Carb options for my six?

Hey guys, me and my dad are getting to the point of getting a carb for our engine. He wants to stay single barrel, but my opinion is to go two barrel. It's the same price as the one he wants and will actually be able to put out the CFM our engine needs.

My dad wants a Holley 1904 carb (the universal one that used to be sold by CI)

While i'm saying something like a Holley two barrel from a Mustang. My buddy has one from his Mustang V8 because he's upgrading to a 4 barrel. He would want to sell the whole package with his 2 barrel 302 intake, I haven't gotten a price out of him yet, but i'm feeling it'll be around 150-200 range. Or I could buy a new 350cfm carb from Summit.

The mods that our engine has is big log head (milled it to a bit above the original CR on the 200), .60 washers under our valve springs, dual headers, HEI, and head studs if that matters.

Here's my calculations for what our engine needs for CFM:

200/2x6000/1728=347.2222....

Volumetric efficiency
70%-243.05cfm
80%-277cfm
90%-312cfm

What are your thoughts/opinions. Any other good carb choices? I wish I could get my hands on a tripower setup. :roll:

What kinda cam do y'all have in there?
What cfm carb is your buddies 2bbl?

I personally would go with the 2bbl, but if you go that rout are you gonna do the 2v conv? Or just use an adaptor?
When it comes down to it, your budget is what will dictate.

I have had great luck with the Weber 32/36 carbs on my sixes and many other motors, The holly 2V works great but the Weber is a little more fuel efficient on the street and great low end throttle response.

It's just a stock cam. We would do the adapter. Because don't you have to swap the head for a 2V conversion? Also we would like to keep manual choke for anesthetic reasons. What applications were the Webers used in? The only way I could truly sway him is if the 2 barrel is cheaper than his one barrel.

Here is the one that he wants:
http://www.carburetor-parts.com/1904-Un ... _3141.html

I could only tell you about my friends carb is a 2 barrel off a late 60s mustang I think. I've seen a video of a guy running that carb, it idled and drove fine.

Also, I also forgot to mention we have a fuel pressure regulator on our mechanical fuel pump. I keep on remembering this stuff because I haven't touched my engine in months and we heard that the Falcon Club of America Nationals are coming to Wisconsin so we want to get ours ready for it.

Thanks guys, keep them responses coming

Howdy Back Ranchero Boy:

I have a few more questions for you- Is this a 200 engine in a 1960 Ranchero? Are you currently using a stock 200 carb? Which one? Does it use stock mechanical linkage? What transmission?

FYI- The carb your dad wants is a big one barrel. It is close to the one barrels used on mid sixties 223 sixes. The 1.26 venturi will flow approximately 205 cfm. Your engine with a stock cam will probably peak at around 70% efficiency at maximum rpms. I didn't see a SCV so that will mate up with your distributor vacuum advance needs.

FYI- The two barrel adapter conversion will raise other issues. The funnel adaptor will not allow rated cfm. It will require considerable linkage adaptation and will likely not allow the hood to close due to the added height of the adapter. Most who convert to a 2 barrel use a cable throttle linkage system and settle for no hood or a hole in the hood- neither desirable. And the additional cost of the adapter.

FYI- the prices for either of the choices you've offered are pretty high. A rebuildable core, either one or two barrel, can be had for $50 or less and a rebuild kit runs around $50.

Your friends two barrel on a sixties Mustang will likely be an Autolite 2100 rated at 300 cfm. I'd say that $150 for the carb and manifold is pretty high. Considering that the carb will likely be a rebuildable core in need of, at least, a $50 rebuild kit.

All that being said, either of the two choices you've given can be made to work. But know that a bigger carb will only matter at the higher rpm ranges of the engine. So, you've got to ask yourself, what will be the primary rpm range for this engine? IF this car is a cruiser you will want to lean toward a clean running, responsive carb upgrade that can delivery a few moments of spirited driving.

So back to square one. What carb is on the engine now? What isn't it doing for you? Do you want more performance? Better running????

I will be most interested to hear more details about this car and the project.

Adios, David

Go to ebay.....Type in weber 32 36 and you get a bunch of returns. Or you can get the autolite off of a mustang II or pinto with a 2300 or the V6.
The webers go from 130 to 250. 250 is usually a kit with adapters.
They make for a very drivable stock street motor with much better take off power.

Yeah, we are swapping the 200 a '60 Ranchero. The transmission we are trying to use is a Borg Warner T-96 with centrifgal overdrive (Once the engine speed is at a certain speed you flip a switch and it hits OD).

We don't have a carb on the engine yet, that's what is holding the engine back from being finished. The car will be a daily driver. How do these engines handle themselves at high speeds? That's why i'm thinking of a bigger carb. But as always, smooth power is the best. The cost of the adapter would be free for me because I can make one at school for how ever much the price of the steel block i'd be milling would be.

Since we are running HEI do we still need vacuum advance? Because we aren't running DSII.

The reason he wants that carb is because it is fully adjustable, no need for changing jets or whatever.

Also, pretty much any of the free upgrades in the Ford Six Performance Handbook we have done.

If you have a vacuum can on you HSI yes you will need it.

The 200 will purr right along up to about 7 grand if it's built for, My stock 200 likes to run about 80 on the hwy.

If you buy they Weber for a ford 200 you will not need to change jets And they are very simple to tune. That is one of the reasons they are so popular.

If you want more CFM than the Weber 32/36 you can do the Weber 38/38, a slightly larger synchronous version. I had a hard time getting that dialed in on mine though. I'm running an Autolite 2100 1.08 right now, and it's great... very smooth, good power, and worked perfect right out of the box.

The engine doesn't have any bottom end mods in it at all, if this can rev up to 7k with the mods I listed I would be impressed,

I'll get back to you on the vacuum advance on the HEI I can't remember exactly if it has it or not.

If we were to get a Weber, the 32/36 would be plenty.

"...Weber, the 32/36…"
nice choice, a progressive carb = 1v for economy, other opens up (when U punch the skinny peddle) for better acceleration.
" " , especially if you believe in ur line "keep calm & cruise".

Howdy Back:

A stock 200, with a properly recurved ignition in an HEI and a bigger carb will have a hard time getting to five grand- and won't live long cruising at it.

You might want to start with a comprehensive plan that includes a complete head rebuild including an increase of compression, maximizing flow along with a properly curved ignition advance that complements the rest of the package. Then look into a free flowing exhaust system. Let's see, optimize intake, compression, ignitions, cam and valves train along with exhaust and gearing. Add balancing, both static and dynamic and you can cruise at 3.500 rpms safely and all day long. Any thing else is iffy. That's just my two cents- for what it's worth.

Adios, David.

PS- Go with the Holley.

Posted in wrong section...sorry.

Yeah, I was going to be impressed if it could hit 7k. I said it above but what we did to our engine that could help revs are, HEI, valve spring washers (.60), higher comp (brought the big log head's CCs to the small log's CCs, and reground and angled valves. We also enlarged the oil passage holes in the rocker arms.