I have a '37 Buick Special that I have installed a '40-41 Buick 248, the original '37 was a solid block of rust. I also was able to get a hold of a stock '40-41 dual carb set up for the 248. I have the entire package, both manifolds, to Stromberg carbs, air cleaner and Y pipe. The carbs are in need of a rebuild but while surfing around tonight I found a discussion about using the new carbs being sold by Speedway. I punched in the information about my Buick and the Speedway site came up with an universal dual carb kit. https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Pair...3-Bolt-2-Barrel-Carbs-Plain-Finish,50601.html Anyone use these on a dual carb Buick set up. Two large or small of CFM or just right? I don't want a progressive set up, just the two working at the same time. This is a stock engine, no modifications.
There seem to be quite a few new old style carbs (not just Strombergish look-a-likes) coming out of you know where. Most seem to look okay on the outside, but don't perform like real ones. Might be okay for lawn mowers.
You can get a bad tank of gas, and then have to rebuild the carbs. Where do you think you will find rebuilding parts for no-name carbs? Jon.
Do a lot of research on those carbs, there's lots here. A friend of mine put a pair of them on his '41 Sedanette. He could not make them run right. The Buick uses a progressive set up and that was a a headache to set up. He finally took them off. I will have to check but, I believe, he got some originals rebuilt.
I will be talking to Carking next week about the carbs I have and see what he recommends but in the mean time I was checking out other options I find. Never hurts to find out what's out there.
The original Buick setup (compound carburetor) used an air valve in the secondary carb, much like the air valve in a quadrajet. The throttle plates would open via linkage, but no fuel mixture would be supplied by the secondary carb until air flow was sufficient to open the air valve. This gave smooth operation with no lean stumbles. If you have the original carbs, one should have this air valve rather than a choke plate. When I was in tech school one of my instructors told me that a Buick with the "compound carburetor" could pass everything on the road except a gas station.
Rebuild your originals, or pay someone to rebuild them…….. Enough info on this board about super 97s…….
Buick, with Stromberg, started testing compound carburetion in 1935: dual single barrel carbs. Obviously, this did not go into production. Buick brought out the compound carburetion in 1941, and continued it into 1942. Both Carter and Stromberg provided carburetors. The carburetors for the smaller engine, while similar externally to the ones for the larger engine, were smaller internally. The carburetors were set up progressively. A "primary" carb was used on the front, and a "dumper" or "secondary" carb used on the rear. The secondary carb sat on top of an air valve assembly (it was not a part of the carburetor). For 50 years, we have suggested to Buick owners DRIVING their Buicks to use two normal carbs, removing the secondary air valve "sandwich", and set them up with solid linkage, rather than progressive. Those building numbers-matching show cars are relegated to progressive. Using two carbs all of the time significantly improves average cylinder A/F density. Lots of improvements in technology were occurring in this time period. Buick used the newer Stromberg AAV series carbs (real production starting in 1939, although there was some "beta testing" done in 1937 and 1938); and the newer Carter WCD carbs production beginning in 1941. The Stromberg "97's" (Ford version of the EE-1) were discontinued after the 1938 model year. The E series Strombergs were first produced in 1932. (Opinion) replacing either the Stromberg AAV series or the Carter WCD series used on the Buick compound carburetion system with Stromberg E-series (97's) would be an example of gniddor-toh, not hot-rodding Both the AAV and WCD were "light-years" ahead of the E series technologically. Jon.
Jon, I don't want to come off as a total idiot, I just don't know enough about carburetors and want to learn as much as I can about the best way to go with this. That is why I ask questions. We talked a little on the phone last week but I hadn't looked at the carb set up for some time and now that I dug it out and took pictures I just want to verify the way I should go. Should I look for another carb just like the primary and then I'd be good to go? I do have a carburetor from the original '37 engine with the single carb, is this carb the same as the primary carb on this set up? Can I use that one? Again, I know so little about this subject and I know there are many differences in Buicks of this vintage from year to year and even within year models. Seems like Buick was improving or changing things every year.
Bob, If using solid linkage, both carburetors should be identical. Best to call. I can talk much faster (and more accurately) than I can type A few years ago, I bought one of the software "Talk to type" packages; but it couldn't understand Hillbillyese! Jon.
I followed Jon's advice and found a second carb to match the front carb and bought two rebuild kits from Jon. Thanks Jon for all of the help, I really appreciate it.
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