i just picked up a 351w out of an x-police car, the carb is like nothing ive ever seen before, a friend of mine, who used to work for ford, says its a variable ventury carb. now this car has some history with me, when i was younger and i had a 71 maverick, an x-drag car w/460 and a street/strip c-4. i knew the police at the dept. they were friends of my dad and some of them helped work on my car, they used this actual car and it was their favorite car. being it was in a 4-door ltd, a heavy car, i thought it was slow. until they proved me wrong one time. once at drag-in on a friday night, one of the officers brought THE CAR, and i ran against it with my 460 equipt. maverick and i couldnt get away from it. i beat it, but if we were on the street, and it counted, he'd have had me for sure. my question is, are there rebuild kits for this carb, i've decided to put my attn. to this motor for my truck and i want it as it was in the patrol car, i have the complete motor, trans, rear, even the oil and trans coolers. i know the rear was not changed when they sold the car cause the officer that drove it bought the car and it was unchanged. i've been told to toss this carb and buy a 4bbl. why? are they that difficult? please help. thanks in advance, mocky

 

I have rebuilt and tweaked a few of these variable venturi carburetors and have never really been satisfied with them. There are a lot of ancillary parts, the rebuild kits are expensive, the tuning is complicated and oh, by the way, they like to catch fire! Keep it as a souvenir if you like but buy the Holley 2 bbl replacement carburetor for this engine, it’s a definite bolt-on improvement in performance and mileage.

 

i deffinetly do not need a fire, but not to keen on the 2bbl, guess a 4bbl is in my future. thanks for your response and your help. mocky