Pontiac: 1980 Pontiac SW, pontiac lemans, carburetor problems


Question
Hello Carlos.

    My wife loves her old 1980 Pontiac LeMans Station Wagon.  It has two problems which might be related.  #1.  It leaks just enough gas where the fuel filter goes to smell it when parked after running.  I think the female threads where you insert the filter are stripped out.  Would using that putty that turns into real hard metal help after putting a new filter in?  I really don`t think it will run long enough to need another fuel filter.  #2.  It runs pretty good, (it has a V-6; 230 Liter engine) but when you put your foot to the metal to speed up, it either does nothing or barely accelerates.  Thanks for your help!

Answer
Judging by the age of the car, the acceleration problem, might be due to some carburetor problems.  That's probably why carburetors aren't used any more, too many hassles.
In general it's a good idea to rebuild them every couple of years whether it's working OK or not, just good practice that will keep it running ok.  That might be the problem, or the vacuum pump that pulls the second or second two barrels open might not be working.  I had this problem on the carb. on my Ponti 6000, basically when you pushed the accelerator to the point where the second barrel would open it would just stumble and not do much at all.  I replaced that diaphram I mentioned and the second barrel now properly opened and the car worked fine.  As for the the fuel filter, you could try that putty, but the REAL fix would be to replace that fitting.  Or another thing that is possible, since the fuel pump is most likely on the engine, that means there is low pressure in the fuel system before it, being the fuel filter behind.  That means you could technically cut the two fittings off the fuel lines and just leave the actual metal tube and use the kind of fuel filter that has a little piece of rubber fuel hose on each side, and you clamp it down on each metal fuel line.  That would proabably be the easiest thing to do.  You can find all sorts of fuel filters in Racing Parts catalogs, such as Summit Racing.  Go to summitracing.com and you can request a catalog because their website only includes a limited amount of products, there you will find many parts that you might be able to use on your car.

Hope this helps.