Unlocking the 1946 Holley 1-bbl

About 1978, Ford sent the automotive world back Ford sent the carb design back 32 years and made a 1946 carb.

It remains, along with all the other 1978 to 1985 fuel systems (the Central Fuel Injection, Feedback 6500/2700VV, 7200VV, 5760, YFA, 6149/6153 carbs, and non feedback 4180/4190 and 2300EG) the most engmatic carb ever. How could a simple 1-bbl carb cause so much strife to its user, and yet only make a patry 85 to 94 horsepower while making life difficult at the sme time.


If you thought the F100 and F150 emissions YFA was difficult, you ain't seen nothin yet till you have meddelled with the 1946 and 1946c on the 1978 to 1983 T, B and X code 3.3 liter in line sixes.

It has been done though, with great sucess.



/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=68598&p=526277#p526277

MrMootsie":1ggiyee8 said:

Fabricated the linkage. I'm very, very happy with the way this carburetor changed the driveability of the car. Idle is better, acceleration is better, top end is better, adjustability is better. No stalling, no hesitating, no surging.

Anyone want to buy an Pony Carbs Vaporizer 1100?

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Flade99":1ggiyee8 said:

Well I've got my 1946 installed. The car starts and idles really nice. There appears to be some hesitation on acceleration, but I have't spent much time tuning it yet. For now I have the distributor advance running off manifold vacuum, but I'll experiment with that later too. All I need now is to get the throttle connection correct. I'm close, but still getting some binding. There's not much room to work with, but I'm hoping I can get just the right combination of position and angle to get full motion without binding. If not I'll have to look at switching to a throttle cable.

Lessons learned.

1. The later 1946 carbs have a vent bowl solenoid to recapture vent fumes into a charcoal canister. You must power this solenoid or the car won't idle.

2. The electric only choke works great, but shouldn't be powered with 12V or you'll burn it out. The best solution is to connect to the stator (black ring) on the alternator which puts out about 7V.

Click to expand...

I took 139 Photos while reseraching this back in 2012.


Here's the list. I'll paste in the photos and there description at a later stage; I can only list nine pictures


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Here's some of the photos shown in fullsize in this post at FEP. This goes over the emissions systesms, the pull off choke, and as noted, the bowl vent solenoid which was put on by Ford to help pass emissions in 1981.

http://vb.foureyedpride.com/showthread. ... 3L-i6-help

there is a list of numbers, but the actual photos would be nice...

I have most all the top end parts (from the Head up) off a 1981 200 (Fox chassis apt.) so could take a few pictures if you want to see them.

I was just pointing out the uselessness of this post without them... I don't actually need them.

With that 1946 my late 1980 Mustang ran the very best of all versions of engines in that car, once the carb was rebuilt with a kit to strict factory specs. Worked like a dream even in with some performance mods to the engine.

80Stang":3hutsq6v said:

With that 1946 my late 1980 Mustang ran the very best of all versions of engines in that car, once the carb was rebuilt with a kit to strict factory specs. Worked like a dream even in with some performance mods to the engine.

Click to expand...

That's my experience too...as a package, the 1946C and the similar looking, but totally different YFA from the 250 C code work brilliantly. I never had issues with my 1946 carb.

All the set up parts are listed in the Four Eyed Pride post...the main problem is that data suppliers tried to cover too many Ford induction systesms, so no one understands what a Holley Weber 5200/6500 is, or a YFA, 6149/6153/1946/1946C, CFI and Variable Venturi 2700VV/7200VV carb types are. And what applies to each. There are about 14 versions of the 1980 to 1985 CFI systems on 3.8 and 5.0's, none of them the same as the 2.3. Some even have no ISC motor. And that is why there are always problems setiing the idles on Ford engines from 1980 to 1983. Bad, irrelvent information that doesn't relate to the application.

The 1946 is free of all electronics, all feedback systems, and is actually the most simple of all the induction systems for 1980 to 1983 cars.


The closed float bowl vent and its electric solenoid...totally misunderstood by everyone. Took me years to understand it, and I'd been told about it in living color in 1985 when I did LPG instillations as a 15 year old service bay assistant at my local power supply utility. I never got it untill one guy explained it to a group of us in 2015 at FourEyePride....

The '46 on my engine has no choke/choke plate removed, a hole drilled in the throttle plate, 66 jet, no solenoids whatsoever.
Tuned the accel pump for a bit more oomph.
And I think I'm using the spark port on the driver side for distributor advance.
It runs fine but it poops out after 4000rpm.

I just found these at my scrap yard. Pretty sure they're related to the 1946, and from industrial 292