I remember seeing a very old vv carb at a swap meet several years ago. I barrel. Anyone have any knowledge of it? Thank you
If a 1 barrel the only ones I know of are SU Carbs, UK cars; Morris Minor, duals on MGA, MGB, MG Midget, AH Sprite and many others with BMC engines..
I do believe a '79 Mercury Marquis Brougham I used to own had a 302 w/ variable venturi carb on it. Worked but wasn't all that great. Dave
You must be talking about the famous Fish carburetor. Variable venturi invented in the 30's. here is a thread on them. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/the-infamous-fish.782203/
Perhaps one of the Woodworth, Kendig, Preditor family. The Woodworth, and also the Fish is pictured in this link: https://www.thecarburetorshop.com/Carbshop_virtual_museum.htm#Lesserknownbrands Jon
The Ford 2700 and 7200 V V carburetors got kind of a bad rap. They perform quite well if everything is set properly and no dirt gets into them. They are a precision carburetor that requires all the special tools and a dial indicator to set properly. Ford put out a manual just for these carburetors. If every last step is not followed exactly, they can become a nightmare quickly. I was doing tune up, a/c, and electrical in a Ford dealership when they were used. Most people look at them and want no part of them. Ford cured all the premature parts failures with better parts in the kits and over the counter. But, I if you don't have one of those special manuals, forget it. I owned an 80 Mercury Grand Marquis wagon with a 351 for power. I rebuilt the carb, using the manual and special tools and it would get 24-26 mph on the highway consistently. Because mechanics weren't interested in doing every last setting and adjustment, the carbs would perform poorly. Because a small amount of dirt that a regular carburetor would tolerate caused problems with the VV, I would recommend that the customer replace his paper filter with a K&N. Ford finally threw in the towel because people in the field either didn't know how to service them or were too lazy to do it right.
Just to further my education, weren’t the SU’s and some Strombergs “Constant Depression”? As opposed to “Variable Venturi” ? Which would be a conversion for another site probably.
The other UK variable carb that comes to mind is the Amal. Normally on Brit-ish motorcycles, but also popular in multi-carb setups on cars. Cheers, Harv
I agree with deucemac on Ford's vv carb. Worked at a Ford dealer in Detroit at that time and I remember them well. After working thru the learning curve on them I got to the point where I got good at them. Once you got them set up right they ran great. Still have that manual around somewhere but the only vv carb I've seen in years is the one I have in my stash.
I worked at a Ford dealership in the eighty's , that's why I still have an interest in them. I had a 1966 triumph Bonneville that had small dual carbs. I thought the Amal was a sliding valve carb.
Just curious, has there ever been a carb manufactured that you didn't know about? Your breadth of knowledge regarding them is incredible.
The (Kindig) Predator ? I put one on my old 61 Impala with a big, 409 in it. I had no complaints on how it worked. It was VERY throttle position sensitive though. I used it for a couple of years. And it's variable, "venturi", not "ventura" . Mike
Mike - some operating systems think that venturi is not a word, and change it to ventura (mine used to change it to venture!). Artificial intelligence is sometimes artificial stupidity! Ebbspeed - the pictured carburetor is a Detroit Lubricator. In a different lifetime, I started a book on the Detroit Lubricator carbs, and then life got in the way. Ford used the DL in 1932 and 1933. While there are a number of differences; an easy visual difference is that the 1932 did not have provision for hand throttle, while the 1933 was modified to allow a hand-throttle. The pictured carb has the hand throttle provision. DL did not use identification tags, but coded a stamped number on the bowl cover. The stamped "number" is in the format myynnn; where "m" represents the month, "yy" represents the last 2 digits of the year, and "nnn" represents what we today would call a tag number. Jon
I still have one of these new in the box, bought it when they first came out & never used it yet! I will someday. God Bless Bill https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ar-transport-hauling-open-or-enclosed.614419/
Dave - True...but do you know the "brand" name that was on those radial engine carburetors ? I do ! Mike
While this...is...basically true, this is why I always double check and "correct" the...correction ! Damn AI ! Not ready for Prime Time, yet ! Mike
Correct. My dad was a flight crew chief in the Army Air Corps during WWII and told us about working on them.
These worked great on a hillclimb special my friend Jim raced on Mt. Washington. We had 2, one for methanol, with a bowl extension and a different jet bar configured for methanol, and when SCCA took over the event and disallowed all fuels except gasoline, we put a normal gasoline calibrated version. The af ratio stayed a lot better as the altitude increased. Holleys were rich lean and just right at different parts of climb. We never tried the Hilborns we had. That would have required one of the Kinsler dial a jet devices. Jim didn't want one more thing to play with on the ride to the top. So the Predator was just the ticket.
Some actually had "Holley" cast into them ! As witnessed by me at more than one Air Show. Some of the Wright engines (for the B-17 planes) were even assembled at the Studebaker plants. Mike
I ran early Predators on my BBC V drive race boat. In the 80's I had one on a Camero and a Chevelle. The throttle response was so good you had hold your foot against the trans tunnel. The early ones had not primer / accelerator pump and could be a bit hard to start. The rubber flaps would blow off if you got a back fire . They came out with a gross valve with a ball and seat to replace the original needle and seat set up. These handled the higher fuel pressure These required to run correctly . They had a cam that opened a metering valve . The profile of the cam was what set the fuel mixture and were . I had a few cams I would custom grind but the factory stuff was pretty dialed in . On the boat I had a 2 stage nitrous and that took some tweaking . I don't think you can get parts any more for them. I'd like to gave a pair with support parts . They didn't fit under many hoods. But they were pretty easy to tune . Not the right era for this site but cool stuff from the late 70's early 80's . I dont know when Kendig first introduced them .
"Depression" here is a technically more correct term for "vacuum" i.e. pressure lower than atmospheric. The principle SUs and Stromberg CDs use is to adjust the venturi automatically via either a piston or a diaphragm to maintain a constant vacuum on the manifold side. Amals are variable-venturi in the sense that the venturi is formed by the (round) slide throttle, as was pretty much the norm for motorbike carbs for a very long time. But the slide is connected directly to the throttle cable, and not controlled by vacuum. Bendix aircraft carbs were neither variable venturi nor constant vacuum. They used a pressurized fuel supply constantly metered by a vacuum signal from the venturi, instead of a conventional float chamber. I have wondered if the principle could be used with a constant vacuum carb, relying on the needle jet to meter the vacuum signal.
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