My old F250 with fuel problems

Its my old firewood truck. I dont use it all that often other than hauling/splitting firewood, but it earns its keep. Was using it on my place for chores the other day and it stalled. Would not restart. Loosened line to carb, its getting gas to carb. But apparently not gas through the carb. Unbolted top of the Carter YFA carb, and bowl filled with clean looking gas. Put it back on. Starts, runs for a minute and stalls. Pull whole carb off truck and take it to house. Yep, some schmutz and maybe bit water in fuel. Water (condensation, been wet rainy spring) can get through normal filter, schmutz shouldnt. Filter rattles, the element had broken free from housing and was no longer filtering anything.

I take apart carb, clean it with carb cleaner, put it all back together, and truck starts and makes it back to house. Sounds better than it has in some time.

Get to looking for better mousetrap far as fuel filters go. Find a "water separator" that uses large screw on filters (replacement filters around $10). Made for and used on gasoline engine boats which are in and around water a lot. Found a used head with new filter included for $19 and its on its way. I've just had too many instances of fuel problems due to this not being daily driver.

This wasnt all half hour problem, took me couple days futzing with it. At one point I was convinced the YFA carb was the problem. I have couple spares that I picked up along the way, know nothing about their history. Well looked and one was rusted up tight as drum. So its kinda not ever an option except for parts. Never did find the other.

So get to looking on ebay. Jeeze louise, carbs, even rough old rusty relics that a pro would have trouble rebuilding, have gotten way up in price. Guess the farther we get from the carburetor era of automotive history, the worse it will be. Looked at NEW aftermarket Weber 38-38 carb and even found a Jeep site that explained how to jet them for the Jeep 258 straight six. People with 80s era Jeep CJ and Wrangler with 258 straight six and electronic Carter BBD carbs tend to want to swap to non electronic carb. Weber 38 is one option. MC2100/MC2150 another (off Ford 302 V8 and AMC 304 V8).

Anyway decide I need a spare carb. No reasonable priced YFA or YF for a Ford 300-6, so I look at the 2bbl carbs. Usually the MC2100/MC2150 carbs with the 1.08 venturi go big bucks in good condition thanks to the Jeep folk. But I luck into one, thats rebuilt but has set on shelf unused for long time. Looks clean, linkage all movable, so gamble $70 and its on its way. I think the seller missed a bet, he didnt mention the 1.08 venturi, I had to blow up one of his pics to ginormous size to see the little 1.08 cast into the side of the carb as it was mostly hidden by accelerator pump linkage. It will need an 2bbl to 1bbl adapter which I happen to have thanks to project of me putting a 300-6 into my 4wd Ranger. I was worried about hood clearance so bought the adapter as the adapter plus a MC2100 is still significantly shorter than a stock YFA. Didnt end up using it. Folk on fordsix.com forum said the MC2100/MC2150 with adapter works reasonably well on 300-6. About same fuel economy and performance as YFA in good condition. Its definitely an idiot proof carb, or as idiot proof as they get. Think its just that lot folk never understood the YF/YFA. They are pretty simple too, but use a big metering rod instead of power valve and such. There is an important adjustment you need to make to that metering rod when rebuilding the carb. Nobody reads the instructions though.

Anyway almost hate to mess with truck now that I have it running pretty well, but think I really need to try running it with the MC2150 carb just to make sure it works well. And I definitely need to install the water separator fuel filter. Think that is just a must have on an old pickup that isnt driven very much.

Almost bought another carb, an early model Holley 2300 that needs a rebuild but looks rebuildable. But seller set it in at $20 with $20 shipping. And I priced a kit for it and kit was $30 (OUCH!) so left it alone. I suppose as carbs diminish in number, just finding carb kit at any price for some carbs is going to be an expensive challenge.

I suspect if I really want a Holley 2300, that one will show cheap. Lot of them used on old IHC trucks which arent that popular. Just if I have to give $30 for a kit, price of the core has to be really reasonable. Since even if it looks good, its still a pig in a poke when boughten off ebay. Could have unsolvable problems such as warped castings...

Suppose I ought to print off copy of that thread on Jeep site I found telling how to properly jet an aftermarket Weber 38. Those are still in production and will have rebuild kits available for very long time. And they are cheaper than a new aftermarket Holley 2300.

Another update. I did buy that MC2150. I think it wasnt properly jetted. It wasnt running properly. Going to buy a kit when I happened to run across a MC2100 off a 1958 Ford 292 engine. I had used it at one point on Ranger 2.8L V6. Forgotten all about it.

Surprisingly it was much liked by the 300-6. So been using it though required I have manual choke which I wasnt that thrilled with, but worth the little bit extra hassle as well as it runs.

Longest drive yet couple days ago, it did fine, think by gas gauge, it even got better mileage than the old one barrel. But I didnt write down mileage readings and all, so cant say that for sure. At least it doesnt have the nuisance intermittent flooding problems the one barrel had. I know float had to catch on something but after taking it apart multiple times and installing multiple kits, never could find problem.

And amazingly I recently won a weber 38 carb, so can try it sometime. I really wondered how one of these would do on a 300-6 but they are usually very pricey, even used. Well if the seller decides to send it. Havent heard from him after winning auction and no tracking number. Some sellers have sellers remorse. He had a reserve on it and I just bid until I met the reserve, nobody else bid. It was a cheap price for one of these, so like say could have sellers remorse and it will miraculously be destroyed or lost and my money refunded. Ebay does nothing to sellers for this kind of thing. Whereas if some buyer doesnt pay, then all heck breaks loose.