“This is why some of the late 60s/early 70s Chrysler made station wagons used a single one-barrel carburetor on their 440 engines. The single barrel carb greatly enhanced the low/mid range torque to aid in moving those heavy tanks from the stop light.”
I don’t think so OK…ALL 440’s had four barrels of one flavor or another…V8’s have dual plane intake manifolds that must have at least a 2V to feed them properly…4 cylinders get one side and the alternate firing cylinders get the other side, 2V or 4V…
Quadrajets have tiny primaries and huge vacuum controlled secondaries. One would work fine on a Six with a decent manifold. Remember the old Chrysler 225 cu.in. Slant Six?? They would run like a scalded dog on the strength of a decent intake manifold…How about THIS one! Pontiac made a “Baby Goat” with an overhead cam conversion of the Chevy Six. They called it the “Sprint Six”. Found in late 60’s -early 70’s Tempests…
I’d mostly recommend the 2bbl Weber carb if you were keeping things mostly stock, but you wanted a carb that’ll give you better mileage and maybe a little more power and will be easier to tune. These are the carbs that are great replacements for a lot of the weird fiddley carbs on older foreign cars, but they work great with the old domestic 6-cylinders too. They probably flow around the same amount of air as the 1bbl, but they have two single-valve stages that usually results in better fuel metering and better throttle response. A multi-stage 2bbl is not to be confused with a lot of the domestic single-stage 2bbl carbs which were really just half a four barrel.
But, if you are going through the trouble of opening up the intake and exhaust, you can’t go wrong with a quadrajet!
so are you recommending the quadrajet or should i get a multistage 2bbl carb from Weber. and one more thing, if i would get a new intake manifold form Clifford performance, should i then look in to the quadrajet or would the multistage 2bbl be recommended. (I’m also looking to get o.k. gas mileage because I’m planning on driving it around 4 times to school which is about a 3 mile drive at 35mph)
I’ll see if I can find that bit about the Chrysler 440 with single barrels. It seems like I read that in one of my books several years ago; “History of Chrysler Vehicles” or something like that.
Actually, I was pretty surprised when I read it as I had never heard such a thing. That’s why that tidbit kind of stuck with me.
this lower capacity 4bbl, will it give the same performance as the qudrajet mentioned previously, because I don’t plan on taking the car on long hauls, at most 300 mile highway cruise to Canada, but probably just as transportation around the city. so basically I’m looking for a little more hp even at the expense of mpg’s.
Look at this: http://www.cliffordperformance.net/html_pages/news_pages/chevy_facts/chevyfacts.html Looks like they have a 2bbl adaptor you can use with the 4bbl flange on the manifold, could go with a 2bbl until you go for the cam and head to free up the breathing for the 4bbl. They recommend the 390 for street use with the whole manifold/header/cam/head package, should be good for what you’re doing.
The weber is a little carb that, with an adapter plate, fits right on the stock intake, so it would be the best option if you’re keeping things mostly stock, but want a car that drives better. If you’re investing in more performance parts, I think pretty much all of the aftermarket intakes are going to be for a quadrajet-sized carbs, so that’s what you’d want. The quadrajet was a stock GM carb that has the primary advantage that you can get 'em for cheap at junkyards, but as they designed for a production vehicle, they’re not as tinkerer-friendly like a lot of the aftermarket carbs, though it’s not like it takes a rocket scientist to tune up a quadrajet.
With your short commute, I’d definitely get a manual choke for whatever setup you decide on. That’s a really tough way to be driving your car and with an electric or thermal choke it probably won’t open at all during that commute. And seriously with such short trips anything you drive short of a bicycle is not going to get very good gas mileage.
I’m just not sure about the cam replacement, because i don’t have any experience with replacing a cam, and a follow up quesiton, if i got a new cam would i have to replace anything else, because if we go into the relm of cylinder heads then the cam replacement is to be left alone for now.
Yeah, according to their site the cam and head/valve spring work go together, that’s a big step. Give them a call, see what they recommend for just intake manifold + carb + exhaust headers.
Years ago I put the Weber DGEV 32-36 on an '81 Honda Accord. It’s an excellent carb that is easy to re-jet. You can gradually lean the primary throats (with a corresponding enrichment of the secondaries) to get light throttle fuel economy.
p.s. My first car was a '76 6 cyl Nova with the automatic. My aunt abused it before I got it.
one more question, the stock 100 hp is laughed at by all of my friends at school saying, " It won’t have enough hp to get around at all", but that makes no sense, so should i even be worried about the low hp?
The Weber in question has two main air passages, often called throats or barrels. The fuel gets mixed with the air in each barrel. The jets are little brass cylinders with precisely drilled holes through the middle. They are one, but not the only part that controls how much fuel gets mixed in with a given amount of air. The bigger the hole the more gas. The Weber jets are easy to change.
Well, '73 was a bad time for HP. While you should be able to significantly improve on it, you’ll still be dealing with a low compression engine that was designed for economy, not power. It’ll get around OK (my stock '72 Duster 198 with a 3 speed was OK, but wasn’t fast). With the mods, you’ll have no trouble keeping up with traffic, but a modern Civic or Accord would be faster. But that’s not the point (I hope)!
well i was planning on doing some minimal mods, but i do accept a civic would be faster, but in the same hand, a P.O.S. Civic or Accord can not compare in coolness and over all quality