I’m FINALLY going to rebuild the carburetor on my car.  It’s been leaking some and tightening the fuel bowl screws hasn’t helped.  I’m also going to take the opprotunity to clean the fuel stains off of the intake.  A good friend has an ultrasonic cleaner, so I’m going to remove said carb, drive the pickup to his house, and rebuild it.  He’s an avid whiskey man, so after the carb is rebuild, I may have to sample some hooch.  He also has a ‘66 Malibu.  I’ve been trying to talk him into joining the club.  I’ll push hard next weekend.

Good to have a friend who has done this and will help. The ultrasonic may take a while, if the carb is badly stained. Careful not to "sample" too much hooch waiting for it...

Well, I haven’t installed it yet. Waiting for 8 am so the neighbors don’t get upset with me when I get it started. I didn’t touch the idle mixture screws but I’m still going to throw the vacuum gauge on it when finally warmed up to do some tuning. I tried my damnedest to get the float level back to where it was when I disassembled. Maybe a touch lower. That’ll have to be set once running as well. Hopefully this takes care of the pesky leaks that have left the intake looking ugly. I went with the 6.5 power valve again and left the secondary block off in place, with a new gasket of course. My plan is to fill the bowls through the vent tubes, get it started, check for vacuum leaks at the intake, check for fuel leaks, and go for a short drive to make sure things are a-ok. Then some tuning. It’s going to be a beautiful day, so maybe a cruise after the lawn gets cut.