Eagle Happenings

Experience has shown me that slapping an HEI distributor and a Weber carb on an Eagle can get you a 100mph+ wagon.  Experience has also shown me that, just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should.  At least not without making sure that the plastic valve cover doesn't start spraying oil when the engine is running that hard, getting it all over the choke wire, and setting off an interesting chain of events.

Carburetor? Damn near killed 'er!

I was about 90 miles outside of town and with a tank dangerously near empty at the time I pulled over.  After idling for about 5 minutes, Eagle died and the cab started filling up with that rich smokey smell we all love.  A couple moments were spent trying to find the fire extinguisher under my trash cache and old car parts before I decided opening the hood to battle the apparent fire in the engine bay might be the least stupid decision over hoping things would just take care of themselves.  

Even though doing this is always the wrong decision, I went ahead with it and found a fire hot enough to get the hood insulation burning was uncomfortably close to the carburetor.  Close to, meaning, actively burning the choke cover and cap on the neighboring vacuum port. 

In case you don't know, a burning carburetor isn't something you want to have.  Especially when you've been driving hot and sucking nothing but vapor from the fuel tank.

Luckily, the fire was in check after I made a wish and blew everything out.  I took an old vacuum line, fed the now-naked choke wire through, loosely zip tied it to stuff to keep it clear of the manifold, and re-capped the now open vacuum port.  Fired right up.  I plugged the hole over the choke cover while Eagle was idling and heard no change in the motor, so I guess I somehow managed to avoid getting a vacuum leak.  That being said, a new cover and a carb rebuild is in the cards for sure.

There's not really a lesson here, except that having an inaccessible fire extinguisher is worth as much as not having having one at all.  Oh. . . Now I remember where it is; I left it over at my friend's house a while back during some welding work.  Huh.