You’re right, of course. Brain fart.
Been watching this thread for a while, I will bet you the chokes are not pulling the Jets down far enough. You can always put some gasoline in a pump oil can and give three squirts in each carb and then try it. You can also get a friend to hold the choke levers to the maximum while you try to start it.
I encountered similar symptoms when attempting the first start after an engine rebuild. The distributor had been sitting on the shelf for a very long time (decades). Carbs rebuilt, chokes were working, fuel in the carbs, spark to the plugs, initial timing set at 8 degrees (electronic ignition).
Same as the OP, the engine would momentarily fire with starting fluid. Turned out the centrifugal advance mechanism was sticking at various advance positions…mostly full…which caused the setting at the crankshaft damper to mysteriously change when I’d go back and check it. Disassembled, cleaned and lubed the bearing surfaces between the two plates…problem solved. Admittedly, a very remote possibility.
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Im Not sure what a pop is
engine runs and quits
Back fire
Stumble and fails to start
With a shot of starter fluid in each carb the engine should start immediately and dye off smoothly
OK I got back to the car today after market float bowl tops are crab everyone is a different height setting my floats with 7/16 dowel will not work I need to know the height of the fuel in the metering jet so that I can adjust them that way
Hi Rick…is it the float bowl lid or the float curved lever…there are various tyoes of lever…with the incorrect ones you cant set float height correct…search float lever on tne forum. …this should get you started…Steve Float Setting on SU HD8
Smoke test, don’t have one but I’ve seen it.
Cheers,
LLynn
Was the car running before the carb rebuild? If not, then you need to start checking the ignition and then the fuel. Just because it pops doesn’t necessarily mean that it will run or that the ignition system is working properly. Also how fresh is the gas in tank?
Yes the car was running the gas is only 3 months old
Well I got it running today. I set the float bowl Heights by eyeball where the needle goes down there all about an eighth below aftermarket parts suck. I will do some more tuning Tomorrow hopefully I can get them running right
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Progress. ………Plus 20
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Increasingly so, this seems to be a disturbing pattern.
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Great that your up and running…I mentioned in a post above that there are different float levers…making it very difficult to get correct float height…do you have the correct parts fitted…what is actually wrong with the parts you have…i havent come across poor carb replacement parts…Steve
I had to buy a new float bowl top very obvious the holes were in different places for the pin for the float bowl ever bought new Floats set everything up at 7/16 two were fighting so bad it was running out of the front of the carburetors one was low pull the footballs back off checked everything was it 7/16 as per book still to flooding So you tell me bad parts or bad me I’m thinking bad parts
If you are using American footballs, that may be your problem as they have pointy ends. You need English footballs which are round. 
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Hi Rick…Joe Curto explains float covers & float levers here…there was a change in 4.2 float covers so not difficult to end up with the wrong ones…Steve Joe Curto- S.U. Float Bowl Covers - YouTube
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OK if you questions first do I need to drill those other two holes in my air cleaner cover second how close to factory settings should my carburetors be it seems to be running fine now but I have not been able to drive it as there snow on the ground here
Only drill the holes if you want the carbs to work. Those holes allow atmospheric pressure to the top of the air piston. For maximum effectiveness they really should be outside the air cleaner, as per the factory airbox arrangement, or at least separated some from the intake stream. You can machine up a spacer that vents those holes on the carb to atmosphere but keep the air filter sealed. About 3/8-1/2" thick, with ~1/4" “milled” slots from the holes to the spacer edge.
Those air filters will probably interfere with the float bowl banjo bolts without a spacer, no?
I run stub stacks in my air cleaner that have the milled slots, just visible is this photo at about 10 o’clock on the two right stacks. Not perfect, but they seem to work fine.
that looks nice did you make that what does it look like with the air filter on and all closed up
I had it made to my design by ipsco.org a number of years ago. Not sure if they still do one offs like this. Need to take a more current photo. This was after the original install. It now uses black knurled thumb nuts and runs a wider filter element.
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