I have a 1988 w150, 4bbl quadrajet, 5.9l motor. The truck sat for about 3 yrs prior to me purchasing. It's a daily driver now. We have had it for about 2 months and it's mainly driven around town. When the speed gets to about 35mph it starts to cut out as if it's running out of gas. Put it into neutrol, pump the gas a few times and its good to go. This only happens periodically. Prior to 35 it runs fine. The carb is now starting to develope a gooey type stuff around most of all the gaskets.

I assume that after sitting for some time and now that's its driven all the time its a carb issue. I was considering putting on an edelbrock rather than rebuilding the one that's on it.
Any other thoughts? If i go edlebrock I think I would need a 9900 due to egr?

 

rebuild kit is cheaper than a new carb. Since it sat for so long, I would think that the jets are just gummed up from the old gas. A thorough cleaning is definitely in order. Some gasoline additive might work.... but, I wouldn't hold my breath on that.

 

as a simple minded shadetree hacker - for simple carbs, i've had a lot of good experiences with rebuilding them. but every once in awhile you come across one that you just can't do anything with, and for me - that includes every chevy/rochester quadrajet ever made. so i usually give it a try, but if it doesn't work right then i give up and buy an edelbrock or an autozone rebuild.

 

Have you ever tried to drive through the dead spot? What does it do? Simply sounds like a bad spot in the carb.

Your fuel in the tank probably started to turn. Now that you are running fuel through it on a regular basis the old gummed up fuel is softening and being sent to your carb, collects and gums up again in the small orifices within the carb body. Before a new carb or a rebuild I would inspect/clean the tank and the sending unit. As far as a carb goes quadrajunk or edelbrock (same carb in most cases) is the first thing to go. I use Holley, very simple to tune and rebuild. I am running a 600cfm with stock jets on my 77 Chevy 383 stroker with 36/14.5-15 TSL SS and get 11 mpg on the highway.

 

Let me move this to 1st Gen Ram, get you some more help, as 1988 was prior to the 2nd gen era.

 

Sorry for the post in the wrong section. I actually just had the sending unit redone as it was broken. It was removed from the tank and fixed. The tank is plastic and somewhere along the line was changed out prior to me getting it. I think your correct with the old stuff coming loose, because now that we are driving it all the time it always has fresh gas in it. Guess Im off to rebuilding or buying.

 

I would dump in a can of Seafoam first and run that thru. I have had very good luck with Seafoam and it is a lot less expensive and time consuming.

 

I would have to agree with Seal the stuff is good and worth the try.

 

Ok here I am. I rebuilt carb today. Idle's great sounds good. Push on throttle while parked and rev's fine. I drove the truck around the block. As soon as I hit 35 started to act like it was running out of gas. I tried to accelerate thru and it did not help. I pulled off to the side of the road, put it in neutral and it rev's fine does not cut out. Got back on road, tried to drive off and started to cut out again. I pumped the throttle and it did nothing. I was finally able to make it home and now I am really stumped!

 

Hey otis332, sounds like you are going down the same road as I did with my'87 D250. believe it or not my problem was actually a small crack in the main fuel line coming out of the tank(the hose dry rots and won;t sustain the 6 to 7 lbs. of fuel pressure needed to keep the engine fed at higher rpm levels). check it out...kingoftow