Tri power rochester end carbs once and for all

It's the easiest way, and the old kits like Eelco were set up like that. The kit had a longer shaft for the center, so that the passenger side of it was sticking out enough to put the main,longest lever on. So, you mostly will see the gas pedal hooked to the driver side of the center carb, and the secondary linkage on passenger side

...except on some early Ford cars where your pedal was already hooked to the pass side of the flathead V8 carb, then you will see some of those cars with all the linkages working on that side.

another thing about the passenger sides of real outboard carbs, is that they have a small lever there already, and some people use those to build a connecting link.

I've got quite a few setups here, and NOS Eelco kit in package, if you really needed a pic of some particular setup. I have one setup to pull off the pass side for a Ford car, also stock Vac setups, also some that were converted to mechanical progressive back when.

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Here's mine now. If I change baseplates the linkage will be on the other side, where the fuel rail is.

 

So I think I'm going to try and "fix" the carbs I have. I figure, I already have em and can't make em any worse. Does anybody know about lapping the butterflies? Ive read a few things about it. Just putting lapping compound in the bores and opening and closing the butterflies? A bunch? I'm thinking if I get those things to seal, that'll be a start. It runs pretty good on just the center one.

 

Have you considered buying a pair of genuine Tri-Power end carbs?

Might be worth considering, the small-base Rochester end carbs were used on '57 & '58 Pontiacs and a number of other mid-50's GM (Olds J-2, Cad) cars.

Decent cores aren't all that expensive, I recently picked up a '63 Pontiac large-base Rochester rear carb for $150 shipping included.

 

I've thought about that. But I figure I've come this far with these, might as well keep going. Probably dumb, but wouldn't be the first dumb thing I've done.

 

How did you do the putty? Just put it where the light shines through? Thats a possibility for me too. Of course have to make sure it'll still open when I'm done!!

 

Yes just where light shines through. Must be very clean and dry. Also, no big globs, just a skim coat and as smooth as possible. good luck

 

Ok. Thanks!

 

Got a 3x2 Rochester setup on an Offy sbc manifold that we just tuned and starting running today on the 350 in my coupe. All 3 are primaries but only idling and running on middle carb until I dump the others. So far so good. Don't know if gremlins will pop up or not. Since it's a sbc, the fuel bar is on the right and the linkage is on the left.

 

Thats awesome! Hope no gremlins pop up. I just finished epoxying my end carbs. Not the prettiest, and may not last, but should be good enough to get me going. Got it running pretty good on just the center, I'll put the ends back on tomorrow and see what happens.

 

So I put the carbs back on after I epoxied them up. Looked good, no light shining through!! Fired it up and its exactly the same as it was before I epoxied them. Maybe slightly less air suck I guess, but still sucking. If I cover both end carbs, the rpms go up. Just on the center, revving the engine, its real slow coming down in the rpms. I sprayed for other vacuum leaks and didn't find any. Am I back to buying new baseplates as my fix? Kinda bummed me out, it was running good with just the center carb on and the ends sealed off. I was hoping it would run at least a little better than it did before I started jacking with the carbs.......

 

I see speedway sells a kit that looks like it has all the stuff I need to make my carbs "right". Anybody used it? I read somewhere, could have been here, that the baseplates are made by Vintage speed. They look the same anyway.

 

Power valves. They're supposed to be blocked off. Then the valve in the top, does it get removed? Cut the bottom off and remove the spring? I thought I would try using jb weld and seal up the power valve and put it back in. Not sure about the vent valve thing though??

 

A little follow up. Got new bases from Vintage Speed for the ends. That problem is solved, no air being sucked. I was able to use my linkage by taking the arms off the original baseplates and bolting them to the new ones, so thats taken care of. The problem now, and maybe its not even carb related, is when a was moving this thing in and out of the garage, giving it gas, if I ease into it its fine, but if I stab the gas it'll pop out the carb. Ive tried adjusting the accelerator pump, might have helped a little. Ive taken the ends back off so just running on the center, just to rule them out. Timing may be off, too advanced maybe? It still runs good once its warmed up. Takes a little bit before it'll idle by itself.

 

Been a while since I updated! Turns out that the majority of the problems I was having was caused by the firing order being wrong. I know, stupid. When I put the distributor in the first time and ran the wires I must have run the order backwards or ran them like a SBC instead of a sbf or something. But it started right up and idled ok, so I figured it must be something else. Anyway, thats fixed and it runs like a whole new engine. Imagine that. Been driving it some and I'm really happy with everything. Plenty of power, no issues at all. However, going by the plugs, its running kinda lean. Ive drilled out the center carb jets 6 drill bit sizes. They were stamped 48, and just kept going up in size. Drilled out the end carbs 3 sizes. None of this has really made a difference, or not a big difference anyway. Should I keep drilling until I get more color on the plugs? Its gotta make a difference at some point doesn't it? Or is there something else? Timing Ive got at 14 initial, 38 total. Ive gone up and down with it and it seems to run best there.