Found this picture of an old stovebolt motor sitting in a 29 chevy (on eBay). Can anyone tell me what I am looking at here? I'm guessing the carb sends its mix up through the exhaust manifold?
Stan, You guessed it right. many cars used up-draft carbs. in that era. And this is a heated mixture setup,I don't know why they wanted to do that but there it is. Normal Norman
Norman pretty well nailed it. You will see a lot of updraft carbs on early engines. I've never studied the whys and wherefores but it may be either that they followed and early design or simply that they didn't flood the engine if the float stuck with the gravity feed fuel tank. Big Puddle on the ground if you forgot to close the fuel shutoff valve though. Evidently that was a factory manifold for the 29 as the other 29 Chevrolet engine photos I found show the same manifold.
Chevy did that through 1931. In '32, they went with a downdraft intake and the first of the Carter W-1s. I can't believe that the updraft design running through the exhaust manifold was very nice on a 95 degree day.
down draft carb = much lower than fuel tank= gravity feed fuel + pressure = no need for a fuel pump up draft carb = carb higher than fuel tank = fuel pump needed
You got it backwards, that is an updraft carb on the Chev pictured. Modern cars had downdraft carbs with a fuel pump. Draft refers to the direction the air is going.
Well- I did some digging and Tom Langdon (from Langdon's Stovebolt Motors) had an article about why it's a good idea to heat your intake (more 'modern' intakes use water instead of exhaust):
The Jalopy Journal
