About three weeks ago, I rebuilt the carb on my 1971 360 (motorlite 2100 2 barrel.) It ran great for 2 weeks and then it started sputtering only when shifting gears. At first I thought it was an accelerator pump, but I replaced it. just removed the fuel filter and it was a little dirty and old. I am going to replace it tommorow morning. I wouldn't mind getting a new carb, I was thinking of a 550 holly 2 barrel. What do you guys think?

 

Go with a 4BBL intake and carb. You will notice a big difference in driveablity. I had the same setup as you until last weekend and I love my truck even more.

 

yeah, i was considering that, but I don't want to put that much money into it yet, i am still recooping from the $400 i spent on exhaust. If I can help it, i don't want to spend more than $350. It would really zoom though.

 

$400...haha...I laugh at your $400. I just spent $400 on a set of ceramic headers and then put a 304 stainless mandrel bent exhaust behind that for around $1000 and then turned around last weekend and put $500 in exhaust and carb. But, I understand being on a budget honestly. These old trucks are worth putting money into. I got the intake and carb for $500. I think it is worth you saving up another $150 to go that route. Just my opinion though. You would be very happy with the result instead of figiting with that 2BBL.

 

You can probably pick up a factory cast-iron 4-bbl. manifold from a wrecking yard pretty cheaply, and weight difference aside, they're really not much different from an Edelbrock Performer intake. I put the Performer on my truck a couple of years back and like it well enough, but I think the gains I saw were more from the 4-bbl carb than the manifold itself.

The intake runners and ports in the manifold are about the same size as the stock 2-bbl. manifold and don't really make much difference in flow. About all you get are the lighter weight and better looks of the aluminum manifold, plus the ability to easily bolt on a 4-bbl. carb. You can also pick up a used 4-bbl. cheap and throw a kit in it if needs be. Be prepared for some jetting changes and tuning to your engine, unless you score one that's already well set up for a comparable engine package.

 

The accel pump linkage is very prone to failing to work properly. Try a shot of WD40 on the linkage and see if that doesn't help some. That is the main reason to get rid of that carb. Poor design.

The bad part about a 500 Holley 2bbl is I think the throttle response will be slow due to the large venturis in that carb. It's near twice the CFM of the stock 2bbl(like 325-350 cfm), so it won't be as snappy off idle. Just my thoughts.

 

I would go with a used aluminum intake. Its more than 50# lighter that a factory intake. It'll be easy on your back installing it. JMHO

 

Check your points. That was always my problem.

Here's a question for you fellas. Will a 4bbl carb mount on the 2bbl intake? If so couldn't you just cut the intake to work with the 4bbl?

 

Right now, my '67 has a 2bbl to 4bbl adapter on it, turned upside down to mount a 4bbl to a 2bbl intake. Works fine, though likely isn't a real performance piece. I got really tired of the Autolite crap, didn't want to pay for new intake, but wanted to use the Holley I had sitting on the shelf.

All these years, works fine. I run it like a 375cfm 2bbl, as it never comes close to opening the secondaries on that 750. After sitting outside all winter, pumped the throttle a couple times, no choke and it fired right off.

Most 2bbl intakes don't have enough meat on them to cut or fit a 4bbl to the flange.

 

Thanks a bunch for the input. If I could get a intake and carb for $500 I would get it. I am hesitant to take the intake off and replace it because it is my only ride and I can't have down time. The only reason I was thinking a holly 550 is because my brother has one on a 351 mod. (1978 f-150) I would also think of a MSD ignition system.

 

Yeah, you couldn't really cut a 2-bbl intake to fit a 4-bbl carb. You can get a nice little Holley 465cfm 4-bbl. and mount it on the upside-down 2/4 adapter as mentioned above and it should work pretty well for that engine. Good throttle response with the little primaries. Heck, when I was racing mini-stocks (2.0 Ford) someone stole my dual sidedraft carbs off the car right on the trailer the night before the race, to get it going so I could run that night I stuck a stock manifold back on it, then an adapter plate to go from the 2-bbl. Holley/Weber pattern to the standard 2-bbl. Holley pattern, then stuck a 2bbl. to 4-bbl. adapter on that upside down and put a Holley 465 on it and it ran great! All stuff I had laying around. It's funny what you can come up with sometimes out of desperation...

Back on the subject, swapping on a used aluminum manifold isn't a bad idea except for one thing: they're hard to find used for FE engines (around here, anyway.) I looked for one for mine for months before I finally gave up and just bought a new one from Summit.

It is a bit of a job to replace the intake on an FE, I can see how you might not want to risk the downtime. MSDs are good, but I just swapped the Duraspark onto mine as it's a lot cheaper and with a late-model TFI coil it puts out a helluva strong spark.

 

Alright, I'm convinced to go with a 4 barrel intake and carb. The guy that I bought the truck from said he had a 4 barrel intake off of a 429 thunderbird. Would it fit? $100

 

NO! That's a different engine family (the 385 series-429/460 ci) that basically replaced the FE.

 

Sure it's not a 428? That would be possible and it's an FE so it would fit, but it's much more rare. One cubic inch difference in displacement but a whole world apart in compatibility...

 

Look for a 4V intake manifold and carb from a 1965/71 passenger car with a 390, 410, or 428.

Ford: LTD / Galaxie / Fairlane / Torino / Mustang / Thunderbird.

Mercury: Marquis / Parklane (1966/67 410) / Monterey / Cougar / Montego.

All these cars offered other engines with 4V's. FE engines (390/410/428's etc) have 5 valve cover bolts per side.