I just did dual exhaust on my 239, have original intake and "Ford" carb still running well.
Need to rebuild carb to get full potential from it until I can convert to a different intake setup.

Are there any special "personality querks" to these old carbs that would help me set it up better than just a standard jet adjustment using a tach meter?

Also....will all y-block intake manifolds fit all y-blocks....I'm looking at a 4 brl y-block intake but wasnt sure if it would fit as far back as my 239.

Thanks for any advise. Ed

 

William

The 239 block parts will all interchange with the 272-292-312 blocks, I have a 239 block setting in my garage that I bought because it had a set of heads from a 58 engine that I wanted, it had the same intake with exception of the vacuum port as my 64 292.

I am also going to install a 4 barrel on my 64, found a manifold from a 57 about ten years ago for 35 bucks, today one can still come by one for 40 to 50 bucks in fact saw one on ebay the other day.

 

The only 4bbl intake that will match the early 54 EBU head ports properly is from a 54 Merc 256. This will require a small base carb such as a WCFB or Rochester 4G (mounted backwards) but you now have to upgrade to a 57 and later distributor for the vacuum signal to work.

If you upgrade to later heads, later distributor and 57 and up intake then you got the best of all worlds. If you have a late 54 with EBV heads you already have bigger valves and ports.
Just getting rid of the early peanut valve heads will make a big improvement.

Now the gotcha! If you have early heads and that is what the headers match then you are very limited in choices to the Merc intake or an Edelbrock 543 3 carb setup.

Lots of interchangability in Y's but not always as easy as some who havent done it think.

 

286merc

I stand corrected. The old y block and parts all look alike to the naked eye that it can easily fool one that is not aware of small changes over the years that can cause a problem when interchanging parts.