Holley carburetor warranty

[sdkar]

Hey guys,

Just wanted to let you guys know about my experience with Holley concerning their warranty.  I have a ZZ502 in my 69 Camaro coupe with a Holley model 4150, 850cfm (p/n 0-80531) carburetor.  Not too long ago, the engine started running horribly and was fouling plugs in almost no time.  No matter how much tuning I did, I could not get the engine to run right at all.  Finally, I removed the bowls and was surprised to find an insane amount of corrosion.  I'm talking about huge pieces of plating and chunks of metal that had just bubbled up and blistered and had fallen off.  Both bowls as well as the metering plates were corroded beyond belief.  The bowls were about a third full with the flaked off pieces.  After some research, it turns out that Holley has acknowledged that there were some serious plating and metalurgy problems from certain model carburetors made in 2006. 

I contacted Holley and spoke with their technical dept who confirmed the problem and was told to send them the carburetor for inspection and if the problem was as I had stated, they would replace the entire unit. Well, true to their word, I can happily say that I have always loved Holley products and will continue to do so.  The turn around time was less than a week and I now have a brand new carburetor ready to be installed on my Camaro and hopefully, no more problems. 

So, if any of you have a Holley carburetor with a build date around 2006 and you are having some problems, pull off your bowls and check them out.  If you have severe corrosion, know that Holley is aware of this and is replacing these defective with no hassle. 

It's nice to know that some companies today are still concerned with their customer's happiness and willing to do the right thing if the customer has problems.  A big thank you to Holley. 

Thought I would pass on the info.

Steve

[restore-z28]

Steve thanks for sharing, glad to read there are still some companies that stand behind the product they sell.

[sdkar]

Here are some photos to show just how bad the corrosion was.  If you look at the fuel inlet, you will see the fine crack that leaked fuel for quite a while before I could even see the crack itself.  When I first saw the fuel leaking, I kept blaming an improperly attached fuel line and was constantly redoing it with new teflon tape.  I thought maybe it was a fuel bowl gasket among all other possible problems, not realizing that the fuel was actually leaking thru very tiny cracks in the fuel bowl itself.  Eventually, this crack resulted in the entire threaded inlet section breaking off. 

The stamped code shows model # 80531 and a date code of 1406, which translates to the 140th day of 2006, or May 20, 2006. 

[sdkar]

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[sdkar]

Bear in mind that these bowls were kept wet with fuel the entire time.  This is not a dried out carburetor that corroded. 

[JohnZ]

That was a result of contaminated chemicals used in the bowl plating process for several weeks, and it affected thousands of carburetors; Holley replaced them all at no cost.