Hello All:

1967 Volvo 122S Wagon. I spent a few hours this weekend conquering my fear and tuning the carburetors. I suspected they were set a bit rich, having come from Alabama last year and the fact that several times I pulled the plugs and found them looking like they had been dipped in a can of wet coffee grinds.

When I pulled the plugs this weekend, they were a beautiful tan color, just like what we look for when we tweak the Formula Ford. Despite this harbinger of my favorite quote "there is nothing so perfect that you cannot screw it up" I decided to press on anyway.

As you may have noticed from a previous post, I have a couple of tools pronounced by many as "useless", including a carb balancing tool and a Colortune 500 "Glass window plug". Bearing in mind that I am proceeding completely alone and with no previous experience, I was glad I had these tools.

Long story short, everything came out pretty close to okay. The one problem I am having would seem to be idle (not fast idle) related, and I thought you might have some insights.

When I fully warm up the car, everything sounds black Singer sewing-machine great. I pull out and drive about a quarter mile and at the stop sign the revs just drop to nothing and the car stalls. After a bit more driving when I stop (I am in neutral, by the way, not sitting on the clutch) the revs briefly drop dangerously low and then bump up a bit.

Having played with the carbs I noticed that when I manually lift the needle piston the revs drop off. I know there are many theories about what kind of oil to put in the dash pots and I foolishly put some regular 10W-40 in there. I suspect it might be too viscous and prevents the pistons from fully dropping when I am down to idle. Changing the idle screws does not seem to have any effect once I pull out and drive around again.

Assuming that is my problem, does anyone have any suggestion about how I can drain the dashpots of the 10W-40 and replace it with some lighter weight oil, which is what I should have done in the first place? Does anyone have any other theories about what might be causing the dramatic dropoff in idle?

Two other questions - fast idle - any suggestions on the best way to set it?

Last question - I am 99.99% certain I have a B18D Type III engine, but I have two rubber hoses for crankcase ventilation as well as an oil trap that the manual indicates is for a B18B motor. Does anyone with a B18D motor also have these hoses? One crosses over the center of the engine from the oil trap and the other passes from the oil filling cap into the front air filter.

Thanks for all of your help, as always.

Cheers,

Jeff Pucillo