Author Topic: Looking to reinstall my charcoal canister  (Read 8731 times)

Offline devanray

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Looking to reinstall my charcoal canister
« on: March 10, 2011, 11:31:17 pm »
I've been playing with the idea of hooking up my charcoal canister, It has a port to the PCV, to the carb and the fuel line. The fuel line is there but I have never seen a PCV go to a charcoal canister before, just to the carb. Would this be worth my time? Just looking to get rid of some of the gas smell, thats all.

Also, sorry more questions, does it matter which connection is used on the carb?

Sorry for all the posts but thanks for all the help.
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Offline 1980c10

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Re: Looking to reinstall my charcoal canister
« Reply #1 on: March 11, 2011, 04:20:32 am »
It has a port to the PCV, to the carb and the fuel line. The fuel line is there but I have never seen a PCV go to a charcoal canister before, just to the carb. Would this be worth my time?

If you are going to use the charcoal canister I would not connect the pvc through the canister; my trucks canister had gone bad and sucked charcoal through the carb causing the carb to need to be rebuilt, the charcoal had to drilled out of the ports as chemicals couldn't clear them out.

IMO, It is unlikely that this is the source of your fuel smell as I have no smell with the canister removed.

Offline jaredts

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Re: Looking to reinstall my charcoal canister
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2011, 05:45:22 am »
I could be wrong, but I doubt your gas smell is coming from the charcoal canister not being hooked up.  You've got the fuel tank vent, and that one is important.  I think the distributor vacuum advance should be hooked into one of the small ports you have plugged on the front of the carburetor.  If your vacuum advance is hooked up somewhere else than thats fine.  The gap you pointed out on your carb. looks a little suspicious.  I think its just a chunk of gasket missing, and may not hurt anything.  You should check for a vacuum leak there to be sure.

Offline devanray

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Re: Looking to reinstall my charcoal canister
« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2011, 07:29:52 am »
hmm... okay, well than I will follow the fuel lines and see if I have any leaks. I don't think that I do have a tank vent, how do I find that out for sure?

Sounds like I should just leave the canister alone for now.

I'll start her up and spray that section of the carb and see what happens.

Thanks guys!
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Offline autorepr

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Re: Looking to reinstall my charcoal canister
« Reply #4 on: March 11, 2011, 08:44:45 am »
It appears that you still have the fuel line hooked to your canister? Yes, you could be getting fuel fumes from the canister and or the tank vent. The reason the canister is put on any vehicle is to capture and store the fumes until the engine can sustain a controlled "vacuum leak" sucking the vapors from the canister into the engine there by clearing the stored vapors from the canister. If the fuel line from the tank is still connected to the canister but it is not connected to the engine the canister has become saturated and the fumes are just escaping into the air around the truck. You should go ahead and hook it up like it was originally from the factory. Get and follow the proper vacuum diagram. As for the sucking the charcoal into the carb it is a common problem for the GM's. (happened to me while I was trailering my race car to the track on race night on a busy highway in rush hour traffic!) Instal an inline fuel filter in the PCV line to keep the particles from being sucked into the carb.
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Offline devanray

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Re: Looking to reinstall my charcoal canister
« Reply #5 on: March 11, 2011, 11:15:01 am »
I did some sniffing around today after about 10 minutes of idle and the smell was only slight coming from the canister but I still want to get it hooked up per diagram eventually, doesn't sound like something to worry about for now.

So, Autorep, you say to install a fuel filter in the PCV line, from the diagrams it looks like the canister will tee with the PCV hose, should the filter come in place before the tee, for example right after the canister out?

See photo, It seems like two filters would be needed.
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Offline Lt.Del

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Offline devanray

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Re: Looking to reinstall my charcoal canister
« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2011, 04:11:18 pm »
Thanks, wow, that guy has a heck of a lot of stuff going on. I'm glad I only have to deal with two hoses for this little project.
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Offline txchainsawgogi

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Re: Looking to reinstall my charcoal canister
« Reply #8 on: March 12, 2011, 04:24:41 pm »

Offline Lt.Del

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Re: Looking to reinstall my charcoal canister
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2011, 12:08:03 am »
yeah, it's a 79.   And, I replaced all components and put everything back just like that on my 383 to keep it all stock. It looks worse than it is....she purrrrs now.

Offline devanray

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Re: Looking to reinstall my charcoal canister
« Reply #10 on: March 13, 2011, 10:45:24 am »
Thats right SgtDel, its not the lions mane, but its roar that makes it king of the jungle.
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Offline autorepr

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Re: Looking to reinstall my charcoal canister
« Reply #11 on: March 14, 2011, 06:24:56 am »
I put mine in near the canister. Just put it in the PCV line (1st one). The second just sucks in a diaghram to open the main valve. It is not able to pull particles out of the canister.
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Offline devanray

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Re: Looking to reinstall my charcoal canister
« Reply #12 on: March 14, 2011, 08:35:02 am »
Thanks Autorepr, that makes sense.

Thanks all!
"Before removing any bolts, read through the entire procedure."