I have 1952 Allard J2-X. The car has a caddilac 331 motor and is equipped with 3 2 bar stromberg carbs. One of the carbs is in real bad shape. Would it run anywhere near decent if I just removed the middle carb and blocked the intake? PS. Why the heck doesn’t the pull down menu have Allard listed?
I get it-April Fools! Oops, not April. You need to find a ‘early 1950s classic car’ discussion forum if you’re looking for advice based on experience. Not many folks have Allard, or even 1952 Cadillac, experience here. But here’s my 2 cents: it should run OK if the center carb is taken out of use, given all the right things are plugged off, etc., assuming all three empty into a common manifold. You certainly won’t get as much power, of course.
EDIT - I think Researcher’s right - does the center have all those functions? Why not fix it? This is a rare and valuable car, not a heap.
p.s. - I do suspect I’m feeding a troll…
If you’re serious about this then why not fix the carburetor seeing as how you have a rare vehicle with an equally rare Cadillac 3X2 setup?
On most 3X2 setups the center carburator was the warmup and slow speed carburator. It would have the idle circuitry, transition ports, vacuum advance port, choke, fast idle, and the vacuum signel for the other two carbs (if this has vacuum actuation rather than progressive linkage). I think it would run very poorly if you disabled and blocked the center carb location. JMHO
Why not rebuild the carb or have someone rebuild it for you? The car will run much better and although it may be more expensive, you’ll probably spend half as much time just trying to rig it to run with a carb missing.
Rebuilding one of these carbs isn’t rocket science. The kits are available and if you have a float with a leak it can be re-soldered. The worst case scenario is that you might have to put in brass bushings if the throttle plate shaft has worn the hole too large.
If the thought of doing this bothers you at all you shouldn’t own a racing sports car of this or any other era.