Fish Carburetors...are they rare?

Most of the time Fish Carbs are Compaired to the Tucker Automobile. Seems they said Tucker wasnt really gonna build any cars either and had wild claims. From the pics looks like they had a bunch of parts to build some carbs. The Fish Mileage claims seem to be the biggest complaint. I think they are cool.

 

the late great fireball roberts was sponsered by fish carbs back in the mid 50s have a pic of him in a buick stomping butt on a dirt oval

 

I was told it was a scam to bring in investors by someone that that invested in it

 

Lincoln, Neb. Right off O street, brick bldg. had a Fish Carb sign attached to the building, in 1962.

 

I don't know how rare they are but my question is. Is the Fish Carburetor Corp. stock worth anything? I've got a certificate for 1 share dated January, 1958. Inherited it from my dad.

 

I believe the first Corvettes came with Fish side draft carbs on the six cylinder engines.

 

FYI, Fish carbs were developed by JR fish here in Agawam Mass in his 2 car Garage on the banks of the Ct. river around 1953-4 and first tested on the oval track at the old Riverside Speedway. I was in HS at the time and the rumor was that the mileage and power was so far advanced that the Gasoline co's stiffled the carb just so gas mileage wouldn't improve. Looking back I Don't think that was true and was just that, a rumor

 

I grew up around sprint cars, and I always heard story's like that too. I wonder if fish was what they were always talking about.

And I always heard about how the government sank all of the Chrysler turbine cars because they would run on anything you poured in the tank.

 

Nope they are Carters i believe

 

Fish carbs are available.

And we also have a huge library of Fish carburetor literature.

Jon.

 

Please let us know on this, I know Mike is really into fitness also. I talked to him years ago. He told me then the reason he quit building the carbs is because everything was going to fuel injection and the small market he had dried up.
Michael

 

I got my M-1 off the HAMB, had not seen one since 1966, it now sits in a glass case. to me it's about the history and "Fireball Roberts"

 

Except for, well, old cars...how many HAMBers run EFI?

There are a lot of non rodders who like carburetors too, boaters, survivalists...Brown has this fixation on RVs and grain trucks. Most RVs don't last that long and most grain trucks I know are diesel now. A lot of old Chevy and Ford grain trucks run Cummins Bs out of dead Dodge trucks.

He's a little weird to be honest. Talking to him you start hearing banjos.

 

Fish carbs are rare, and then again they aren't. Thousands were made in Florida and in England, on the other hand they made millions of Carter and Holley carbs.

They were made off and on for many years. After the original Fish company went out of business Brown made them in the seventies and eighties. He says he shut down when everyone went to fuel injection and people stopped buying carburetors.

They work on a unique principle unlike any other carburetor. They do work, and have the advantage of being easy to tune and adjust. They are made to be adapted to any engine, they do not use fixed jets like other carbs.

 

Buddy Krebs had Fish carbs on his 502 about that time at Riverside. (The photo is of my repro in the early 90,s Buddy driving, pacing the Modified feature) Didn't have Fish carbs though, Holleys were easy to find, and it ran swell.

 

I had one on a 289 Fairlane about 1969 or so. It ran like a million bucks, but when I let off the gas at any speed, the C4 went into neutral. It was spooky to drive, so off it came. Its still on the carb shelf in the toy room. I have no idea what its worth, but I will part with it.

 

Not sure how good they were overall, but we put a small one on a Cushman Eagle one time and ran nitro in it. They were damn good for that. With that large a carb we could could get 100% through it. That Eagle ran like a bat out of hell for a while

 

back in 1958 my friends dad was telling me about fish carbs I thought he was pulling my leg, I see now he wasen't...rip ben

 

I have two fish M2's. I will get a couple more someday. I want to find some of the fish adaptors that go from a 2 bolt base to a 3 or 4 bolt base as seen above in 26 roadsters post.

 

There were a few here in sioux city. The guys that had them said they ran great and they like the mileage they got with them.that was in the early 70s

 

exagerated mileage claims huh....so 'drank like a fish' could be true after all...

 

A lot of old Fish carbs were bought and never used. Others were used and came right back off. People buy them more as a knick-knack or desk paperweight than to use them. They do turn up on ebay but parts are nonexistent as far as I know.

The carb places that cater to restorers do urge people to not mess with them.

The Minnow Fish and Reece Fish used on imports and small engines are probably more commonly actually used than American Fishes. I have not seen either on any car in the US though.

 

I have one... Some day I have to put it on one of my bangers


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Stop, don't, stop, don't, stop, don't stop, don't stop...

 

I have a NOS one sitting in my office...... what am I going to do with it?? never know

 

Fish Carb on Ebay


http://www.ebay.com/itm/261287542050?item=261287542050&viewitem=&vxp=mtr

 

I'm running a M2 Fish on my 261 - works really nice.

What I really like is the simplicity of it.

- only a few parts
- it works on pressure differential instead of vacuum, so it is self adjusting no matter if you drive in the mountains or at sea level
- good mileage (nothing sensational though)
- good power
- very clean burning
- no circuits (idle/transfer/full/boost etc.) to deal with
- pretty much just one seamless variable "jet"
- infinite adjustable in every regard
- easy to tune
- some had even a variable vacuum port to fine tune your distributor timing
- mixture is independent of float level, but fixed to trottle position and engine demand
(we all know how critical float level is for AF-ratio, have you ever imagined you float while driving?)

So yeah, I'm pretty happy with it.

The only downside so far is that there are no replacement/service parts available, so I keep buying them, whenever I come across a halfway decent priced one, just to have them as donors.

There are also a ton of different models/versions out there - some are more complicated or have more features, like an additional enrichment circuit instead of a choke. Also there are later versions from licensed companies (Reese/Minou/Brown etc), made long after Bob Fish was out of business.

Frank

 

Very cool air filter...looks like an early outboard motor cowl.

 

Actually I made it from two BMW R90 motorcycle front lids

 

I was going to say....

When I am not on 4-wheels, I am on a 1965 R69S, that has been in my family since new, and have owned about a dozen more BMW motorcycles over the years.