I know the banger boys would know but wanted to see what the board has to say. Now I have an .80 over model A four, with a model B carb. I want to flip the intake upside down make a riser out of alum, and toss a single barrel carb on it. I would like to go to a napa or something buy a cheep carb off a international 6 or a 215 chevy or something. Anything easy to get my hands on to make quick speed. What carbs would work?
Look at a Model B intake...it has a flat on top that can be dressed with your choice of a CNC Milling machine or a Rat Bastard file to reasonably smooth. Drill and tap with the bolt pattern of a chosen one barrel OR a one-barrel to Stromberg adaptor. The surface is rather narrow, so drill a heavy steel sheet (like the heavier grade electrical box cover at Home depot) to that pattern, cut it down to match base of carb, and affix it to the dressed top of your casting with gasket and goo. Add a hole approximating carb bore, grind and file as needed to get smoothly into manifold. By the way, carbs from stores ain't cheap no mo. You can spend several hundred for a rebuilt for worhthess extinct '70's cars...find a decent core here and get a rebuild kit, which will likely cost about what you thought would get you a whole carb!
If you are stuck on putting a down draft on a stock A, be careful not to put to much carb on it. Usually the most carb a stock engine will take is like a 97 two barrel, which is 2 x .970 dia. bore. Convert the square inches to the same in a single down draft and you should be safe. You may want to consider cutting of the 90 degree portion of the intake and welding or brazing on a mounting flange that will accept your new carb. But I believe, going from memory, the I.D. of that manifold is about is only about 1 1/4" I.D. Yes you should go to the Banger section and over to Ford Barn. Yes you will get a lot of static there at the Barn but a good percentage of "stock" A's have down drafts these days and someone will help out over there. Don't forget that your fuel delivery is by gravity and you may end up taller then the lowest portion of your tank. Most guys run a electric fuel pump, but then you need a regulator to keep the carb from drowning. There is more to the eye than you think, do your homework first, success will follow
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