Holley NOS carb

F

Finn Flatty

Junior Member
I have been offered a chance to buy a 1955 model Holley carb still in the original box with all the gaskets etc. intact.
I'm considering if this would be the way to go with my 8ba just being rebuilt.
The bore is .080, milled EAB heads, stock cam, stock intake for one carb and to be rebuilt 49-53 Loadamatic vacuum advance distributor. I'd appreciate your opinions, pros and cons using a post -53 carb with this set-up.

I'm in the middle of evaluating if this would be a rational choice compared to buying a brand new Holley 94 or Stromberg 97. The seller asks nearly 3/4 price for the carb compared to, for example 97.

-Pasi
 
I think you'll find the throats in the carb are bigger than those in the manifold.
 
As I recall the carb will not provide proper function of the Loadmatic distributor.
 
It should be an AA1 like the earlier 94s, but as Brian pointed out, it would have larger venturis, I think 1" ( could be 1/1-16") as opposed to 0.94". I believe this would have ECG on the fuel bowl. It would still have the vacuum post for the distributor. There were two ECGs, the 5 and 6, with the 6 having an automatic choke. Not sure if the ECG 6 was available in 55, however.

In any case, if you do buy this, you may want to replace the dried gaskets, and also check what material the accelerator pump is made from. If not leather, a call to Charlie NY to get one and new gaskets would be in order.
 
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I like this carb, but I think the gaskets and PV might have to be replaced befor you could use it. as said above the throttle bores are much larger and the intake should be bored out to taker advantage of it's increased air flow. Then there's the distributor, It might work, but I'd replace the dist with a converted SBC unit as this will provide a better Ipreformance and economy.
 
NOS means new hard parts and outdated rubber soft parts. The EB or EC series is 1 1/16" bore or there abouts & flat motors were a little smaller. If it's the towering inferno type carb, it may work better on a Mercury manifold with some mods. The 55 overhead valve model would have had a timing curve much different to the flathead curve but it may be able to adjust to work. The Load-O-Matic distributors were pretty much crap but they will work for a stock application if all the OEM Holley parts match to the application. It seem like it was real easy to change the power valves on those early OHV Y-block V8 carbs.
 
Thank you for your invaluable input guys. I made my decision not to buy that carb at the moment. No hurry with this...

-Pasi
 
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