I think you are doing great in bringing this car back as it is/was, without restoring it. making it mechanically sound and enjoy as is.

I'm terrible about taking photos... but first real test drive after getting the car back! It went well. I love how it runs and rides. Filled her up with gas and put a few miles on it. Got a few compliments and some good conversation at the gas station! Now back to work with wiring. Will be ordering headlights next. Also going to crawl underneath and recheck everything mount, bracket, and bolt after settling in with some miles on it. Gotta check Speedometer cable too it's not functioning so will check while I'm underneath.

Jim, and Gary....I hear your concerns. The design is phony, if you ask me. Usually a fuel bowl will vent directly to above the venturis, or air horn assembly. I have no idea why they designed it so it needs to have a separate vent cap.
Like I said, this fuel bowl was never ever machined or threads cut where the linkage boss is in upper front of bowl. maybe a NOS replacement, or replaced during rebuilding or professional remanufacture. The car did stall in idle, when the vent hole was originally plugged with, what seemed to be original type of aluminium plug. It took me a long time to even find the problem. it must be somewhere in the first 10 pages of this topic. with the plug removed the idle stall was history and running nicely ever since.
Considering water and debris. The vent is very much hidden under the og 1957 dry element air cleaner. and I have not experienced any trouble whatsoever. Like I said the og vent cap design also leaves the vent wide open in idle, that means if the car is not running and parked, it's always open as well. I have not experience any significant fuel fumes from the semi-open vent. Also the fuel bowl float, is flat on top and nearly touches the vent opening. it leaves a very narrow gap, maybe 1/32 or so  around the vent hole, the float covers the full area inside the hole. There is no pressure in the bowl. So I reckon it will not smell any different, than any 4bbl carb that is venting the bowl to inside the air horn. It would smell the same from the air cleaner snout.

My main problem here certainly are seals disintegrating from getting in touch with ethanol fuel.
I may want to pull the bowl and check for the power valve seal. I reckon if that seal was going bad, it would be running awfully rich.

edit, this is when I originally corrected the problem with the plugged bowl vent (7 years ago)

Quotehttps://57fordsforever.com/smf/index.php?topic=6705.315

Quote from: gasman826 on 2024-04-29 18:01With the bowl vent cap and linkage missing, you will always smell gas not to mention debris and water in the bowl.

X2, thats the first thing I noticed

Yes, when the fluid starts I assume it is clear of air and close the bleeder.  If the pedal doesn't feel right I enlist the aid of the wife to operate the pedal.  Only had one of the six or so I've finished not work as expected.  Good luck.

Yes and No Gary.....you may not remember, but exactly said bowl vent was the main problem maker in the beginning ( ca 7 years ago....oops, time flies). My carb is a replacement Holley and it came with a plug in that fuel bowl vent.
It always had an idle stall. After investigating the og shop manual I found that a 57 V8 Ford application Holley 2100, does have a complicated linkage for a moving bowl vent cap. it is activated by the throttle shaft and will pull off in idle to remedy a curbside stall effect. so that bowl vent is usually open @ idle anyways, and there hasn't been a problem with my solution of just removing the plug and leave as is. it is well hidden under the air cleaner.
The fuel smell developed much later (last year or so), and the seal washers that I replaced are on the high pressure side of the fuel pump and fuel bowl needle. So it was really getting wet all the time, let alone at higher rpms with full fuel pump pressure....I just replaced those seals yesterday and will have to see and check back the next days/weeks.

With the bowl vent cap and linkage missing, you will always smell gas not to mention debris and water in the bowl.

I got it from an Ebay dealer. It is listed as a 1957-1959 Ford Mercury 8" Dual Power Brake Booster + Bail Top Master Cylinder. The seller is rodpartsdealergearheadenterprises and the price was 165.97. These kits are plentiful on Ebay. One of the main vendors is Leeds Brakes. You can get them with the combination valve and the preformed lines to hook it up. I did all that myself.

usual Italian car issues pretty much sums it up ! The owner of the 1976 GTV, Luis, told me his father ran an Alfa dealership back in the 1970s and when the Sud and Alfetta came out, they rusted out as quickly as in the first year, and he told me, his father left Alfa for that very same reason right about the time. Good thing he parted out all the mechanically sound, but rusty used cars he had to take back for rust warranty. He says to this day they have 30+ drive trains and engines to chose from, if they want to rebuild another 'quick' one.    Needless to say, his one is ported and bored out to the max and it's of course a 2Litre DOHC with Weber carbs. It sounds nasty.

today I did a little maintenance on the engine, and I was having a light gas smell from it lately. Never found any leaks, but upon removing the air cleaner, I think I found the problem. The adjustable float jet has some weird seal washers that seem to have disintegrated from Ethanol fuel. The fuel bowl level was still ok, but obviously leaking somewhat from said seals.

I took a look at the rebuild kit and found double silicone washers, the same size as the seals, so I sandwiched a seal between 2 of them, each and it seems to work nicely.

The problem which I found is, that when you tighten said seals (without silicone washers), they get compressed to the point, where the locking screw ( the big slotted screw on top) will bottom out in the jet assembly, without properly compressing the aging seals.

Sandwiching Teflon washers and gaskets, makes them thicker, the locking screw doesn't twist and  rip the 'soft' seal, and because of the added thickness it won't bottom out.
I will have to check this after a few days, but have a good feeling about it staying put and tight.












Also I set the accelerator pump to the leans or summer setting. I feel it really pumped too much , as exhaust was smoking black on hard launches.

Great pics as usual! I always wanted a GTV, I settled for an '76 Alfetta I bought new. I loved that car but the mechanical fuel injection never worked right...usual Italian car issues on top of that!