In need of opinions on "cold air intakes"

Didn’t care about HP then. Am interested in extra power now. Times change

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66 Mustangs were light. Less than 2800 lbs light. The 289 was pretty peppy, especially with a 4 barrel carb.

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If you are in California you may need to find a CAI kit with a CARB approval number, or you will be sent home from your smog test. Maybe true in other States, I don’t know. Every 2 years I bring my Miata for a smog test, every time the tech opens the hood I hear “Uh oh!” and then :Oh, OK".

I have no real knowledge of how the abbreviation for “Barrel” got to be “bbl” but let’s think about this a moment… I’m guessing that this is not a manufacturer’s nomenclature, but rather an independent, builder, shade-tree, home spun, mechanic euphemism…

Have you ever seen a single barrel carburetor notated as a “1bbl”, I think not, I believe it’s an amateurish attempt to pluralize the multiple barrels on a carburetor, be it a “2bbl” or a “4bbl”…

Now, who knows how the Camaro Z-28 got it’s “Z-28”? The answer is in the following Replied to Post… No peeking…

tenor (2)

The designation is consumer inspired. In reality, the “Z-28” was a simple three digit, alphanumeric GM sales code for a “Special Performance Package” that was introduced in December 1966 on the base line Camaro…

Everyone wanted the high performance model and kept asking for the “Z-28” package and it did not take long for GM to put that badge on the Camaro… The first generation featured a hood which included forced induction. GM upgraded the suspension, added rally styled wheels, and a 4.9-liter V8 engine built to compete in the Trans Am races.

No one needed to turn the Air Cleaner Cover over for this baby…

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In high school I had a '72 RS/SS it was the Z-27 package

The Rally sport was the Z-26 package.
The base model was the Z-25 package

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The commonly-accepted explanation is that the Standard Oil Company shipped its products in blue barrels, hence “bbl”. However, it is not difficult to find examples of “bbl” that predate the oil industry.

The bottom line is that the real reason is probably lost to history, but one possibility is that, in order to distinguish bushels from barrels on shipping manifests, the “bbl” abbreviation became commonplace in England in the 18th Century.

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Saw a video where a guy was trying to get a 340/6pack car running. The center carb had a fuel line but front/rear carbs did not. I think even some of the linkage was missing too. He got it to start but it ran poorly. Should have swapped on a nice 4 bbl intake and tossed the 6 pack stuff. Just kidding

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The April issue of Hot Rod magazine IIRC had an article on a Ford Cobra equipped with 4 Weber side-draft carburetors. Seems a little excessive, but maybe required for a race car. I wonder how they get all four balanced, so they all deliver the same amount of air and fuel at all rpms and engine loads? Seems nearly impossible, especially at and near idle.

Side draft carburetors can keep the head space under the hood low enough that you don’t have to install a hood scoop.

I like the looks of the side-draft. No idea how they perform in comparison to standard type. My coworker friend has a porsche 912. Came with some other brand, but he claims Doctor Porsche demands 912 use weber carbs. So he had to buy webers.

How about 4 triples?

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Last year put a Weber carb on a 1984 Civic Dx in place of the BS 100 vacuum line CVCC carb… Runs great for what it is… :wink:

Carburetor Synchrometer Tool/Dual Carb Air Flow Meter
Also multiple vacuum gauges…

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Reminds me of the famous line about not needing no stickin’ badges from the movie Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I don’t need no stink’n vacuum lines :wink:

hmmm… maybe will watch that movie as entertainment for the holiday weekend.

Just still curious and not hot rod inclined in those days, but in the film thunder road with Robert Mitchum, he had just bought a 57 ford. His dad had hopped it up and there was one short pic under the hood. I never knew whether it was fuel injection or what but they were two rows of rectangular devices on the intake. My copy of the film does not have that scene but I remember seeing it 50 years ago or so ago. Would have been the racing technology back then.

If I could see the pic it would be easier to help… From what I see of the movie car it had 3 deuces…

Nitrous Oxide solenoids maybe or fuel pressure regulators??

Back in the '80s my Honda Motorcycle Dealer used a “Rube Goldberg” gadget (called a “Manometer”) that included 4-tubes, loaded with mercury to tune the four carburetors on my 1974 Honda 400 Super Sport (four cylinders, four carburetors…)…

I asked why they did not use gauges and they said they were not accurate enough.

The graphic below is similar to what they used, but each tube was loaded with mercury and it was tall (like 36" tall… Remember a Standard Day is defined as 59 degree Fahrenheit with 29.92" (or 15 degrees C and 1013.25 mb) of Mercury (Hg)…). So, just setting it up, the mercury stood about 30" high in the tubes. They then use charts to calculated the proper setting based on local barometric pressure and temperature… The bike ran great, I could not complain…

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Bing,

LoudThunder curious about anything with Thunder in it…

50-years is a long time, thank goodness, Google has a long memory…

There is a photo of the intake on this web page and the caption under the photo says,

“The shot of Luke’s engine clearly shows a 312 Thunderbird V8 with three two-barrel carburetors… is this from under the hood of the ’51 Ford”

LT

Yeah I remember that and was the old ford but this was after he got the 57. The 51 he gave to that kid and it blew up at the gas station. I knew what carbs were but this was ag different set up. They must have had fuel injection available back then and he commented that the guy that sold him the car said it would do 130 on the straightaway.

We had a 57 thunderbird engine so the label said but it was a four bbl carb with a sticky choke. Now I think there was a very rare model y or something in 57 that was souped up. Long time ago and I can’t be sure of my memory but have wondered about it over the years.

On TUBI.TV, the online movie channel, they have two versions Free of Thunder Road, one 1:28 and the other 1:32 long. If you remember where approximately the scene is located, you might be able to see it there…,