I have a Fenton dual carb intake manifold. My flathead books don't have it listed as a desireable unit. Would I be better off with a four barrel set-up? Any comments would be appreciated.
You don't want that, send it to me. Dual carbs with both carbs set back don't work as well as super dual mainifolds. I think the fenton is somewhere in between though. Not a super dual, but not set back either. I don't think the manifold itself will give you trouble. The biggest problem will come from setting up 2 carbs, which isn't hard if you do your homework and have patience to tune them. 4 barrels work good, but IMHO you loose a lot in the looks department. Depends what you want though. I'm sure someone would swap you even for a 4 barrel manifold if that's what you want to do. I have a nice offy wall hanger.
The 4 barrell carbs are a bit hard to find. You'll need a Holley 390 or a 450 from an early Ford, er sumthin' like that.
The old flathead 4 barrel intakes take a carter wcfb, late 50's GM products had them. It's still traditional, there hasn't been a newly designed m*** produced flathead ford intake in decades. You can find the wcfb carb at swap meets still, or with an adapter you can run a 390cfm holley which works well and is available new, but dosn't have the same look, might fit a little tighter on a pre 48 engine too.
Does anybody have the answer to the basic question in this post as to weather the Fenton dual carb intake is any good. Just wondering because I just purchased one.
I would say it its desirable....Thats what i usually look for at swap meets and stuff is old fenton speed equipment...I have a fenton 3x2 for my olds that i cant wait to get running...I guess it comes down to personal preferance..If you didnt want it i dont think you would have a problem unloading it thats for sure...
Fenton & Edmunds made intakes for just about every engine built! They were good quality pieces for the money and were fine on a street car; just not a "flowmaster" for high rpm track use.
It's not listed simply 'cuz it wasn't as common as some of the other intakes. There were literally dozens of manufacturers of intakes back in the day - some made 'no name' intakes, for example. Almquist was famous for offering lo-buck no name speedparts. This info gets 'lost' in the process of putting together a book - that and each author has their own bias. To be honest, i'll betcha most of the board would rather have a fenton on the mill for the 'cool' factor - lots rarer than a edelbrock or an offy! As for performance - a 4 bbl intake will outperform it simply because the 4 bbl unit won't go out of synch and will have a smoother throttle response and better fuel economy than a 2x2. That being said, you'd be splitting hairs on the 2by vs 4V setup. Enjoy the cool factor of the fenton!
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