Priming Fuel line? I'm a little confused

[78Suburban]

I have cut the oritional metal line and run a rubber fuel hose to my edelbrock performer 600. I have a clear inline fuel filter on it. When I let it sit for a long time, the filter seems to be empty? Does that fuel just drain down back through the return line that is on the fuel pump? And also, Is it possible that I haven't correclty filled the fuel bowl on my carb? I don't think I really bothered with it when I swapped it to the burb, so do I need to crank it for a while with the dizzy's power wire unhooked, or maybe just crank the motor over without pulling out the choke, because it probably won't fire without it. Is there somehwhere that I need to pour gas into on the edelbrock? I'm just wondering if I don't have a problem in my fuel system.

I'm about to go try to crank it again, and just wondering if I need to do anything different to the edelbrock. I think I may have gotten the dizzy a little wet, hosing out the engine bay the last time I tried to crank it, so it might run this time, I don't know.
thanks,
James

 

[nemesis_pyros]

Sounds like the fuel is just draining back down through the fuel pump this is normal on all the chevy's I've worked on. If you just swaped the carb on your prolly gonna have to crank for a while or pour a little gas down the carb this will let it start up for a few seconds and pump fuel up to the carb. There is no need to unhook the dizzy, you'll want that hooked up so that as soon as fuel gets to the motor she will fire right up. Good Luck


Brent

 

[70jimmy]

Mine does this also and same setup, edelbrock 600 with a rubber line on the cutoff metal line. If it sits for quite a while like overnight you crank for a while before fuel gets to the carb. Like 15 seconds. I ussually crank about 5 seconds quit and do it again. But it doesn't seem to matter if you crank continuously or quit and do it multiple times still takes the same amount of time. I have thought about just replacing the fuel pump to see if it would change anything.

 

[mofugly13]

Same problem here. I was wondering why my clear fuel filter was empty after the K5 sat overnight. Mine will usually fire on the first crank, then it'll stumble, and die. This will happen four or five times before it will stay running on it's own. I don't think there's enough fuel in the bowl on startup. I really want to swap my performer 600 out for a well-tuned q-jet.

 

[diesel4me]

air bubble...

I noticed on many of my vehicles,and others with a "see thru" gas filter ,that they often appeared to be empty,or only half full at best..I read a lengthy article online about this phenomenon,and it boils down to it being an air bubble ,and something to do with the surface tension of gasoline,yada,yada....not a defect in the fuel pump,etc..I replaced a fuel pump once and it made NO difference!..I thought the gas was leaking back thru the fuel pump check valves,but no...

One way to get rid of that dilema is to use an electric fuel pump,one designed for use with a return line,and use a mopar gas filter that has the "third nipple" for a return line that goes back to the tank..then the carb will be full as soon as you turn the key..

 

[dyeager535]

SOME Q-jets (Oldsmobile) used a filter that actually has a check valve in it, to prevent this problem. Not sure why, I never had an issue, but maybe it was.

Not sure if that was a "high end" car vs. "low end" car deal or what, the setups were pretty much the same minus the motors otherwise. Apparently they will interchange, but for the poster that mentioned going back to the Q-jet, there's an upgrade tip for you.