The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Intake and Carb opinions wanted

I'm getting everything together to rebuild my 250 and I'm considering changing my intake manifold and carb setup. I would like to hear from anyone that is using a single Holley/Weber from Langdon's or a Rochester 2G on the stock manifold, twin Carter W-1's or twin Holley/Weber's on a 2x1 manifold, a single 4-barrel on a 4-barrel manifold, or 3 Carter W-1's on a 3x1 manifold. What kind of performance do you get out of these setups on your engine?

I use the truck as a daily driver and it hauls light loads regularly and pulls the occasional trailer or heavy load in the bed. It typically cruises at 55 mph and less although starting in August it will begin to see extended drives on the interstate between college and home at 65+ mph. I'm also planning on installing either a Borg-Warner R-10 overdrive in place of the original 3-speed or changing the 3.73 gears over to a 3.08 gear. Thanks in advance for your input.

Edit: I'm also planning on using a Fenton split exhaust on the truck running to a single exhaust with a dynaflow muffler.

I rebuilt mine with a 2x1 intake and fenton duel exhaust. If I were you I would go with a 3x1 because you can have progressive linkage, saving gas but having the real power when you step into it or there are intakes for a 4 bbl that will give ya the power too. I would change to the over drive, driving my 58' to waco and back for college I wish i had it but leave the rear end, you'll be glad to have it when you need to pull and loads. Thats my two cents.

Your not going to get any benifit from splitting the exhaust and then just running it back to a single. Keeping it split will let it breath better give you more HP!

I went to a Holley 390cfm 4-bbl sitting on a Offy intake for my 250. I had two "B" model Rochester's before and had nothing but trouble with them even with the great input from this site. Love my 4-bbl Holley. Starts fast and easy, a snap to get tuned, pulls lke a tank. Got a warranty for life. Plus it looks bad sitting on an inline.

Right now I have a Rochester B on the stock intake. I just got off the phone with my dad, who does all of the fabrication work (I haven't learned to weld yet, but I do the mill work) and he agreed that there is no gain in running a split exhaust into a single pipe. He asked if I could design a tubular exhaust manifold that ran into a single collector and use a 2 1/2" pipe instead of the stock 2" pipe size. Have any of you tried building your own exhaust manifolds? And any of you that have, can I have some pictures so I know what I'm working towards?

These guys don't split manifolds anymore but there's lots of pic's here:

http://www.kansaskustoms.net/

IMO the only way you'll benefit from a multi-carb setup is with dual exhaust. Splitting a stock exhaust manifold also allows you to keep the heat box which helps driveability. On a daily driver I want to start and go right away which works good with my split stock manifold. I would like to mount a pair of Fentons with the heat tubes someday to see the difference. Do a search for " split exhaust" and you'll find lots of info.

Curt B.

The Holley 390/clifford intake works really well on my 235. Easy to tune, parts are available, good manners etc. The multi-carb setups are car show kewl, but in actual use the newer 4bbl stuff is hard to beat. The linkage, the fuel lines, tuning issues, clearance, street manners, etc is better with a 4bbl, IMHO.

And run true duals and smithy's with that engine. The split-six sound is unique.

bump

I'd go with the 4bbl 390cfm holley as well. as far as gear change or overdrive... I am a big fan of overdrive. a 27% overdrive will change your 3.73s to 2.73. Keep your low gears for acceleration and towing and use the overdrive for economy.

I talked it over with the head mechanic (dad) and we're going with the 4bbl 390cfm Holley and the overdrive transmission. The exhaust system is still to be determined. Thanks for you're help!

"Your not going to get any benifit from splitting the exhaust and then just running it back to a single. Keeping it split will let it breath better give you more HP!"

Well...not quite true. It depends entirely on the muffler and the size of the inlet/outlet pipe(s). Also most engines run better if they have some modest backpressure. So he may have a two-in one-out muffler that is perfectly fine. Many are.