[tom1394racing]

I need some suggestions from the collective experts here...

My RSR clone engine is a 3.0 twin plug with MSD, Bosch dizzy, 10.5 CR, headers and 46 mm PMO's. The engine has performed flawlessly for over 10 years with only normal maintenance.

I took the car out for drive with the wife this past Sunday and all was good. Car running perfectly as usual. I parked it, we went for a walk and came back about 2 hours later. The car started very roughly and could not be driven. It felt like it was running on one or two cylinders and there was a strong smell of gasoline. I had the car flat bedded home.

The next day I tried starting it in the garage. There were a couple of backfires but no start. I went back behind the car to find that fuel had been spewing from the header outlets. Lucky no fire.

I checked the sight glass on the PMO's and one bowl on each side of the engine did not show a bubble. I drained the fuel from the bowls, replaced the drain plugs and ran the fuel pump to observe the bowls filling. The same two bowls filled past the top of the sight glass. So I figure needle valves stuck open. This could make sense as I was running low on fuel and maybe some contaminants made their way into the valves. So I removed the carb tops and cleaned the needle valves out with carb cleaner. I reinstalled the carb tops and checked the bowl filling to find that all bowls filled to the mid level of the sight glass. Problem solved I figure.

Not so. While the raw fuel spewing is gone, the car will not start and only pops and sputters. So I think, maybe blocked idle jets. After all, whatever got into the needle valves could be blocking the idle jets. Running the car too low on fuel in the past has resulted in partially blocked idle jets. So I remove them and blow them out with compressed air.

No difference after cleaning the idle jets. I am thinking maybe something else in the carbs may be contaminated. Anyone have some suggestions where to turn next?