Projects intake build- can i rotate my carb 90 deg.??

I am building a new intake and headers for my buick 320 straight 8. I want to run a 4bbl carb. Probably a 600 edelbrock I have in my garage.

My plan is to make it a dual plane intake. Extend the intake about 4 inches farther out tenth current carb and build it so the runners are as close to equal length as possible.I work at a machine shop so building/welding should be no problem on my off time.

So here is my question.....

Can I rotate my carb 90 deg. So my primaries face the driver side instead of the front of the car??
Then I can build the new intake as a dual plane easily

 

They turn Holley carbs 90 * on a lot of tunnnel rams . I have seen some manifolds with the carb set at 45* to the engine center line .

 

Awesome that's what I wanted to hear.

Thanks

 

I really don't see why you couldn't do it - I mean, the carb doesn't know what engine it is sitting on top of, let alone which direction it is facing.

Not to mention the direction of the air flow from many stock air cleaners that are totally enclosed with that single 'tube' that directs the air flow in from the fender well or wherever.

Make sense?

 

How quick will the car be? Might have a problem with the fuel running to the back bowl and leaning out the mixture in the forward one, leaving you with lean and hot condition in half of your cylinders. Also, if you rotate it with the carb facing outboard on the driver's side, that means your acc pump well will be getting full up everytime you goose it, maybe causing the fuel to squirt out the pump shaft hole and into the engine bay....not what you wanted to hear, but a possibility.

 

When preparing genuine Carter AFB carbs for road racing (hard corning, similar to sideways mount), we custom fabricate fuel bowl baffles for the primary jets, and use the Studebaker R-1 accelerator pump seal.

Jon.

 

That car is a 4500 lb plus 1940 buick limited. With a 320 st8. It might in a good day make 200 HP. Not goin to be really fast. Looking for low end torque and driveability.
Thanks everyone for the quick responses

Ken

 

It worked for me on my hill climb car. But it is a model A engine with a home built cylinder head. It is the only way I could get it to run right at low speeds. It does have equal length runners with a 4 barrel carb.

 

We used to turn our carbs sideways on a small block chevy in a circle track modified used a holley 500cfm two barrel on a single plane brodix 4 barrel intake on the dyno picked up 15 hp. should not have a float problem if not going in a circle.

 

Our circle track carb had a tapered float for cornering so it would not prematurly close the needle. we used a crazy bell crank throttle linkage.

 

Don't turn a carb sideways on a dual plane intake! It's designed to flow fuel equally from each primary venturi, and if you have both primaries on one side the engine will run rich on one side and leaqn on the other in any situation that the secondaries aren't open.
Tunnel rams work because the intakes are open plenum, so any intake that's open plenum will allow the carb to be installed any direction. Mine are sideways on mY holley Dominatopr, but it's open plenum.

 

He said he's building the intake, so he'll probably ***emble the plenum area sideways also. The 1 bl on the slant six is sideways.

 

I guess I should have clarified. Yes building the custom intake on my st8 and will run the half the carb to the front 4 cylinders and vice a versa.

Splinter- would it be better for the primaries to face the p***enger side? Either way would work in the design. Going to go with a cable for the throttle instead of linkage. I was just thinkin driver side so I don't have to reach from p***enger side all the way over the motor to tune it. But that is no big deal.

 

Well he said he's making it a dual plane, so I just wanted to ensure the dual plane is the correct direction.

 

I did it a lot with hollys but used jet extensions and custom floats. This will resolve any problems we had on circle and drag cars. Never cared for edelbrock but used them a few times and to hard to rejet and get small parts for but they may be out there now or some carb guru reading this may have a source.

 

Turning the carb works fine on my 300 Ford 6. Runs a Dual Plane Offenhauser intake, however the Offenhauser dual plane is set up a bit differently then what you described. Each runner is shaped like a Double D (8), so half the runner goes to the primaries, and half goes to the secondaries. This keeps the air velocity up in the long runners.