I disagree. The new 97s might be expensive, but they are nice pieces, and I wouldn't hesitate to run them on my period correct '32 5-window. I would not even consider running the BG pieces. And even with the "complaints" about the new 97s, I would bet a bundle that they'll sell a hell of a lot more of those than the BG 98s. What I wrote is based on talking to a lot of industry people at SEMA and other places. Why do you think Edelbrock just reintroduces early Flathead cylinder heads with the block letters, and the early 3x2 intake? It's because that's what the market demands. Apparently like a lot of others in the industry, you're missing it too.
We do hear and understand what you are saying in regards to them looking period correct but without making them look identical to the 94/97 on the outside they would in most cases probably still not be accepted because they are different and new.Designing them within these constraints would also mean that new parts would need to be designed and engineered in the fuel control and gasket area making service parts real hard to get by the end user as opposed to the design we have now where it shares a lot of service parts most speed shops stock.In designing the 98's we wanted to offer the guy who has the other carbs and is tired of repairing them and spending money on them an alternative that would perform better and be more user friendly yet still have a nostalgic look to it. We have had great response from a wide variety of guys building cars or wanting to change their current set up and most has been favorable. We have even taken calls from guys with stock drivers wanting to replace their old carb with one that wont continue to give them headaches and those who have spent more than the jobber price on these in rebuilding and repairing their old ones.
I'd be willing to bet BG will sell more 98's than Genuine Stromberg sells new 97's..... The "Goodguys" hotrodder (for lack of a better term, sorry) would feel more comfortable "updating" their hotrod from a single 4bbl to these 98's than going with 97's....since these are more "familiar" to them. I bet many parts are interchangable with BG 4bbl's, makes things easy. I can imagine these actually looking pretty good on a polished manifold, a show engine with lots of chrome.... These may not be geared towards the ******** trad hotrodder's, but may get "normal" rodder's away from boring single 4bbls.... Multible carbs are always cool......
well you can tell how much attention ive paid to BG stuff, Ive always had holleys, but I think Im interested enough now to checkout demon 4bbl on the next car.
Well said and yes, many of the service parts will interchange such as the jets,squirters,needle and seats/gaskets/hardware,also the bowl gasket and power valve. Some of the other small parts will as well.These are also much more tunable because of the ease in changing jets and power valves .They also have adjustable air bleeds. And yes...multible carbs are always cool!
392 - I am not attacking you personally man. I'm just saying that there is definitely a place in the hobby for this carb. That place is obviously not on your car. More "power" to you. (That thar, I said, that thar is a joke son.) Get it... power, carb discussion... I regress, anywho... I don't own any of the 98's. As I said in an earlier post, I have three gen-u-wine 97's on my nailhead. Do I like em? Yep! Do they look like what I want em to? Yep! Do they preform well? Yep! Do they leak even though I have wasted more hours than I would like to admit to trying to seal em, machined the surfaces and using just about every goop on the planet with the gaskets? Yep! But I don't hate em. Yeah my Offy intake has gas and aircraft sealant stains on it from the leaking gas. So what. SinisterCustom made a strong point about who this carb is for and I must agree with him. Also I have to agree that the new 97's will not outsell the BG 98... especially since they aren't really available right now due to company disbutes between the partners.
Everyone seems excited over new, redesigned aluminum flatheads that offer increased performance potential while keeping a traditional feel, but up in arms over modernized Strombergs that would still let you run a vintage style intake on your new flattie block. We should be glad that there are new performance options coming out for a 75-year-old engine... Plus, like has been said before, if these had come out a few decades back guys would have jumped all over them and tossed the Holleys aside. They were used because they were the best that was avilable at the time, that's all. Some of you guys are starting to sound like restorers rather than hot rodders... "It's not correct... why would you chnage it from what it's supposed to be...?"
Don't know much about the MCF aluminum blocks, so I can't comment on that. But when it comes to the BG carbs and stuff like that, it all depends on what you're trying to do. If you're goal is to build a period correct 50's hot rod, those aren't gonna fly. If you want to build a street rod, then go right ahead and use them, along with the billet serpentine belt system, magnacharger, billet distributor, etc. There's nothing wrong with any of that stuff on that kind of car. And I really do hope BG sells a ton of these carbs. I just don't think this is the group to market them to. If it is, maybe I'm in the wrong place.
I think a lot of you guys forget that most people wont know the difference between a holly 94, a 97, and a new demon 98. Hell most of them look at our engines and wonder how we fit DOHC in such thing heads, where we put our k&N ram air kits, and if we have Vtec. personally, I think the demons look like '60s mopar carbs except the big dumb DEMON cast on the side. I would even think of using one or two if I could pick them up for less than $100 a piece... i guess I am stickin with my ford script...
The only problem I see with your argument is this; if you are looking to build a period correct ANYTHING, what are you doing with a catalog in your hand? I don't care if it is a car, or a Cucoo Clock, if you want it to be truly "period correct", you are now hunting parts from said period. meaning if you are building a true 50's era hot rod...and mean it, it had better have 50's era parts on it. and until someone blows the doors off of a 50's era speed shop that was caught in time like an insect trapped in amber...it's just new stuff trying to LOOK old.
Bottom line - there are a ton of different opinions on the matter and they are all valid... Different strokes for different folks... and that's a good thing.
515 or 518? I've used them on intake gaskets before - the stuff seems relatively immune to gasoline, but it's not really designed for that application. Couldn't hurt to try though. You could gorilla snot it (3M weatherstrip adhesive), but you'd likely never get the tops off again!
Well, yeah, it's the same reason I've never tried JB weld for that. Back to the previously scheduled post. Sorry for the hijack
Id like to run a set of them on the 406 Tripower on the FE in my Edsel... i think that would be a good place for them. New Tech, semi old look under a orig aircleaner.
I've had two Demon carbs......Even with my knowledge of the 'ol 94's, I'd run the BG 98's just because I know BG makes a really nice product that's NEW!! Also, their customer service is tops. But, will my budget let me run 2,3 or even 4 of these? Doubt it. For the price of what one will prolly cost, I can rebuild a whole basket of 94's.
Let's face it, few if any carbs are really good looking. I think the good ol' 97 has gained its place because it worked in multiple applications in the good ol daze, was simple and after a while it looked normal. In the end it's probaby more a statement of mechanical design than anything else and we all love that. State of the art in its time as well. Us Hot Rodders is a funny group, we fall in love with the strangest things. I'm glad to see an alternative to the 97 - besides the 48's,81's,94's and 2GCs. Looking at the BG 2 bbl, and besides wondering what the CFM is, it strikes me that the main bone of contention for us purist types - and I just barely include myself cuz I stray from the fold fairly often, gl*** bodies, disc brakes, automatics, kinda like skipping church on Sunday morning and hitting the bar where there's cold amber liquids and skimpily dressed women, I am easily distracted - is the tapered air horn. Done that way I suspect for best air flow characteristics and keeping in mind that form follows function. An old homily - izzat the right word? - that fits right into the personalities of most of us. Anyway, looking from here and being hot rodders, it looks like an aftermarket air horn could be knocked out that would be a little more trad looking. Since when did screwing up performance ever stop some of us in our quest for good looks? Kinda funny . . . if it happened that is . . . an aftermarket air horn for an aftermarket carb. What the heck, in the great majority of cases, a somewhat low profile air cleaner is used and that would hide the air horn if the owner thought it was necessary. Far as BG carbs go, I'm impressed and would like to try one. I think I know enough to make it run at least as good as the Carter or Edelbrocks - and one lonesome Holley - that are or have been on the BB Buick in the roadster. It's gotta be tough for an aftermarket outfit like BG and the other carb manufacturers to put out a product that has to feed a very wide spectrum of engines as far as the build goes along with how well are they really tuned as far as the other components go? I think thats why a lot of carbs get bad-mouthed, they get tuned out of whack, the owner says **X carbs are no good, buys a competing brand and it runs pretty good . . . probably because this time around he leaves the damn thing alone. I'll just keep my eyes open for a BG carb sitting in the don't-want-it-no-more box at the speed shop and perhaps find a bargain. It happens, last one, a three week old $250. at the time Edelbrock 750 for $125. Kid who bought it changed a bunch of stuff before it was installed. Couple jets, couple rods, couple springs and here it is five years later living at 3300' al***ude and running good. Real men do read the instruction book....
I'll join in and put in my 2 cents. I think the BG's look great IMHO except for the logo with could be delt with. Much cleaner and simpler looking then 97's. No way would I use them on one of my "traditional" cars, I'm too much a purest but.... I'm planning on building a modern version of a 60's show rod (trailer queen, start the boo's and hiss'es, I ride on both sides of the fence) and I would seriously consider using them not for a performance aspect but for the clean look that's important if you're going for show points. It's all about the application.
I think you've hit the nail on the head again, C9. I like to call it "ins***utional inertia" or "cultural inertia" - we do it that way because we've always done it that way. My dad wore a two-tone gold/silver watch his whole life. As a little boy, I always remember that watch. It defined what a watch was to me. I remember the '80s & those cheap, black, digital watches - I wouldnt' wear one. They didn't look like real watches to me. My first watch was a two-tone gold/silver watch because that's what a watch is supposed to look like. Doesn't matter if the digital one is more accurate than the wind-up old-tech mechanical one... I think it's the same way with many of these old parts. I think the 2GC, although a superior carb to any of the Strombergs, is ugly as sin. Too many doo-dads on it. The Stromberg is simple, the linkages are whittled down to only the essentials (not a stamped piece of sheetmetal peened onto a shaft & made to fit multiple applications). So there's a few factors - the Stromberg is a more functional & cleaner design. It has purpose. It's also what we're used to seeing (because that's all that was available), so it looks right. Other carbs just don't look right despite their performance. We're rehashing old ground here, but you'r right, C9. It's what we're used to seeing. Cultural inertia.
Just to make everyone aware, the top airhorn is removable and is really just there so that you guys can reuse your existing 97 air cleaners.This was done with the fact in mind that there is a wide variety of air cleaner ***emblies available and we didn't want to change it so you would only be able to run one that we would make.This also helps in keeping costs down on your end as you can reuse the ones you have.
Well said. This thread and the whole 100% TRAD or nothing thing is starting to sound like some of those over-the-top Mopar kooks that know when a bolt head isn't right or the crayon mark isn't in the right place. I really hope things don't swing so far to the point that you'll need to find vintage compressed air so we can say that air in the tires is period correct and TRAD.
Heck, grind off the BG Logo, smooth it up good and shiny, stick on your old and desirable "air cleaners" and tell everyone that it's a polished 97. You oughta be able to get away with that one most times. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So what is the CFM rating? Or the venturi area? BG knows I'm sure and us old guys could make a comparo with venturi area figures from the good ol daze....
I see you guys are still bashing these things. Granted, they are not for everyone, but I definately think they will find a place, especially on something like a hoodless 'gl*** 32. It's easy to pull yourself into your own little world, but there are probably HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of enthusiasts out there, with vintage cars and parts you'd LOVE to get your hands on, that have never touched a computer mouse. The world is not limited to the internet. I like the carbs, personally, and I think BG will pull in a bit of the 97 market. People like a little variety from time to time.
I like them to be honest. I like the idea of keeping a "traditional" look without the 50 year old parts for sure. They look as good (aside from the DEMON) as anything else although they may not be as rough looking as the 94/97. I'd run three of them right now if the price is right and they're reliable.
I got a memo today from BG... they started shipping these and all of the backorders should be filled within 3 weeks.
Little pricey, but I like them for the right car. I may give them a shot on a '63 Pontiac custom tri-power setup. Crossover carb in the making...
The public has spoken... $338.33. That's a long way from 400 bucks. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220210513949
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