Reply to "What carbs are you using on your Cleveland motors?"

quote:

Originally posted by george pence:
Day in, day out, the right carb for a standard displacement 351C is a 750 Holley (equivalent to a 650 Demon). Vac secondaries will improve fuel economy, double pumpers will improve throttle response.

In times past, the Holley always required tuning to work properly, they were always too rich out of the box, with insufficient accelerator pump for a Cleveland. I've no experience with the new flavors of carb Holley is selling, if any of them are close out of the box, I doubt it however. The message here is, don't expect to buy it, bolt it on & have the motor pull strong at every rpm without stumbles or bogs.

Running a smaller carb is not a cardinal sin however. It will have stronger signal at low rpm, with the trade off being less torque at higher rpm, and the motor will flatten out sooner. The 750 CAN be tuned to pull just as well at lower rpm as the smaller carb.

The 600 cfm street carb is a Chevy camp thing. That's the carb that is always recommended by the magazines for the sbc operated on the street. The sbc is a high velocity motor that weezes through a set of small intake ports. The Cleveland is a whole different animal, Chevy rules do not apply.

In the '70s & '80s, building motors for clients in California meant having to build a motor that could pass visual inspection & tailpipe emission smog testing. I tuned & built several hydraulic cammed motors with power outputs between 350 to 400 bhp using the spread bore Autolite carb (4300D). That carb was rated by Ford at 750 cfm, I'm sure it flows at least the equivalent of a 700 cfm Holley. I have left the 4300D carb on my motor, I see no reason to change it, there would be nothing gained in doing so. This carb is not as adjustable as a Holley or Demon, and the fuel supply system will run out of steam at some point, but installed on a motor with good vacuum signal at idle & cruise, making 400 bhp or less, this carb works OK.

Your friend on the DTBB, George