The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop New Rochester B

I have seen some new Rochester B copied carburetors. They look just like the originals but have a bright finish. I think I know where they are coming from. Are the major truck parts vendors selling these? has anyone seen one in use?

As far as I now, none of our well known and established vendors are offering these overseas made wannabe Rochester B's.

For the most part, reading through many posts from fellow Stovebolter's that have purchased and attempted to use them (they carry numerous brand names, but likely are all made by the same company), most have reported that their performance and reliability is anywhere from mediocre to poor.

They look pretty, but they don't seem to step up to the plate IMHO.

Others will likely chime in further with their experiences.

When considering a carb purchase, new or otherwise, there are some issues to consider:

(1) Applicability
(2) Tunability
(3) Drivability
(4) Reliability
(5) Initial cost
(6) Overall cost
(7) Parts availability

The new offshore "carburetors" compete ONLY in (5) above.

Jon

In the early 1950s, the Rochester B was an attempt by GM to get away from Carter as the primary source of Chevrolet carburetors. Their goal was cost reduction. It was not intended to be an upgrade. Carter responded by marketing a direct replacement carb and vowed to sell a million of them. It took a few years, but when the 1 millionth carb came off the assembly line, Carter had it gold plated and presented it to the CEO of General Motors. My father's shop was a Carter stocking dealer for many years during the 1950s. The company had a popular slogan back then- - - -"The ABCs of carburetion- - - -Always Buy Carter!" Making a "clone" of a substandard carburetor just adds another level of stupidity to that situation!
Jerry

If you want an original Rochester B carb, I'm sure one of our members will sacrifice a doorstop and send one to you.
I was fortunate that my truck already had a Carter YF on it, but have two Rochester B carbs in my collection of doorstops, one from a 216 and another from a later 235.

“ Thousands of them still soldier on atop Stovebolt 6’s around the world”
Our Leader.
It’s great we have the freedom to have our own opinions !
I only have used B’s but I’d love to try the Carter!
What I’d love to see is that gold plated carburetor.
Wonder if it’s in the General Motors Museum.😀

In the mid-1970s I and a safety engineer inspected a carburetor rebuilding shop here in Dallas...the largest in DFW. They had suffered 2 serious fires and we needed to find out why (we insured them). I won't bore you with all details but suffice to say the two guys "rebuilding" Rochester B and B variants just took them apart and tossed the pieces on a metal cart sitting between them which was taken to a dunk pit (uncovered...which turned out to be the cause of the fires). The carburetors had been sent in from auto parts stores as exchange carbs. The parts would soak overnight in the pit and the next day would be spent re-assembling them and labeling as "professionally rebuilt" carburetors. Occasionally a lady would come by and put them in boxes.

When I asked the supervisor where all the tags were and how they kept the parts matched, he looked at me over the lit cigarette he had dangling out of his mouth and said "Hunh? Matching parts? Tags? We can't worry about that." In a wire basket on the table where a "rebuilder" was working were a bunch of misc parts including floats, idle screws, interior pieces, etc. I asked what those were for and he said "well, we do our best but sometimes the guys work so fast to make their quota they overlook things so whatever's left just goes into those small baskets in case they need it later." He laughed and said "Wouldn't make sense to start opening up rebuilt carbs to see where you forgot the float or something. Somebody out there will return it when it doesn't work."

Hopefully rebuilders in other parts of the country did a better job. If a Rochester B, BC, etc ever made it to this place there was no way in the world it was going to remain matched and original.

LOL, those guys don't know anything. You're supposed to use old coffee cans for leftover parts.

Well gee, Kevin...they told us they were "professionals." Tattoos were not all that popular back then but we could see they had several of them. Maybe they had graduated past the old coffee can days...RHIP as we used to say. The baskets were nice looking and probably newish. Small screen, maybe stainless...looked like the tops could be closed and added to the dunk tank. And it could be the old coffee cans they'd been using burned up in the two fires. Pretty much everything else did. As I recall one was a 4 alarm fire that even ruined the steel roof beams. Those tanks of whatever they soaked the carburetors in burned really hot and there were 55 gallon drums stored right next to them to enhance the safety program they didn't have.

There was a sign on a post out by the street that said "Now Hiring." It was in an outcropping of rangy weeds and looked like it had been there since the 1950s and possibly had never been taken down. A sign that might have appeared in a gloomy backwoods episode of The Twilight Zone. The inspector had a little Minox camera in his shirt pocket and was taking lots of pictures for the report he was writing. He said he'd mail me copies of them but he never did. A great inside look at professional carburetor rebuilding.

Indeed….untold thousands of B’s still in service. And I have witnessed a good many on smooth-running engines.

The B’s many shortcomings are well documented and well understood. That said, I think the low level of “fussiness” of a GM inline 6 can mask some of those shortcomings. A carb providing a somewhat consistent “controlled spill” is good enough to provide a reasonably good result. The relative lack of optimized intake and exhaust flow, strange combustion chamber, etc….lots of limitations in a Stovebolt before the carb becomes a true limitation.

I will say that the difference I witnessed on MY 235 was night and day. I thought I had it running reasonably well with the B. But the YF was just a complete transformation in smoothness of acceleration, ease of starting, idle quality, etc.

Great story, Jon.
Wrong and missing parts sure wouldn’t help !
“ Somebody out there will return it when it doesn’t work” !!!
And apparently this was before China.
JW, thanks for the clarification on the B shortcomings.
Controlled Spill, evokes quite an image.
In working on old B’s , my biggest impression is the little power piston
and how easy it is for it to stick with the slightest corrosion or mineral deposit.
Going back to the new Rochester B copies, I’m sure I wouldn’t buy one.
Charley

I like Carb King's suggestion- - - - -"Hire a kid to ride on the fender and dribble gasoline out of a leaky cowboy boot into the intake manifold!" It just might improve the gas mileage and engine performance!
LOL!
Jerry

😂

It maybe just me but I think the Rochester "B" gets a bad wrap. I have been running one on my 235 in the '58 1.5 Ton. I just completed a 500 mile round trip without a hiccup. I averaged 10.5 Mpg..

Maybe its just the difference of "good enough" versus better.

I have nothing against the Rochester B and in fact I have had good service from the ones I have used. I started this post because I was curious if these copied ones were turning up in numbers. The GM Rochester B performed faithfully for many cars and trucks throughout the years.