Finally warmed up here in Ky.  Went out to start the 71 for the first time since December.  Jiggled the pedal 6-7 times like always and it started right up but ran terribly.  Shut it down and went to look under the hood - fuel pouring out of the sides of the carb.  Lots of fuel onto the intake manifold and down the back of the engine.  Lucky there was no fire.

Noticed after clean up fuel coming out at both front and rear bowl seals.  All eight fuel bowl screws were loose.  Cranked them tight, no more leaks and car runs perfect.

Not sure how this happened but I have only owned the car for 18 months and had never touched them (the screws) before.  Glad I found  it before anything bad happened.

Rgds

Neil

It's called age and vibration.  Glad you caught it.

Actually if its a Holley carb its called gasket shrinkage.  Over long periods of storage without driving the fuel dries up and the gasket shrink, loosening the tension on the fuel bowl screws.  From time to time they should be checked to ensure they are tight.  Especially since we switched from the non stick style gaskets.  The old sticky gaskets were not as bad about this, but were a pain to use when changing jets and doing rebuilds.

 

Thanks guys.  Checking those screws is now on my routine maintenance checklist.

Rgds

I would probably go ahead and change those gaskets to some of the newer style reusable gaskets. Also, be careful when tightening down on those screws, don't want to strip the threads in the body of the carb. 

Is there anything like that on my cross fire injection I should check? When I first start it, the rpm goes up and down between 1400 and 600 for about 30 seconds, then levels off at 800 rpm.

That variation on the cross fire is the IAC motor.  Its positioning itself after it determines engine temperature, air temperature and throttle postion, and other perameters.  Totally normal.