I didn't know they made them until I was looking at fleabay and saw this:

1983 Ford 7.5L 460 V8 OHV Van Truck w/ auto trans 3 BBL Carburetor 40-807 REMAN | eBay

I thought the 460's came with 4 bbls?

 

Wow! That does look complex. Have never heard of that carb. Subscribing to this thread just to see what the "big boys" have to say.

 

That's a governor carb off a U-Haul or other fleet vehicle.

On Edit: It's not like anything I've seen on a 460 van or truck.
I don't know what kind of manifold it would fit.

 

I see 2 barrels myself. Probably some odd duck California emissions setup.

 

I don't know what the heck that thing is...

But I've seen a 3bbl carb. Back before the Dominator was big Holley, and probably others, played around with 3bbl carbs. They looked similar to 4bbls but the secondaries I believe were cut out and made into one large oval bore with an oval butterfly in them. They were like 900 or 1000 cfm. Dominators just worked better and that was the end of them.

Google Holley 3 barrel carb.

 

where's the 3rd barrel ?
and the air cleaner ?

 

Honda Preludes used a 3 bbl carb. The tiny 3rd barrel had something to do with emissions.

 

The primary is to the left of the big venturi (secondary), you can't see down it though because it looks like the choke plate is completely closed.

What's the purpose of the ultra small venturi? Super-atomized fuel?

I'm going to do some digging and see what I can learn.

 

what's the chance that that carb could be for a propane engine ?

 

I don't really know. I don't know anything about running a vehicle on propane either.

Do propane carburetors have fuel bowls? Common sense and thought says no. It appears that that carburetor doesn't have fuel bowls, and just has fittings for a vacuum line? Look at the bowl vents at the top of the venturi and where they run. It might be for propane.

I saw in the last picture that the carburetor was re-manufactured by US Carburetor Co. of Rosemead, California. I tried looking up the company and from what I saw, it's closed down.

If it's re-manufactured, who manufactured it?

Typing 40-807 into the search bar doesn't make for much either...

 

3 BBL Carburetor 40-807

i cant see any fuel bowls either , iave seen some 460 engines run on propane fro generators !
also cant find any info on US carbs

 

That is not a propane carb, judging by all the electrical and vacuum hookups I'd say it is an Import carb, not something for a 460. Looks like a Honda 3V carb for sure:

 

Just got reading the online article that that above picture came from.

The Honda 3bbl Carburetor came on 1st generation Preludes that had the 1.8L inline-4.

Carburetor Factory - Keihin 3 BBL Exploded View

Turns out it's called the Keihin 3-bbl.

Something interesting that I saw was that Hitachi actually made carburetors. Hitachi are known in this day and age for their electronics like hard disks.

Now I need to see if i can find out what the tiny venturi is for.

 

WELL , IT IS A HONDA'S , LONG WAY FROM A 460 !

 

I know they used to make 3 barrel carbs back in the late 60's, think it was AFB. But those were monsters, 2 good size primaries and 1 LARGE secondary. That's the only 3 barrel I've ever heard of but then again I don't mess with foreign cars much.