First of all, a disclaimer: I am a complete and utter virgin when it comes to carburetors, so please bear with me I've gone through a ton of the knowledge base, past posts, etc. and have read through some of the commonly referred websites (www.bob2000.com/carb.htm for example) but I wanted to ask you guys about this carb I have...

Car is a 1970 Nova with a 350 SB, factory 4-speed that has been garaged for about seven years. The carb is a Holley 750 (List 3310-3, I think the model number is 4160), manual choke with vacuum secondaries. It has several plastic parts (mainly the choke assembly) that have become somewhat brittle but are still intact. I think it's a pretty old carb (the intake on the engine is an Edelbrock Streetmaster, if that gives you any clue to the age )

Main problem: The car will not start by itself, even when warm. If I spray starter fluid into the carb, it will start right up and idle just fine by itself. If I shut the car off and immediately try to start it again, it will fire very briefly (maybe two cylinders) then die, and no amount of cranking will make it fire again at all, not even the little two cylinder blurp. But if I spray starter fluid into it again, it'll start.

Secondary problem: The engine hesitates in transition. If I baby the gas it might miss slightly, then catch and run fine up through the rest of the RPM range. If I punch it from idle, it dies completely.

Now the questions: As of right now I'm attributing these problems to varnish build-up from the car sitting still for so long. Would a rebuild correct them? Like I said, I'm fairly new to carburetors, so could I depend on myself to rebuild the carb correctly? And finally and most importantly, given the age and model of this carb, is it even worth a rebuild? I'm kind of afraid of those plastic parts...

Anyway, I know this is a long post but I wanted to be as descriptive as possible.

Thanks.

A Holley is a very simple and easy carb to rebuild, just pay attention to every detail when you disassemble it, maybe take notes if need be. also sounds as if the pump shot isn`t working. With the air cleaner removed and the engine off, move the throttle, you should see twin streams of fuel from the top squirters of the carb, if you see little to none, then there`s a problem with the pump, which is easy to fix. If the throttle shafts are still in good shape sure it`s worth rebuilding. Once you start to disassemble it lay it out on something clean in the order the parts came out. You`ll see how simple it is and how it has few pieces.

Excellent advice double vision, May only need an accelerator pump.

Always throw new gaskets in a Holley if in doubt. Otherwise you are going to spend all day trying to figure out what the problem is.

Thank you for the replies.

When you say top squirters, are you referring to the things sticking out into the throat of each throttle shaft? I thought these were activated by vacuum? In any case, the only thing I can see when moving the throttle with the engine off is a very faint "puff" or cloud of vaporized fuel between those "things" I mentioned and the throttle butterflies, nowhere near a stream. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place?

Also, would the parts I need to fix the accelerator pump be included in a Holley Renew Kit? Or would they be something completely separate?

I know these are very rudimentary questions, and I really appreciate all this helpful information.

Thanks again.

The things sticking out into the throats are the booster venturiis. They are not linked to the accelerator pump.

I think the Renew kit has all the parts you need.

Ok thanks. I think I'll just rebuild the thing and go from there.