Is a 570cfm carburetor too small? Also an intake question

It cannot hurt to try your current aluminum manifold and the carburetor that you have. You might like it a lot and you already own it. My only concern would be with the carburetor sitting on the shelf. The gaskets can dry out badly and leak as soon as you try to use the carb. It may need a rebuild.

Sound like a conversation I had 30 years ago but the other way around.  I wanted a 1600cfm carb for a BBF.  

It all depends how hard you are going to drive the car. https://www.summitracing.com/n...tools/cfm-calculator

Agree with Steve. The only downside of running it is if you had to make significant changes to the throttle cable & linkage that wouldn’t work for a future installation….

Give it a try! Let us know!

Rocky

Thanks guys.  As Steve pointed out, the carb would need a rebuild.  To go to the cost and hassle of a rebuild to end up not being happy with it would be frustrating, but the comments here have made me decide to give it a try and see what happens.

As far as the size of the carb, it depends on what you expect from your Pantera. Yes, the 600 (or so) carb will be leaving some horsepower on the table. But if for instance the performance venue you have in mind is autocross, the 600 will be more throttle-responsive out of the corners and will (maybe) give 20 mpg on the street. Going to a 750 was once known for adding 30 horses and losing 4 mpg while living with a soft throttle response.

As far as the intake, guessing is hopeless. 50 years ago, there were some pretty good Cleveland intakes and a few truly awful ones and you should figure out what you have. Some were marked underneath with ids. The least expensive way to be sure is to install all your parts and drive it. If you're satisfied, the questions are all answered. The most expensive way is to assemble the parts and dyno-test your combination. Good luck-

If you use any of the carb calculators on the web, you will find the 351C specs out to something less than 650 CFMs.   If you plan to drive your car on the street, that is far more than enough.  That said, many will tell you to put a 750 on it because you will most certainly be running it wide open all the time generating maximum HP in stop and go traffic :-).  Sounds like you should install what you have and drive the car for a while.   A new manifold and carb will cost you $1500 at least.

PS it’s pretty easy to rebuild a Holley usually, especially if you’re not changing anything…

It’s just gaskets and needle valves, and cleaning everything up.

@marlinjack

Photos of the intake.  Any ideas?  The only stamping on the bottom is the letter D inside the #2 and #6 intake runners.

Looks like a Blue Thunder.

A keeper.

I was going to say that…. Looks just like my Blue Thunder, but the BT manifolds were a close copy of a previous high-performance design.

A BT was about $800 4-5 years ago…

Found some pictures of mine...

Rocky

Dang, sometimes you get lucky.  If you guys read my introduction post about being the new owner of chassis 3820, I put a fair amount of history of the car there.  The longtime owner clearly took care of it as evidenced by the mountain of receipts that came with the car.  I guess it doesn't surprise me that he bought a high end manifold at some point over the 38 years he owned his Pantera.

Definitely a BT. The carb base has been worked perhaps on a flow bench.

If you go for a 750, you will need something more then a stock CJ camshaft otherwise you are wasting your time with it.

I find that a 4779 750cfm double pumper (with mechanical secondaries) works better then the generic 3310 with vacuum secondaries.

Both will give you the same top end power but the DP will give you better throttle response.

Actually I personally found the Edelbrock Torker more responsive then the BT. I felt that the BT was better for an automatic transmissioned car and the Torker better for a manual.

I'm not talking about ultimate horsepower, just throttle response.

The BT has 4 good flow ports and 4 that need flowbench work. Look inside that manifold at the runners. Do you see grinding marks? It looks like it has had work done to it.

I think the Blue Thunder manifold works with the stock position of the engine screen. I have the Edelbrock Torker manifold on my Euro Pantera and I don’t think it’s compatible with the screen because it is too tall.

@rocky

Thanks for the photos of yours.  Notice yours had the heat exhaust crossover but mine doesn't.  Did Blue Thunder make a manifold with the crossover omitted?

Didn’t notice that, but I have my crossover blocked off, as I live down here in Arizona, and don’t need improved warm-up times….

Not a necessarily bad thing, considering these are primarily fair weather cars. I live in NH and blocked the crossover on mine and didn’t note any particular problems. And, you won’t need the ‘turkey tray’ metal heat shield intake manifold gasket.