repair the carb, catch is I had to pay for shipping the defective carb back to the shop. They never told me what was causing the problem, only that: “It was disassembled. Changed the needle/seat. Set float changed the air horn gasket and assembled. Tested and needle/seat holds pressure. Also changed the fuel filter.”
I got the carb back on 12/10/2020. I had no occasion to open the package and inspect it until 01/30/2021. Upon simple checking of operation (throttle valves and choke valve open/close) the choke valve was jammed. In, what I can only surmise as a bonehead rookie mistake, one of the linkage rods was not installed correctly (see before photo) which caused the choke mechanism to bind.
Albeit was a three-minute fix (see after photo), it should not have been necessary to fix the “fixed” carb in the first place.
How many inspections/hands did this carb pass through before sending it back to the customer? None of them noticed the choke valve was jammed? Where’s the pride in workmanship? What’s their standard for quality control? I now wonder what else is wrong with this “professionally built and repaired” carb? Just for giggles, I installed and ran it. It runs nicely at wide-open-throttle. The idle, however, is erratic no matter how much I adjust it. I rebuilt the carb I had on the engine before the engine rebuild; shockingly, it worked perfectly. Swapped it for one of the other carbs I built; runs smooth. Tried yet another carb I built, runs smooth. I suspect there must be something wrong with the idle circuit in the "professional" custom built carb. I’m now stuck with a $500.00 paperweight. At some point, I'll tear into it and fix it correctly.
I posted a detailed review about this on both their own website and their Facebook page; both were deleted. That explains why they only have glowing reviews, they delete the ones they disagree with.
As I looked more into this company, I found two complaints filed against them with the Better Business Bureau in the last three-years (https://www.bbb.org/us/tx/boerne/pro...825-1000146148), by the way, they’re not BBB accredited. I wish I would have learned about this sooner.
I am beyond disillusioned, disappointed, and dissatisfied, I am downright disgusted. The money I spent represents an immediate pain in the wallet, but the time I wasted because of this is time I’ll never get back; time I could have spent with my family was, instead, spent in the garage.
My experience of being sent a defective "professionally built" carburetor twice may be an isolated anomaly but it’s a cautionary tale nevertheless.
I know you think that is a horror story, but I could bring tears to your eyes with my carb stories. We switched over to alcohol, and EVERYBODY knew how to build an alky carb. Just send them $300 and the carb. No matter who worked on it the carb never worked right. Out of desperation I bought a Holley out of the box and it actually performed pretty well, but they only went up to 850 cc. I needed a Dominator. Again we started trying to find someone to make this work. In the end we switched over to Enderle injection, and while we had a large learning curve, we finally got on top of things and it was deadly accurate. I will never have a carb again. But if you think that is bad, we had a set of Dart heads (aluminum) and after bending several rods (can't compress a solid), we tried everything in the book to fix this problem. Finally a wise old Super Stock guy said he had heard of this and to check the heads with air. So we built a test piece and sure enough we could hear air escaping from the intake ports. Turns out early on Dart had some bad castings that were porous. Fuel was going through the intakes ports of the heads. We mixed up a large batch of JB Weld and coated each port. Fixed. But the carnage, expense and hours (not to mention money wasted towing to races and repairing each time) was incredible. Now Dart wasn't about to tell anyone because it might hurt their sales. When you are dealing with performance stuff, it's a "tough luck" world . Pay $25K for a new race engine and toss a rod out the 3rd pass? Too bad, so sad, but it's a race engine, no warranty. Nothing is warranted. Not one part. Had a friend that bought a Pro Stock engine from a very reputable builder that also ran Pro Stock. Paid $60K for it. All year he could not qualify and swore it was down on power. The builder kept telling him it was the chassis. Finally at the end of the year he had it dynoed and found out he was down 70 hp, due to the guy putting the wrong compression pistons in the motor. Human beings screw up. They make mistakes. It's just life.
Last edited by GrayGhost1951; 09-22-2021 at 11:07 PM.
2007, 84,000, $8300, minor rust left rear fender wheel opening repaired, scratches on left front spoiler, replaced right front tie rod end
No such thing as minor rust on a Monte Carlo. If you have fender rust you are more than likely only seeing 10% of what is actually there. Better get that car on a lift and take a very close look. Found an 03 DE MC with 107K miles. Looked showroom new. She mentioned in the ad "minor rust on wheelwell". I told her the same thing. She PMed me back and said she was in tears. The entire underside was eaten up but no one ever told her. She ended up selling it as a donor car for &2500.
314,000 miles. 1st time owner bought abot 2 mths ago. after a nice re-wiring IAC valve, EGR , valve, plugs, wires, front brakes and rotors, coolant sensor and passenger mount. (That sounds alot worse than it is) Love this car now rides smooth
My 04 got to about 135k before the trans started slipping a bit. Put some Lucas in it and it was fine until I sold it at 150k.
My 06 got to about 120k and it started consuming 2 quarts per every oil change, I just kept up on it and never had an issue. Sold it around 140k.
Replaced my 06 with a 2015 Sonata, which threw a bearing at 35k. Replaced under warranty.
Replaced my 15 Sonata with a 15 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk, which had zero issues and I beat on it pretty good.
Replaced my 15 Trailhawk with a 17 Ram 1500 which had a starter and alternator fail before 35k miles.
Replaced my 17 Ram 1500 with a 20 Ram 1500 which has had a few issues, cracked rear window surround, cracked manifolds, metallic noise coming from the engine bay. 100k mile warranty so everything's covered at least..
.. I guess what I'm saying is, my Monte Carlos have been some of my most reliable cars. lol
09-22-2021, 11:03 PM
