[Jerry Cowing]

Mike,

I'm in the use-or-lose situation also and am home replacing my water pump. The pump housing cracked on the lower bolt housing on the passenger side. I've never heard of that happening before. Engine got up to 240 before I noticed it. Heard this weird sound like a wire dragging on the ground or a rubber tire rubbing on the fender and thought something was amiss in my rearend. Came to a stop light, the noise stopped, started driving again and the noise came back, pulled off the side of the road and discovered the water pump leaking.

If wasn't running rich before and it's running too rich now, it's probably your Holley power valves leaking. These things are a pain in the you know what. I have a dual carb setup and have replaced mine in both carbs three times. If your car has ever backfired, even once, they probably blew the power valves and so extra gas is running into your intake manifold. Mine has the quote power valve protection valves unquote and they don't work. Also one set of power valves was leaking new from the factory.