>Is there any other adjustment is inside the float bowl? I'm thinking of the
>one dead center in the bowl, adjustable through a plugged hole in the air
>horn. That's the one the factory book says never to adjust. I thought it was
>called the idle air bleed, but I'll have to look again.
There are two adjustments that control how far the primary needles can travel: the lean stop screw, and the rich stop screw, which, on later carbs, was combined with the Idle Air Bleed Valve. ALL of these can be accessed through holes in the air horn. If you look back at that web site with the e-Qjet pictures, the first pic illustrates where those access holes are.
Although the CSM states the IABV is factory-adjusted and not to fool with it, Thexton makes a set of CCC carburetor adjustment tools including one with which to reset the IABV, as well as the lean stop screw inside the fuel bowl. Using those gages, you can remove those parts to boil out the carb and rebuild it. And in fact, if you DO NOT remove the IABV and you dunk the air horn into carb cleaner for an hour, the carb cleaner will eat the two rubber O-rings that are on the IABV. Furthermore, NEW O-rings come in every e-Qjet and DualJet carb rebuild kit. So yes, Virginia: even though the CSM states NOT to remove the IABV, you can, and you can install new O-rings on it, and you can reset it using the Thexton gages. Their use is described on that web page:
http://members.dandy.net/~k0xp/Oldsmobile/ElectronicQjetPix.htm
In fact, carbs that have several hundred thousand miles on them have to have the IABV reset to compensate for wear on its stainless steel pintle valve. This also helps compensate for throttle shaft bushing wear but not entirely. Most e-Qjets I've seen with that many miles could use new shaft bushings installed but I've been able to rebuild a dozen and retune them to acceptable performance, including passing emissions.
>The '84 probably did a lot better with CCC controlling the mixture. I
>have an ad for an '81 Malibu 229 (computer and overdrive) that says
>EPA esimated 28 mpg highway.
DANG.... hard to believe. BTW, the '83 and '84 Malibus and Elkies with 229s were exactly the same, engine-wise. They even used exactly the same carbs, with the same PNs. I have not been able to find any real difference between my '84 and my '83 other than the '84 Elky didn't have AC, while the '83 Malibu wagon did.
Thanks for the tip on the pulloff; I'll just have to try that this weekend. Ain't bout to go out there after I get home at dark in the cold, I'll wait till the sun's up on Saturday
And as for the thermac/reversed lid trick: I don't like to run my lid reversed like that in the winter, anyway, due to all the road sand blowing all over the place. After last winter, my Crapice's engine compartment looked like I'd run the Baja 1000 :evil: