I am planning an old school mild custom for my '52 and I have a couple of books printed in the '50's that talk about "souping up" the stock inline 6. In both books they mention replacing the original Rochester carbs with Zenith carbs when moving to a two carb or three carb set up. Now, my question is, what with Zenith carbs being as rare as kind words from my ex wife, what are viable alternatives for the Zeniths?
While an LS would give me an increase in performance it wasn't quite the mild engine rework that John Q. Public would have done in mid 50's. I was thinking more along the line of mild cam grind, dual carbs, and split exhaust with flow through exhausts like Smithy's. I thought about Strombergs, too, and even considered reworking some original Rochesters with progressive linkage, but was thinking that Zeniths were somehow magical as they were so prominently mentioned in both books. I guess any old carb with the right venturi size will do. Now if anyone has any Nicson triple intakes......
Don't bother trying to set up a progressive linkage for multiple carbs on a straight six. You are better off just having them all work simultaneously. The outer cylinders need to be fed just as much as the center cylinders. Given that the log manifold is a model of simplicity but also poor distribution, run multi carbs and don't make them too large.
I have a pair of brand new Carter-Weber staged 2 barrel carbs that I will run on my hot six. They have a single primary ventury and a single seconday venturi; that way you don't overdo it at low demand yet when you need it the carbs will breath. I bought mine through Stovebolt Engine Co, in Troy, Michigan. Linky: http://stoveboltengineco.com/
Here's a picture of my engine in progress:
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67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
