I have 2 Holley 1904's, not a dual setup, just have 2 of them. One came with the truck when I bought it, presumably the proper model for the 1960 223. The other I bought off ebay, which was advertised as coming from a '58 F100...figured it was the same carb. I rebuilt the first one and it ran great. Then I rebuilt the one from ebay and installed it cause it has the cool glass bowl. The truck ran well, but just not quite as good as with the other carb. There are differences between the two: the '58's main jet and main nozzle are smaller as is the diameter of the venturi. When running this carb, my truck just didn't seem to have as much top speed and it also had a very slight hesitation when hitting the throttle--nothing close to stalling--it would recover almost immediately. The other carb had better throttle response and the engine winds out more in second gear (the glass bowl carb almost feels like it has a governer on it). In my infinite wisdom, I decided to try installing the main jet and main nozzle from the 60 carb in the 58. Bad idea...couldn't get it to run. Put the parts back into the 60 carb, installed it and it won't run. This thing has only been on the shelf for about a month after running it for maybe a month after I rebuilt it. So I figure I'd put the 58 back on--now it won't run!! There is no fuel in the bowl! I thought maybe the float had gone out of adjustment, so I reset that but still no fuel in the bowl. I know the fuel pump is good--it's only a few months old. And, yes, there is gas in the tank. Though I can't see inside the bowl on the 60 carb, I know there is fuel in there because when I push the throttle linkage with the engine off I can see the accelerator pump squirting fuel into the venturi. So now I have 2 carbs that worked fine, and all I did was swap one for the other and now I have 2 carbs that need to be rebuilt again I guess. Are these Hollys known for being finicky? When the 60 carb is dialed in , it runs GREAT! But I have no clue what's happening now. Could sitting on the shelf for a month wrapped in a plastic bag screw it up somehow?

What are my other options for a one barrel carb on the stock Ford manifold besides Holley? What carbs are you guys using??

ps: I tried putting the glass bowl from the 58 on the 60 first, but somewhere along the way, the screws that fasten the bowl on the 60 were tightened down way to much and the potmetal became distorted...the flat-surfaced glass bowl wouldn't seal.

 

I'm not sure, but I'll bump this back up to the top of the list for another go around!

 

The glass bowls are prone to leaking, from what I hear. I need to figure out how to prevent that on mine when I get it rebuilt.

 

Panel Man. the Holley Factory manual says to turn the blow retaining screws in 1/4 turn at a time to prevent breaking the bowl. I've had mine on and off several times now and I've never felt that I was close to breaking the glass bowl. Just turn the screws in evenly.

Guess I'm in for another rebuild...