Pissed off with Barry Grant (Demon Carb Problems)
 

I was down in Orange County for the Concours De Nice Shelby show this past weekend which was held on Sunday. On Saturday we headed down to Crystal Cove for the morning show/get together. The Cobra was running extremely rich and did not want to idle. When we got it back to my friend, Jeff's house we first checked the timing and distributor which checked out fine.
Then we removed the carb to replace the jets. This a Mighty Demon 850 annular discharge carb that has never been appart. The bolts on the front bowl were loose. We went down from 80 on the primary to 76. Next we moved to the back bowl where we found a jet just sitting in the bowl. We went from size 88 to 86 in the secondary. Put the carb back on the motor and adjusted the float level. The rear did not want to adjust. We removed the carb again then removed the needle and seat and we found a rubber o ring caught in the needle and seat that had no business being there. We also found a broken bowl bolt washer. With these problems found and corrected it ran much better but I still need to install a fresh set of plugs.

When I called tech support at Barry Grant I was appalled by the attitude from the Tech rep. He was quick to blame Summit or anyone else but Barry Grant. He asked my specs on my motor and then said my initial timing was way to low at 14 and it should be 18 to 20 which I just don't buy and he state that he was the expert and deals with this every day. Told me I should replace the needle and seat and go back to the jet sizes that were in the carb originally. When I asked if he would sent those small parts free of charge he said my carb was out of warranty since it was older that 90 days. >:( >:( >:(

I left the Cobra in Laguna Niguel with my friend because I am heading back down there this weekend for the LA Roadster show. Wish there was someone I knew that I could take it to while I was down in LA area who could dial it in. Any idea's or do you guys now a good carb guy in the Orange county area?

Morgan

http://www.customcarbs.com/

Morgan: This shop has been around for a long time. Original owner passed several years ago and some racers bought it I think. In the past the shop has been pretty well known, and did good work. I'm not sure if they do work with Demons but it's worth a try.

Yeah cause summit takes theose carbs apart and messes with them. What a chowderhead.

It sounds like you got it on the right track though!

Morgan;

I bought a 650 double pumper Demon for my race car and found pretty much the same things you did........... I took it apart to re-jet it for my motor and the bolts on both bowls were barely snug.......my carb had about the cheapest gaskets someone could use in a carb and they were all glued in....they were the NON-REUSEABLE TYPE........spent over an hour with a razor and other small tools scraping the gaskets off the parts and then to Auto-Zone for a set of blue Holly re-useable gaskets.......got it back together and the rear needle and seat was "stuck" open, cleaned it out 3 times till I finally gave up and pulled on old needle and seat off a 25 year old Holly I had, it WORKED FINE......

Now with that said, once I went thru the carb and set everything I have not had to touch it once!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They make a good product (the carb), but their assembly and service and gaskets sure are not up to the standards fo the rest of the carb...........I did not even bother to call the tech line, just fixed it myself..................

David

I've noticed some poor assembly as well including metal chips from machining that were never washed off, not just hidden areas but it looked like they took parts from the machine that made them and just assembled without cleaning at all. Also watch out for stray clips, pins or debris that might come out and cause trouble. It would be good practice to rebuild a new BG carb before you use it.

I recently bought a Street Demon 650. Bolted it on the car, hooked up the lines, and fired it up. Fuel began spraying out from both sides of the carb body (where the linkage goes in on one side, and where the choke mechanism goes in on the other).

Called the tech line and also was greeted with the same apathetic attitude. He told me that I needed to adjust the float bowls because they were obviously too high (even though it was advertised as a carb that is "ready to go" out of the box). I haven't even bothered to jack with it yet, but I guess now I know what is ahead of me...

If you are running with the annular discharge, I guess you have opted for this because you have a reasonably radical cam with the associated weak vacuum signal. If so the guy could be right. I found that the biggest improvement was by getting the right balance in the restrictors and bleeds and that jet change had nowhere near the effect these did in geyying a reasonable mixture throughotb the range. If its any help, I ended up with.076 on the idle air bleeds and .032 on the restrictors. The high speed bleeds needed changing, but these were done on the rig by the expert.

The result is that on a motown 415 with a Crower level 4 cam, it idles at 800 and goes like stink. Stick with it, its an awesome carb when you sort it out. I agree though its a pity that the customer relations is crap and the assembly by the sounds of it. Must admit, I checked mine as I had heard similar stories - must be lucky as it was clean.

All the best with it.
Mike:)

I too had problems with BG several years ago.

- New motor started having problems immediately, and we ultimately determined that there was so much debris in the (new) BG carb that it needed to be rebuilt. Nothing found in either of the two filters going to the carb. The were peices of gasketing material, and small bits of EPDM that completely fouled the carb. After a complete rebuild it ran perfectly.

I had problems with a Speed Demon I bought from Don Gould. I had my 302 modified (trick flow twisted wedge heads, slightly more aggressive cam, and a Speed Demon carb set up by Don). The car would not idle or run right with this carb and my mechanic could not get it to run, period. Just out of curiousity we took it off, and put on my old Holley Double Pumper 600, and it runs perfect. Don said he would take it back, but I have not sent it to him yet since I'm still waiting for a refund he said he was sending me 6 months ago on a set of cometic head gaskets. There are several speed shops here in Florida that do chasis dyno tuning, and the two I spoke with won't even do it with a Demon carb. Good luck.

I had a Demon & loved it. Recomended one to a friend & he's had it on 3+ years w/o A problem, he loves his also.

3 or four helicoils later, the demon is running great now, but will be gone with the next issue. My mechanic says it's taken it's last repair. In LA try Ron at 310-478-7443 or Maeco at 818-701-1923.

My engine builder told me if I go with a Demon carb
 

then I need to have someone to go thru it first. The builder recommends PC Carbs (LA area) http://www.performancecarburetors.com/index.html to do the setup. I haven't used these guys... I'm leaning more towards a ready out of the box Holley.

Bg
 

Never could get mine to run for more than a day. Full of metal shavings and numerous other problems. REPEAT after me HOLLEY. I hate BG. Biggest rip off I ever received. My engine builder would not recomend them and I didn't listen to him and put on a speed demon. I replaced it with a simple HOLLEY 650 dp and the car picked up a .15 in the 1/8 mile and drove like a new car. Don't waste you money on a BG. No new carb should have to be rebuilt before you install it. I don't think summitt even carries them anymore because of the massive amount of returns. BG tech always says its your fault and is useless. I heard the increase your timing so much that I locked mine out at 34 degrees and still didn't help. I don't think BG tech has ever seen one of there as delivered carbs. Dynoed with both carbs Holley spanked it on the dyno and track. JMO

Later Dennis

I have worked on FOUR different demon carbs in the last two weeks---after getting all the red gasket material off and all the chips out of all the holes, deburred all the shavings hanging on the edges, deburring the drilled holes for the accerator pumps, drilling and deburring the pump squirters, aligning the pump levers to the cams, straightening the transfer slots and correcting the lengths, cleaning all holes and passages---They worked pretty good--but each and every one took HOURS to prepare--

I found there tech department was pleasant and helpful with identifying which carb model I had and what the specs were for jets and holes--also got more timing--

They did say , yes they had some problems ,but not for a year or so--I'm still waiting to see one that is good out of the box---

Jerry