sweet sixteen

 

Here's the setup on my '64 Ford Fairlane 427 small block stroker. I've done quit a bit of carb tuning to get it right. The best guide I've found is the carb tuning guide that you can download from Edelbrock's web site. It addresses dual carb setups with big cams, too, which mine has. I start with the rear carb, which is the primary, and work right to left, rear to front, until I have the highest idle, then back each screw off an eighth turn. I find it runs cleaner and smoother once warmed up if it is a little lean. One of the trickier things to tune is when the secondary air doors open under acceleration. They can really flood your manifold if they open too soon. I've changed out those crappy single springs for dual springs seance these photo's were taken.

 

One feature that Edelbrocks have that few people know about and struggle with is the step-up spring tension. Most don't realize you can swing the power piston lid out of the way when the engine is running and check the stability of the pistons at idle......if the pistons bounce, the spring is too stiff......if they pull down and remain steady, they are the correct tension......this is a huge thing that stumps many that work on these.....because it cause all kinds of off idle drivability issues.......this tip is not in the Edelbrock manual for the simple reason that one could drop a screw down the throat, but you would have to try to do it.

Jebby

 

ya I just saw that done on the famous youtube. To me edelbrock carbs just have the right look inline.

 

I for one just have to come in here every so often and pull on lars chain about his favorite carb the edelbrock. It's a bit like Gkuls well known love of edlbrock products or as he likes to call them " farm boy stuff " lol. Long while back when I first come on this forum asked a question about mini starters and weight. Motorhead says just lay off the twinkies. I still laugh at that.

 

really good looking engine would like to have it put it in a vette just to **** people off ,I'm like that and have not been a brand loyalist for a lot of years. I truly think hand down the best SB ever made with all the potential is the ford Cleveland. I'm almost tempted to build 1 I like the engine so much and still put it in a vette.
neighbor across the street from me had a 4 bolt clevland block I could have bought may still have it. Not a spark plug guy out of site I like them . On chevy I run them down the back then down under the headers. Sbc has always been a belly button engine everyone has one. With just one 4 barrel on them they look even more belly button if that's possible.

 

The Cleveland and 429 are real nice copies of the bbc.

 

the cleavland has worlds better valve angles then the screwed up BBC dont know what planet they were on when they put the 26 degree intake valve in it worse then the sbc. You want to talk copies the new LS engine looks like it came strait out of ford from the early 60s
deep skirt block. Cross bolted mains just like the 406 and 427 had before the hemi. No junky spur gear oil pump it has a ford G rotor pump in it. The intake ports all spread out just like a ford from from the 1960s not crap simeased intake ports. Lol even pro stock many years ago got rid of the simeased nonsense went to ford and hemi ports.
I like the sbc and bbc and mostly all the GM styles were far better then on other brands. But there engine design worlds of no good including no shaft system for the rockers. Cheap bastards.

 

the gen 1 small block for it's time period had by far the best oiling system of any of the companies despite the common spur gear pump. You could rev it to the moon without problems. You could forget about that with pontiac, olds and buick.

 

I agree, Little Mouse, the cleve is a great medium block size engine and I considered it for my Fairlane, but it would have taken too much engine compartment modification to fit. I had enough cutting and shaving of the shock towers to get the Windsor in there. The severely modified 289 headers is another horror story. Then there's the weight and cost of building a decent Cleveland as well. Dollar for dollar, the Windsor stroker can't be beat. That's why Ford Racing still produces them in stroker create engines all the way up to 460 cubic inches!

Shock tower modifications.

Nice new set of $450 Super Comps hacked all to hell.

But they fit, barely!

 

With the aftermarket heads today the Windsor can be as stout as any engine, but the real truth back in it's time in the world of sb it was by far superior to what chevy and Chrysler had. They did a test on all the engines LT1 chevy. Boss 351, 327/365, 302 chevy. The Cleveland beat out the LT1 by 30 hp and It did it with a cam in it that had 25 less degrees at .050 original boss cam and the original Lt1 cam in the chevy. That's how good those cleveland heads were. Lot of chevy guys bring up the 1 spectacular season jenkins had with his 331 sbc and then it was over for him and the canted valve cleavland had to carry more lbs per cubic inch then the sbc and they were right there with him even in 72 carrying 200 lbs more weight in there car. 200lbs is like death in drag racing pro stock.

 

Person should try to learn new things think I'm going to go with the edelbrock carbs. They just look so right in that period of time on two four engines. I know they cant really be as great as lars says they are but I'm sure there good. Lol

 

Actually if you like the Cleveland you should compare it to the plymouth 318 polyspherical engine.lots of similarities.
and the Cleveland wasn't. The only weight factored engine in pro stock.the chrysler Hemi and the tall deck rat motor.I know guys that used the short deck with gaskets to make up the difference and it worked. I had plates made up for the purpose by a machinist at the B&O railroad machine shop near baltimore..
maybe a stroked 440 chrysler in a vette? Hmm ,nah.I'll stick with chevy in a chevy.oh and the big chrysler had the deep skirted block first. And they came with a carter 4 barrel the same as the edelbrock, Lars favorite carb. Lol

 

This is cool! A discussion of the attributes of Ford engines on a Chevy blog. Never seen that before. I've owned and built both and can't say I'm prejudice toward either. I'd love to build me some mid-sixties Mopar muscle too!

I was not sold on the Eddie carbs until I bought these. I was a Holley man, too. But these carbs are so far superior in tuning options they make all the others look obsolete. Changing the fuel needles and jets is a snap. Same for the springs that control when the needles raise out of the jets. The secondary air doors are readily available and you tune them with the engine running. You can do everything to these carbs while still on the engine and without spilling a drop of fuel.

 

nope go back and read the rules before they just went to 500 cubic inch. The hemi carried the most per pound, canted valve engines that included bbc and the Cleveland got to carry less then the hemi and wedge engines carried less per pound. Hemi cars were extremely heavy because of the cubic inchs and the heavier weight to pound. Had the weight per pound been the same jenkins would have never won a race. Even with the more weight by 1973 the championship went elsewhere and in 74 jenkins won 1 race. I was at Tulsa in 72 when jenkins qualified number 1 with a 9.39 and won the race against a hemi car herb mccandless jenkins 9.41 to mcandless 9.43. There were also different rule for engine size up to 366 cu. You had to have a 100 inch wheelbase or less car and I bleive could not go under 2350 lbs. Just like it is today on weight. Almost every ford street rod steel or fiberglass has a sbc in it. It's slightly shorter less costly to build and parts more plentiful, in there case screw what the manufacture did that's what hot rodding and racing are all about. If your an all original parts matching person that's cool. On the polysphere where in the world would you get any parts to make it faster by any amount then it was originally.

 

In the 70s it was known by NHRA that 85 percent of fans drove GM cars. Chrysler and ford were close to 10 percent for each brand. 1970 pro stock is first two seasons 70 and 71 the hemi destroys the BBC same as it did in nascar that chrysler built the engine for. With two winning seasons pro stock . NHRA says oh **** less then 10 percent of our fans cars are winning how are we
going to sell tickets if this keeps happening. They allow in sb for the 1972 season hemi cars still carrying more weight per cube then canted valve engine then they lowered the weight oer cubic inch for a wedge engine. The hemi was so bad *** they did not bother with there wedge head BBM. Then the small block cars had to be in 100 or less compact car which then of course with less frontal area on the top end gave them another advantage over bigger and heavier cars. As they say it's all about money and you cant have less then 10 percent of paying customers wanting to show up. In a chevy guy on body styling of the past mostly and no one has ever accused me if not being fair or honest. But facts are just facts.

 

I ran IHRA not NHRA, MOUNTAIN MOTOR PRO STOCK had no cubic inch limit. Never cared much about the NHRA.

 

I970 and 1971 pro stock rules. 7.0 lbs per cube for all engines regardless of type. Sox and Martin mostly cleans out the field. 1972 rules change lasted till 1981. No cubic inch limit same as before. NHRA Sox's it to Sox and Martin. Hemi engine 7.25 lbs cubic inch. Canted valve 7.00 per cube. Wedge engine 6.75 lbs per cube. Over 100 inch wheelbase car minimum 2400 lb weight any cubic inch. 100 inch and under wheelbase maximum of 366 cu. Minimum of 2000 lbs for the car. I'll say it again on the engines hemi 7.25 , canted valve wedges 7.00. Wedge engine 6.75 lbs. A hemi car with 426 cu was massive heavy compared to small block cars and bigger in frontal area catching more air on the high speed end of the track
when they raced pro stock pickups a while back the dakato dodge pickup was 2 inches wider then chevy S 10. At the speeds they were running the chrysler engine had to make 40 more hp then the chevy to be even with them at the stripe, say 50 more to make sure of a win.
the cuda was soon gone bad areo and replaced with better areo duster or demon even at the speeds they could run back then. Back then NHRA teams made far more money match racing then within NHRA rules and you saw bigger cube engines used.