Most of my reasons for asking about the 4BB carbs are purely curiosity. But there’s another, slightly more practical, reason as well….
My horizon in this hobby is probably another 20-30 years (Lord willing). I am trying to think about what life might look like a decade or two down the road, and the availability of carbs/ tuning parts is one of those. That internal thought process encompasses certain aspect of all your points above, A through I.
The reason I tend think about 4bb carbs is they are common and ubiquitous enough to perhaps be BETTER supported for LONGER than some of our common 1BB options. Most “car guys”, outside of some VW and early Ford enthusiasts, probably picture a Holley or Edelbrock/AFB in their mind when someone says the word, “carburetor.” The largest remaining repository of tuning expertise and parts availability is around those two platforms, perhaps followed closely by the Stromberg/Holley 94 crowd.
Honestly, if I project myself 15 years into the future, I wonder if the 390 CFM Holley on a Clifford intake is the “best” (least bad??) all-around candidate to address MOST of points A through I. Still in production. Not particularly cheap but not outrageously expensive. Replacement parts as common as dirt. Probably weak spots in points “B and C” on your list. A little bit of a square peg in a round hole that would need a fair bit of tweaking to work optimally on a Stovebolt. But perhaps pretty sustainable once dialed in. Something I intend to experiment with, someday. I don’t love the Holley design, but there are certainly countless numbers of them still running up and down the road.
The WCFB is something I hadn’t given much thought to. How tunable would that platform be? Now and into the future?
Last edited by JW51; 02/18/2025 6:51 PM.
