Hot Rods Stromberg 97 issue

I’m attempting to set this 6x2 of 97s up with the outer 4 full time running and center 2 dummy. I’ve rebuilt them all to factory specs .045 main jets and 65 power valves. Besides being an aftermarket cam I don’t know its specs. It runs like a bat out of hell once I can get it going but from an idle it has a terrible lag and stutter. I’m at 1150ish feet of elevation running a stock bore 350 with worked over double hump heads. Any advice as to where I could start looking to solve the lag? P.s. I’ve read tons and tons of threads both on here and several other websites. Thanks guys

 

With that manifold you may find the best performance might be running all six carbs with straight linkage.

 

How many accelerator pumps do you have hooked up? On high or low?

 

First run none, second run I hooked 2 up with no noticeable difference. I wasn’t aware of a high or low setting

 

Not an expert but I would be tempted to hook up the 4 accelerator pumps, pretty straight forward if you have the linkages, you can tweak the stroke length with the summer / winter linkage ball

borrowed this image from in the garage media

 

Ran a same type setup on my 354" pontiac with 10-1 compression,large cam, with an x2 with the 4 outside carbs all hooked up and centers blocked off. Ran great.all stock jetting and power valves and all acc pumps hooked up.

 

I don't know nothing about anything... so just something to get you more replys... but... hard to know whats going on with out listening to whats going on... when you gas it is it lean??? or fat... you can tell by the throttle.... but have to know what you are looking for...is it trying to shoot ducks or gurgling fuel...

so If I had your car for me to fix here's where I would start.... over.... first thing I would do is close all the idle circuit... turn the mixture screws in, and then turn them out 1.5 turns .... turn out the idle speed screws on all the carbs...... then, (you need 2 feeler gauge's) put a .040 gauge on one carb... doesn't matter which one... then check that the other 3 match... if they don't you have a linkage problem..you should be able to stick the feeler on anyone of the carbs and all the carbs need to match... in order to tune you have to do this first... and re check often... once you get there... turn the idle screw exzact one turn...then check the other 3 carbs with the feeler gauge... they should all be the same... if they are.... turn the other 3 one turn... from then on you have to do all four the same...when you go to start it, you have to be standing right there... might be idling too fast or slow.. and might be idling too fast or too slow..but like said... every carb you have to tune to exzact to the others..if you turn one idle screw i/4 turn... you have to do the others the same... don't even try to do mixture screws till you feel heat in the heads with your hand... if you have chokes on all... disconnect all of them till you get the base set right...now once you are here.... motor warmed up... burp the throttle.. you have to pay attention to the sound and the feel... with a just fast enough throttle to get off the idle circuit... burp it again... if it puffs black... it's fat... , if it shoots ducks it's lean... might need to change jets then...

 

now... heres and another thing no one should do but me..the rest of you all ready know better...the 97 is only 150 cfm... so times 4 is only 600 cfm...a small block any thing should be able to pull a 600 cfm carb... the problem is the 97's are a poor design at best...look cool, but don't work well...they don't atomize the fuel well and get fuel puddling in the manifold...

if it was mine set up above.... I'd hook up all the carbs....they designed the manifold to work with 6... and if I couldn't get the 97's to work... maybe better to try 81's..... kinda like a 12 string guitar with only 6 strings...it still won't work with one string out of tune...

 

just doing the bench math....you're gonna need a lot of motor to run 900 cfm...

all ways reminds me of the Beach boys.... No Go show boat song

every time I'm at a show .and see 6 carbs.... first thing I look for is the block off plates... be surprised at how many with just 3- 2's with 2 blocked off.... running around with only 150 cfm carb????

 

Just as a reminder, the two barrel CFM ratings were conducted at a higher vaccum rating (3") than they used when creating the four barrel test standard (1.5"). So, to put the 2 barrel rating into four barrel speak is about a .7 (divide two barrel number by 1.414) reduction. That 900 CFM that six 97s and 94s aggrate to is closer to 650 - 665 CFM equated to a four barrel. And as mentioned, manifold design plays a big piece of getting it sorted. The Dragmaster and X-1 type manifolds don't have much of a balance tube setup.