1951 Pontiac Chieftain

[PhilA]

Was then

20200407_120308.jpg (424.13 KiB) Viewed 4219 times

Is now

20200408_223107.jpg (373.38 KiB) Viewed 4219 times

[mercrocker]

Nice! Stripped the table pretty good too.....

[PhilA]

Wouldn't have run properly. A couple of fuel passageways (one of the idle circuits particularly) were blocked with crap, and the main Venturi vacuum line to the fuel needle plunger was full of very crispy old insect nest.

Just thrown on, it would've run but it would have snapped and popped like a bitch if I tried to rev it and wouldn't have idled for shit.

I'm going to bolt it on maybe the weekend and see if the car runs with it fitted. It does need a new gasket set though. Ethanol resistant ones are available.

Phil

[Hooli]

I don't recall an issue with the current carb? is this just for a spare?

[PhilA]

I don't recall an issue with the current carb? is this just for a spare?

This one popped up fairly cheap, complete and in not bad condition overall so I bought it with a couple things in mind.
Primary: Spare. Either good for parts or as a complete unit. Turns out possibly the latter because it's a lot less worn than the one on the car appears to be.
Secondary: Down the line I'm thinking of building a new manifold set for it.

Thoughts on the secondary: doesn't look like it, but it's a 2bbl carb, about 350cfm. The intake manifold is huge. The intake ports are siamesed so there's 4 intake ports. The current setup has one barrel doing the center 4 pots, the other doing the outer 4. Due to the quite massive length difference, at high speed the outer pots tend to lean off because the runners are so long, and that leads to burned and bendy valves (I think that's what happened to the one that was bent in pot 7). Thought being that if I make a new manifold, I can have 2 carbs, equal length runners with the back half of the engine on one carb, front on the other and that gets a barrel per 2 cylinders. Much better balanced. Springs and needles are available but it should run fine with the needles as they are.
Exhaust ports are one per cylinder so I could do 8-4-2-1 with long runners to scavenge and give a bit extra torque that would be otherwise lost from the long intakes on 1, 2, 5 and 6.

Nice thing is that would all unbolt and the original could be put back on.

Phil

[PhilA]

If I go with option 2 it needs a nice set of "4400 TC" badges, a la Rover P6.

[mercrocker]

I did sometimes wonder how induction works out on a single carb straight 8.....

[Hooli]

That makes a lot of sense & twin carbs is always sportier.

[PhilA]

I did sometimes wonder how induction works out on a single carb straight 8.....

Would be even more of a fireball with the optional single-barrel Rochester...

[mercrocker]

A bit like a straight six Ford with the standard Zenith and hockey stick inlet, I should imagine!