46 V8 Carburetor

J

Jacobs1946

Junior Member
My 46 Super Deluxe has what looks like an an aftermarket carb, which at times can be difficult to start. I've never gotten the hang of the choke?!
At times it fires right up. Sometimes when it's warmed up, it needs the choke wide open?!
Seems odd that I have such inconsistent starting so I thought about changing out the carb.
CW Moss has some for $649.00. Probably great quality but not in the budget.
I saw some on ebay for $117.00 with free shipping. Probably cheap-o like I have?!
Does anyone have any experience with carbs that work right? I looked through the threads and didn't see anyone with a similar inquiry. Thank you Gents!
 
Your 46, most likely, originally came with a Holly 94 two barrel. They're easy to find and work on. Even I can do it. In the past it was popular to replace them with a Stromberg 97?
There are plenty of members in Washington perhaps one of them can take a look and help you.
 
It is to be expected that the engine will start with little or no choke when the engine is hot. I generally pull about one inch of choke to start a warm engine. Just enough to set fast idle; not enough to flood the engine with too-rich mixture.
 
A Stromberg 97 is not a proper replacement carburetor for a 1946 Ford, so I don't think it is a good choice for consideration here, mainly because of the extra expense. The proper carb is a 59 Series Holley, and is what you should be using. Other Holleys will work fine, but since "59"'s are not that hard to find, is a no-brainer.

First of all, how did you determine that the carburetor on your engine is "aftermarket"? Post the numbers and other information here so we can help you. In my opinion, the best thing you can do is to obtain the proper carburetor for your engine and send it to Charlie Schwendler in New York for a rebuild. He is a wizard with these things, and will rebuild the carburetor to better than factory specifications, even running it on his test engine to make sure that it is tuned up and ready to go.

The alternative would be to purchase one of the imports off of eBay. There is a thread on this forum where someone did just that and was quite satisfied (I'll see if I can find it and link to it). The domestic repops that are advertised seem to be over-priced and prone to the same problems as the imports. No matter how you cut it, $650 is way too much to spend.

A properly rebuilt by Charlie would seem to be your best bet.

EDIT : Here's my post on the aftermarket carb thread. Read the post above mine : https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2336228#post2336228.
 
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Thanks for all of the advice! Most appreciated!
Here are pictures of the carb on my car. It says "truck" on is so I'm assuming that it is aftermarket.
 

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The only real difference between the truck and car carburetors is the configuration if the air filter mounting surface.The truck have the "V" shaper surface, where the cars are flatter. What's important is the numbers on the side of the float bowl. It should be something like "91-99", "59", or "8BA". If that's a "59" carb, I'd just bet that Charlie has the right air horn (they're pretty common). I'd check with him. It will allow you to use a proper air cleaner.
 
It probably isn’t the carb but a leak down of the fuel pump or something related to initial prime . If it sits more than a couple of days , the fuel can evaporate and take considerable time for the fuel pump to prime the carb .
Its common to use the choke on a first start if the engine hasn’t been started in a few hours .
A lot of others here add an electric fuel pump just for those first starts after sitting a few days .
 
Yep, definitely a truck air horn from a 7RT carburetor. I don’t believe the 59 series air horns differed from car to truck. Does the main body have a vacuum port? If so, is it plugged? It would be on the right Venturi backside.

I have some 59 cores. If you could wait a month or so, would clean the body up, give it a chromate bath, and replate all of the steel pieces. You could get a kit from Daytona carburetors and put it together.
 
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Reading the thread again, I don't think you have a serious problem. I'd go over the fuel system and make sure everything is in tip-top shape. Some things that can cause problems like this are a leaky fuel bowl gasket (if you have one), a leaking power valve, and loose fuel line connections. Unless everything is perfect, with the way today's fuel evaporates, these cars are hard to start after sitting for several days. You said in your original post that "Sometimes when it's warmed up, it needs the choke wide open?". When these cars are warm and have been run recently, no choke is required, and using it may make the car harder to start by flooding it.

Try to see if there is a pattern to hard starting and get back to us. We hate to admit it, but a lot of guys just resort to a shot of starting fluid or dumping some gas down the carb after the car has been setting for a week or more. It's just the nature of the beast. About the air cleaner mounting in the air horn; either try to get a truck air cleaner to match or change back to a car air horn. You really want to run an air cleaner if you are going to do any driving at all, and avoid the little chrome aftermarket units as they are very restrictive.

Also, what "1952henry" said about the vacuum port on the back of a 7RT or 8BA carb is important, If it's there, it should definitly be plugged. If it is the carb should work fine.
 
Thanks for all the great information, really appreciate the feedback!
She usually starts ok when cold - still cranks over for 10-15 seconds or so.
This issue is when it's warm. Usually starts when I pull the choke - but not always. Hard starting makes me not trust the car 100%.
I'll check out the vacuum port - but I think I will get a new carb.
The car had a electric fuel pump mounted on the firewall when I got it. LOUD - and a POS. I went to the manual fuel pump with the glass bowl. Seems better, and I can see if there is gas in the line.
I know this is not a fuel injected modern car - and it has the 6 volt system, which I plan on leaving. Still enjoy the heck out of the old girl
 
Model 59, 8BA for cars, 7RT for trucks, and end of era EAB. The EAB and late 7RT carbs had high lift nozzles, which required a relief to be cast in the air horn for clearance. These were triangle shaped, as opposed to the delta shape. Of course I left out later Mercurys….
 
I just took a rebuilt 59 carburetor with me to Hershey. It was rebuilt by one of the best engine/carburetor guys in the South. I still have it. The finish on the diecast almost leads me to believe it is NOS. If interested, email me at v8fordman@hotmail.com.
 
1952henry said:
Model 59, 8BA for cars, 7RT for trucks, and end of era EAB. The EAB and late 7RT carbs had high lift nozzles, which required a relief to be cast in the air horn for clearance. These were triangle shaped, as opposed to the delta shape. Of course I left out later Mercurys….
Click to expand...

Those high lift nozzles were a much better design than the earlier type. I would install them in my '39 / '40 Ford carburetor rebuilds whenever I did one. Of course, I had to have the horn with the relief for those nozzles.
Once rebuilt and with the proper elongated vent hole "installed" in the air horn, no one would note the difference.

The higher nozzles would help keep the fuel in the bowl and not siphon back.
 
That’s good to know about the anti-siphon. I have found a lot of the “relief” air horns on earlier carburetors. Mass rebuilding I assume.
 
Can someone shed some light as to what years the various Carbs mentioned in post #13 were used? This is for original cars. Thank you
 
Model 59, 45-48; 8BA, 49-51 (possibly early 52); EAB, 52-53. 7RT, trucks from 48-early 51, I believe; then 8RT through 53. The 8RT was marked 7RT, but had cable swivels on the choke/hand throttle levers instead of balls for rod linkage..
 
These are pics of the carb on my '46 Coupe, 59AB, before I sent it to Charlie in NY. He did an excellent job of rebuild in a timely fashion. I also had him do my pump at the same time, and he ran them as a pair on his test engine. He called me to ask if he could hold off returning them, as he had a few pumps he wanted to test using my carb. I told him it was not a problem, as we had our first snow and I was in no hurry. I installed them in the spring and as they say, "It ran perfect right out of the box." My mileage improved, because Charlie checked the main jets and, contrary to the number on them, found that they had been "oversized" at one time, so he installed the correct size. He doesn't miss anything!
 

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