Edelbrock 1405 strange setup

[Dentar]

Hi everyone!

I recently purchased a Donzi Ragazza 25 that came with a fairly new (130hrs) Mercruiser 5.7 vortec with Edelbrock intake & carb

Had the first startup after winterizing last week, havnt had the boat in water yet, and when having a look on the carb i found out the metering rods were hanging outside their "holes" as seen in the picture:

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first thing that came to my mind was that while there is a spring attached on the right metering rod, the left spring is nowhere to be found, being abit rookie on these carbs i had a call with the previous owner (the owner before him changed the engine package) and the owner i bought it from hadnt done anything with the carb at all and didnt knew about this (as he says)
When i bought it he showed me a video of it topping about 40 knots which is pretty good i guess seeing its a pretty heavy boat.

My questions is:
1: should i be worried the spring fell thru the carb in2 the intake?
2: shall i leave it as it is with the metering rods as the boat seems to run fine, startup on land fired of right away and revved it a little bit with no problems (wont go full load free revving on land)
3: Wouldnt it be running pretty rich seeing the rods are alway "fully open" ?
4: The carb is stamped with 1405, which after researching seems to be an auto carb? or could it be an marine version?

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Any help is highly appreciated!

 

[Scott Danforth]

Welcome aboard

Pics wont show until your 4th post (it was in the rules you read and agreed to)

a 1405 is a 600 cfm auto carb. You should look at the 1409 650 cfm marine carb

 

[alldodge]

The Edelbrock 1405 is an automotive carb, it needs to be replaced for safety with a 1409.

Someone has monkeyed around and didn't put the carb back together with all the parts. Look over the motor real close to see if somethin else has been replaced with auto parts.

 

[Bt Doctur]

 

[Bt Doctur]

springs where? this pic is the 1405 carb

 

[Dentar]

Here is the pic uploaded on imgur (hope thats okay)

https://imgur.com/a/ftzQXOt

you can see im holding the spring on the right metering rod, this is how i found the carb when i removed the flame arrestor

the "heads" of the metering rod hanging above the secondaries

the top cover with the torx screws is loose with the screws not tightend down properly but i cant twist them with my fingers hence i believe they been left like this for quite a while

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,..... Welcome Aboard,...... You've got the wrong carb in pieces,......

Obviously the meterin' needles belong in their bores, not hangin' out doin' nothing,.....

If the missin' spring went through the motor, Hopefully is passed without causin' damage,.....

 

[jimmbo]

If the 1405 is a Auto Carb, then it needs to be removed from the boat, and a USCG approved carb be used. A 600 cfm is more than enough for a 5.7 chevy. Even at 5000 rpm, it would need about 200 cfm less than the carb was rated to flow

 

[Bt Doctur]

I fell sorry for your first sour experience when buying a boat. If the spring was already missing ,no harm done except the somebody monkeyed with the carb with no knowledge about carbs. Normally the rods are not visible

 

[Dentar]

alright thanks for answers! that clear some things up for me.

If the spring went inside the intake, i guess after all this time, theres no point taking the intake off and have a look for it?

Did the oilchange after startup and oil looked good, no metalpcs that i could see.

 

[Bt Doctur]

the motor will not run properly with the metering rods hanging in the air

 

[Rick Stephens]

Most of the design of the 1405 is to be efficient through a full range of power.... boats apply the same amount of power all the time, as in all the power available. Most auto carbs will run too lean. Also, an automotive carburetor will vent the bowl out the side of the carb. Unlike a car, a boat is a bucket with a sealed bottom. Gas fumes collect in the bottom of the boat instead of blowing out on the road. That's how big booms are made. Toss the 1405 and get a 1409 before going out again.

 

[Bondo]

If the spring went inside the intake, i guess after all this time, theres no point taking the intake off and have a look for it?

Did the oilchange after startup and oil looked good, no metalpcs that i could see.

Nope,..... It either blew out the exhaust, or is embedded in the top of a piston by now,....

 

[Dentar]

Okay!

Wont take of the intake then, as it looks like its been like this for quite a while im gonna go with the guess that the engine isnt damaged. All i know is that the spring is missing, maby it never took a turn inside the engine at all. The engine starts without a trouble and didnt hesitate when i revved it a little bit atleast. Might do a compressiontest just to be fully sure.

Ordered a new 1409 today aswell!

Thanks alot for all the replys!

 

[Rick Stephens]

Good move! Post away when you get to calibrating the new carburetor. The Edelbrock 1409 is one of the easiest around, but you must read the entire manual and understand it. Then plan on checking and calibrating idle, low end, midrange and WOT. Get it right and your engine will run well for a long time. Get some portion lean and not only will you get hesitations, but you can burn holes in pistons.

 

[Dentar]

As promised, The carb is now installed with the boat in the water!

I´ve read that the 1409 comes pre-setup specced for 5.7 so figured i launch the boat so i can do some real test under load. The engine performed pretty well at first, maxed out 4200 rpm the first seconds of WOT, but then kinda hesitated, the more i tried WOT the more it increased in RPM and actually stayed there longer for each time, hence i didnt expect the carb to be the issue (first thought fuel starving) Ended up replacing the sparkplugs and now she reach 4600 rpm without any hesitation nor bogging when secondaries open up etc, plugs have the nice brown colour aswell so going to leave it as it is! She´s doing 42 knots with full tank and 2 people onboard weighting in at about 2600kg so im really satisfied!

On the very plus side is that the previous owner told me about the fuel economy he had with the boat, wich i've prepared for saving up during the whole winter. With the new carb it consumes roughly 1/3 of what he stated, talk about the previous carb been literally pissing fuel down the intake!

Thank you all for the very helpful information you gave me and happy boating this summer!

 

[Scott06]

Likely step up rods being in rich all the time fouled the plugs. Glad to hear it's working and you have the right marine carb on It now. If you need to tune it further guys like rick have lots of experince dialing these in.