223 carb question

Hey all!

Thanks for the previous advice regarding an engine swap. I've now located a 223 for the Merc. It has good compression, but it's missing the carb. The car is set up for manual choke if it makes a difference. Is there an aftermarket carb that will fit, preferably something that I can get at NAPA or similar?

Another question, am I better off servicing the distributor or buying a rebuilt unit? The rebuilt is kind of expensive, but it would take the uncertainty out of the question. Any insights/advice would be appreciated.

autolite 1100's work well and should be available from NAPA

An autolite 1100/1101 off of a 240/250/300 would probably work just fine. You could also use a carter YF off of the same engines. They often show up on evilbay, or you can check a wrecking yard.
As for aftermarket, pretty much anything that works with the 240/300 would probably work with the 223.
The biggest problem with an aftermarket carb (& probably the YF) is going to be compatibility with the distributor. There's a sticky at the top of the small block six forum (144/170/200/250) that explains how the spark control valve on the carb works in conjunction with the distributor. You may want to look into adapting a 300 DS2 distributor to the 223. There's a few guys who've done this on this forum.
Hope this helps,
Edwin

I read the sticky in the other forum like was mentioned, and have a question. Will the duraspark II conversion that was discussed work on the 223's, it seems that it makes a world of difference. I was looking at the pertronix unit, but the duraspark seems to be a better(and cheaper) upgrade than the pertronix unit at least for the 144/170/200/250. Any advice, or should I go with the pertronix. BTW, this is not a hotrod by any means, it is a daily driver 60 f-100. Easy starts, and driveability are key.

Dan, i dont know what the DSII dizzy swap costs, but i got my pertronix ignition kit (the under cap pickup unit) for less than $60 . . . watch Mac's ford parts Ebay auctions and the store itself... he sometimes sells them mad cheap.

T

OK, at least I've got some options. How about a Carter YF from a Ford 250?

im pretty sure that any two bolt base carbs would work with some work allowed for vac advance... im more than likely going with a set of holley 847's from the flatty six's on an offy 3x1 on the '54s 223 . . . sad thing is i have all the 1904's i need to run em, just dont want to spend all my time messing with em once they are on the car like 215slowpoke

T... you sick of them glass bowl turds yet? :roll:

I think just about any 1-barrel carburetor with mounting bolt center-to-center spacing of 2-11/16" will work reasonably well. You may have to get creative with the throttle/choke linkage though.

One thing to be aware of is that Ford intended their carburetors and distributors to work together as a system, and replacing just the carburetor might have negative side effects.

Your distributor probably has vacuum advance only, without any centrifugal advance. Those units require a carburetor with a "Spark Control Valve" that supplies a combination of ported-manifold vacuum & venturi vacuum to the advance unit. This was called the "Load-O-Matic" system.

If you try to use a newer carburetor & connect a Load-O-Matic distributor's vacuum advance unit to its ported-manifold or manifold vacuum source, you probably won't get enough advance at wide throttle openings and high RPM. Idle, cruise, and accelleration at low RPM might not suffer too much, but sudden accelleration probably will.

I haven't experienced this firsthand. I usually change the distributor AND the carburetor together. I once performed a DuraSpark conversion that kept the original carburetor with it's spark control valve, but didn't use the original vacuum source on the carburetor. I plugged that and connected the distributor directly to manifold vacuum. I would have preferred ported-manifold vacuum, but the carburetor didn't have that provision ... not without modifying the spark-control-valve circuit, anyway.

That being said, maybe the benefits of using a more modern carburetor justify the disruption of the Load-O-Matic system. Plenty of people have installed an incompatible carburetor and appear to be satisfied.

Load-O-Matic carburetors:

The Autolite 1100 was used on these engines near the end of their production run. The same carburetor was used in 6-cylinder Mustangs until about 1968, so you might check out the Mustang forums for recommendations. I do know from personal experience that these carbs were tempermental. I've got one that was rebuilt by Holley that seems to be OK, and wasn't too expensive. A company in Las Cruces, New Mexico, called Pony Carburetors ( http://www.ponycarburetors.com ) claims to re-engineer them to work much better than new. From what I hear, they're pretty proud of them ($200 w/core, $300 w/o core), and deserve to be.

The Holley 1940 was a service replacement for the Autolite 1100, and performed better. I've seen this carburetor listed in the Rock Auto online catalog for my application (223, 1963 F100). Tomco is their supplier.

Manual Choke: TOMCO Part # 187R
Automatic Choke: TOMCO Part #1102R

I also believe that the Holley 1904 was used on the 223 until 1962. I don't know much about that carburetor except that International Harvester used it too, only without the spark-control-valve.

//JimK

if you still looking for a carb i have the Carter YF off my 82 F-150. It came off a 300-6.

Thanks for the offer Mepr, I found a Holley locally.