The Stromberg BIG97

Remember when the rumors first surfaced that Stromberg 97’s were going to be reproduced by some guy in England? Then, a website popped up promising the rumor wasn’t a rumor at all and that the carbs were in production. And then, nothing… I’m guessing it was a year or longer before we actually started seeing carburetors on the market. They were damned near impossible to get, but the people that did get them raved about them.

Of course, production has now caught up with demand and Clive, the guy behind Stromberg, is widely respected for his attention to detail and the absolute quality of his products. I’m pretty damned proud to call the guy a buddy.

Recently, Clive made another big announcement. He’s releasing the Stromberg BIG97 – a carburetor that mirrors the original in every detail on the outside, but that features a number of improvements on the inside. In fact, the new BIG97 flows 250cfm – a 55% improvement over a standard Stromberg 97.

The biggest and most obvious change here is the 1.175″ venturi featured in the new carb. The original, of course, had a .97″ venturi. This larger venturi (with super-efficient 20 degree entry angles) allows for a shit ton more fuel and air to enter the combustion chamber.

Even so, lots of fuel and air doesn’t make a carburetor. What does is the delivery of that fuel and air in a consistent and smooth manner. Clive addressed this with a number of changes. Namely:

• The accelerator pump discharge jets are smaller and well out of the booster airflow.
• Flared exit cones build power by slowing the mixture down to reduce turbulence into the manifold plenum.
• A new, oval cut-out, just under the throttle plates, allows any cylinder to draw from both barrels, combining the easy drivability of a dual plane intake with a boost in top end horsepower more usually associated with a single plane intake.
• A new power valve (on primary carbs) feeds top end enrichment directly into the emulsion tubes, significantly improving fuel conditioning for more top end HP on less fuel.
• Ported vacuum to improve combustion efficiency and better mileage.

There’s more, obviously… but hell, you can read the website as well as I can. Go here and check it out. You can also check out a quick video I made:

Editor’s Note: A few of you mentioned how much my close captioning helps on videos. Note that this one isn’t captioned. I didn’t bother as I don’t say anything that is not written above.

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Anyway, I realize that this post very much comes across as commercial. It’s not. Clive hasn’t paid me in anyway to write this and the BIG97s we have here in the shop were bought and paid for by John Mearns for his ’32 project that Tardel is putting together.

Instead, this post is really more about the announcement and the fact that guys who like traditional looks AND big horsepower motors suddenly have more options. With the BIG97 carburetor horsepower is really only limited by the flow characteristics of vintage intakes now. Think about it… You gotta big inch Small Block Chevy that you are putting in a traditionally styled highboy with no hood sides? Get yourself something like a 4-deuce Man-A-Fre or McGurk intake, throw on some BIG97’s, and you have yourself 1000cfm.

That’s nuts when you think about it…