Technical How can Edelbrock carb fit 63 Impala w/327 manifold?

The " how hard can it be " statement ...LOL well , when you don't know what you don't know , it can get pretty confusing , even when you do know , righteous information can be hard to come by ... Be glad it's not a Ford they have multiple engine families with little or no conformity between them ..

 

I can understand your frustration.

Understand that when you post a question on the internet, you will probably get a number of different answers that often do not agree with each other. This because there is often more than one way to accomplish something.

Understand that virtually all of these answers are from folks who are genuinely attempting to help.

Some folks are going to offer information of a different path; generally because of personal experience, and the desire to help. As an example, some folks, including myself DETEST the adapters because they rob engine efficiency thus power and / or economy. Without going into fluid mechanics; just consider the water velocity in the straight stretch of a river versus a curvy stretch. Liquid does NOT like corners.

As to your comment about "plug and play", just consider that Chevrolet made 327 engines in a variety of stages of tune. If you had a 327 / 340 HP then I think the clone would be plug and play. Chevrolet used different intake / carburetor combinations depending on the stage of the tune:

Chevrolet 1963 327 / 250 HP used Carter WCFB or Rochester 4GC. The Carter rated at 400 CFM
Chevrolet 1963 327 / 340 HP used Carter AFB rated 625 CFM (actually 650 CFM - marketing)

As a suggestion, if you still have the original WCFB or 4GC, keep it, and in your spare time, rebuild it. At worst, you will learn something about the design and function of a carburetor.

As a further suggestion, should you do the above; with a buddy and a good stop watch, run 3 timed zero to the speed limit in your area runs with the clone and adapter, and record and average the times. Then temporarily ? remove the clone and adapter and install the original rebuilt carb and repeat the timed runs. Compare the results. Then you will have first-hand proof about some of the information given to you. Testing is ALWAYS useful !

Have fun !

Jon

 

Jon @carbking as an FYI, does the Carter WCFB and Rochester 4GC share the same base plate dimensions?

 

Sometimes, not always.

Also, even though the mounting dimensions may be same, the sealing area often differs, requiring a number of different mounting gaskets.

This question should ALWAYS be asked about a SPECIFIC model, e.g. 3697s WCFB. General questions, generally get incorrect results.

In the case of the 1963 Chevrolet 327 - yes.

Jon

 

Yes a 250 hp was extremely common. The 300 hp with a stock AFB were mostly on 4 speed cars…..

 

Spe

Its up to you to decide if your 62 year old car is worth spending $350 or $420 on .
The adapter is about a 1/4 of the cost of a cheap intake .
The swap meets are full of cheap SBC intakes. There are 1000's of factory intakes around used as well.

you could have rebuilt or had rebuilt the original .

No the Edelbrock does not fit every old car that had some other 4BBL on it directly .
Thats why they make addapters

Personally aside from keeping it original I'd buy the Performar intake and be fine with it . It will run about as good as your going to get with out a lot of carb tuning knowledge.

The next thing is your likely going to want a fuel pressure regulator on that Edelbrock carb.

 

All valid points.

OP its not going to work with out more adaptation .

That said some cool new valve covers and a PCV going to the new carb would not hurt.

Id run the addapter if $$$ and time/ work are the biggest obstacle.

 

And the adapter is $22, plus two gaskets.

My mistake, it comes with the gaskets.

 

I’d bet it’s been asked, but @Eth727 , do you really need a new carburetor, or just want a new one?

 

I had a 305 in my '36 for a while with an SP2P4V with a 570 CFM Holley Street Avenger. Worked OK but was ****ing oil past the gasket. Warped flange. I put on a '61 283 4BBL manifold with this home made adapter I made from 1/2" aluminum. I plugged the exhaust holes with 7/16" frost plugs in the manifold and used a thick, insulting gasket on top, under the same carb. It ran OK also. Good off idle but ran out of steam pretty quickly.


Gary

 

In this case, I would concur. It won't be perfect, but it should function until he wishes to do something else.

Jon

 

So I got the adapter and it worked. Carb is all hooked up but idle is too high. I started another thread for that issue.