Dual 97,s

Step 1...Remove the air cleaners.

I went through this scenario with my '39 coupe. Sooty plugs and 4 MPG....engine has an Isky cam, bored 1/8 over, Navarro heads & intake, 2 carbs....did everything to fix this....installed .043 jets and #69 power valves in original 97's.....no improvement. I removed the air cleaners and was shocked as the rpm increased by a few hundred rpm. Lesson learned...when working on engine / carbs, do it all without air cleaners. All of a sudden it ran to lean...go figure...increased the jets by using some discarded junky Asian jets....brand new ones that were supposed to be stock .045....they actually miked .047.....installed those and now my problem is solved. 15 MPG and nice brown colored plugs.....motor now ran so strong that the original 9" clutch was not enough to grab.....out came the engine and in went the 10" clutch. I'm smiling again. Robert
 

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ken ct said:
Thats the kind of work Early Ford does he usta be in NY. i usta do carbs for him many yrs ago and he penny pinched buying the cheapest China made kis availible for me to use rebuilding for him.I finally told him to shove his work and quit doing them. Too many were comming back .Kits he supplied me had mostly junk in them. His clutch sets are China junk also were slipping within 3 mths. I wouldn't buy anything from him. ken ct. OMO
Click to expand...
This Early Ford V8 that left New York a few years ago is now in S.Carolina.
http://www.earlyford.com/ Is it the same one? I used to deal with them in NY.
 
An afterthought…..the photo of my engine in my previous post was taken with the original problematic ‘Helmut’ air cleaners. Since I then realized that the air filters were choking the carbs, I removed the paper new elements, and ….still not good. Air restriction still existed because of the very limited air intake area on the outer perimeter of the helmut design. Since I am hard headed and want to keep the ‘ole style’ parts of the 50’s era, I drilled the base as seen in the photo. If you install the paper air cleaners, they would block the holes just drilled……so….I’m now running sans filters…..works great. Since I drove over 80K miles on another car without filters….why be so worried. ( not to do this on a desert road ) All this to say that I am now paranoid on carb air restrictions in any sense. Since this did make such a huge difference, I am wondering as to the ‘sensitivity’ of any brand of air cleaners on a multiple carbed flathead. Going thru old photos of guys racing flatheads….I never see any form of air cleaners being run. Food for thought….
PS…..Tex Smith’s book on flatheads does mention this very problem…do not use the Asian paper filters….another note worth mentioning….with multi carbs, the vacuum pressure drops and affects the jet sizes….hence, I did have to increase mine to .047…shooting down my original thought of having smaller jets to solve problem. Live and learn what the guys have been doing in the past…..no better example.
Robert
 

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Robert, your absolutly right about those small chrome air filters. I run K-N 4in. tall flters on my 4 Stromberg 97 on my 40 coupe with a 276, I get 18mpg on secondary roads. Of course I have a T-5 and 9in. 3:50 rear gears. My plugs run white. I also run the 6in. K-N on three 94's on my 286 dragster. There is no restriction with thoes filters. Walt
 
Walt…thanks…I’ll have to check in on the K&N filters. My engine is also a 276 with the bore and Merc crank, but still have the original 3.78 rear end with 8.20 x 15 rear tires.. It’s OK for 60 – 65 MPH. Getting off topic, but, have to mention…with the engine out, I installed one of my sets of 25T L-Z gears….took the car out yesterday for a two minute drive to ensure everything was up to snuff….ohhhh…love that 1st gear now and, I was amazed at the difference it made. The car has enough torque and accelerates up to a much higher speed. I never enjoyed the first gear before…always anxious to shift into second before the revs got out of hand….now, I love it as I listen to the sound of that flathead wind up properly before shifting into second gear. The ole ’39 stock box with the granny gears was not enjoyable for me. Robert
 
I'm no Chink hotrodder just to answer the question on Speedway carbs some people don't have problems some do with everyone stuff
 
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