Predator carb
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Predator carb
Does anybody have any experience with running a Predator on a trail rig?? I recently quit mud racing so I could get my new trailrider built-that 420W stroker in my racer is looking pretty tasty for the new rig. The Predator worked great for racing-bouncing around didnt affect it any but I dont know how it will react to tipped over for a length of time.
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From: Oregon
It sounds like you've run preds before so you know how awesome they are for mud racing...second only to fi for stability. I haven't run a pred on an extreme trail rig, but I knew one guy who did without any complaints. I'd guess from a preds performance/design perspective that it would do very well...for a carb. I don't know how extreme you are planning on going or if this will be a comp rig but if it is, I'd stick with fi or even propane. Otherwise, if its just rec use my educated guess would be that a pred would do well.
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Just gonna be recreational. The predator has the same type of float setup as a motorcraft 2V carb-and when you get those dialed in (pretty easy) they just wont give up!!! so I was thinking a pred should work as well. Another issue is that the stroker engine is supposed to be for my 69 mustang- if I put it in my trail rig I'll be too adicted to take it back out when the stang is ready!!!
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From: Des Moines, Iowa
i am looking into one of those preds too, but wasn't sure how well they work off-road. so i was going to get the holley T/A. they are about the same price and i have heard once tuned right the preds usually can change for the different conditions on their own. how hard are they to set up?
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I got some advice from a guy I used to tuff truck race with when I got mine- he told me to extend the vent tube, set the float to factory spec and leave it alone because there's nothing else in them to go wrong. I've talked to people that have tried to order new predators and they claim to be on waiting lists. You can find them at swap meets sometimes(thats where I got mine) or E-bay.
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From: Des Moines, Iowa
do they take any special linkage or any thing weird to hook up? or is it like any other carb, just square? i am thinking you might be talking me into one. but that waiting list sucks!
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Post Fiend
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From: Oregon
No, they hook up just like any other carb, and you pretty much don't need to mess with them like wlyde mentioned. They are self-calibrating. Extending the vent tube is a good idea on any trail carb, and is the reason why the holley t/a went the design they did. The only thing they don't do good is get get decent gas mileage...they typically run a bit rich. Well, thats fine for racing, bogging, and trail humping, but lets face it, thats a comparativly small market compared to the street market. I think thats why they never caught on, that and they are considered a "weird" design (although its actually a very old and efficient design).
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From: Des Moines, Iowa
so i might get worse that 8 mpg? damn. well maybe since this will always keep a better mix than my normal holley (i don't really mess with it much or tune it) maybe in the long run it will get better or at least the same mpg?
and extending the vent tube is as easy as putting a longer rubber fuel hose on the tube to make it harder to slosh out? or it there something i'm missing?
and extending the vent tube is as easy as putting a longer rubber fuel hose on the tube to make it harder to slosh out? or it there something i'm missing?
Post Fiend
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From: Oregon
Well, I doubt it would get worse than your Holley since you didn't tune it for your engine. Yea, its as simple as extending the vent with a fuel hose. Many times on holleys you'll see the front and rear vents connected with fuel hose with some small vent holes in the top of the hose. I've actually seen them connected with fuel hose that had no holes in it...but I don't know how those guys thought they were venting anything 
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I was also told that preds like a lot of timing advance-maybe something to do with them running rich?? I dont have enough experience to verify that as I am set up with a locked out advance in my MSD dist. and my digital6+ has the timing retarded while the engine cranks-never ran my pred on a "normally" timed mill. Also- I had to do quite a bit of tweaking to get my throttle cable travel to match the swing of the pred arm. instructions tell you to run float bowl on front, but my source ran his to the side because it was easier to hook up throttle linkage and never had any problems with how it ran.
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From: Oregon
Originally Posted by wyldstallyn73
instructions tell you to run float bowl on front, but my source ran his to the side because it was easier to hook up throttle linkage and never had any problems with how it ran.
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From: House Springs, MO
You can go here http://www.predatorcarb.com/ and download a PDF file that will tell you everything you need to know about setting one up. We actually went out to play this past weekend and I bought a Predator off EBay to put on the 460 truck I built for my parents. Aside from the motor running hot a few times, everything went real well. They can be VERY finicky to set up right, but after we got it set up and ran it good and hard a few times, it did great. I got mine for $130 off EBay and it worked like a champ. Got it without the idle circuit, and still got the idle down to about 800-900. Still have some tweaking on it and gonna mess with the timing a bit, but yea, they're incredibly simple to set up and tune. Just gotta know what you're doing to get it just right...
