Can anyone tell me what carb I can use on my desoto hemi it is a 2 bbl and I am on a budget so it wold be nice if I could get one off of an older doner vehicle . Any help would be great thanks.
The OEM carb is a Carter BBD, probably other period 2 bls that'll bolt on. If you open up the bore holes in the intake there's a 2 bl carb used on 360s that will work, but won't look "period".
There is also an adaptor available to run a 4 barrel on the original intake."Hot Heads" also has an adaptor for Holley 2 barrels on the original intake, part # 80556. It's pretty affordable for less than $50.
This is somewhat dependent on your skill level and tooling. The only carb that will be 100% bolt-on, with no changes, will be the same carb that you have. Have you considered a rebuild? Like George says, a later 2-bbl won't look period, but a 60's-70's 318 2bbl will be easy to find and only require minor fussing to bolt on. Look at the linkage arrangement and fuel lines before you take everything apart to see if you really want to start the project. Stay away from 4-bbl adapters and the giant Holley 2-bbl, especially if you are on a budget. .
Not sure which Desoto intake you have, so kind of a "shotgun" answer. In the early 1950's, Chrysler had Carter produce some strange carburetors for both the Chyrsler and Desoto engines. These were type BBD and type WCD. These carburetor differed from the normal BBD and WCD carburetors in the throttle body with a weird bolt arrangement. The throttle body was aluminum, and many of the throttle bodies were heated with engine coolant. This was before the days of "inhibited" antifreeze (you bought the antifreeze AND you also bought an inhibitor to add to the antifreeze). Those that were either ignorant of the necessity of the inhibitor or too cheap to add new inhibitor each year were plagued by the "electrolysis bugs" which ate the aluminum throttle body. Other than the above, the carburetors worked well, and are properly calibrated for the engine. There are those that can heli-arc weld aluminum that can repair the holes in the throttle body. And modern antifreeze (if changed ever year or so) does contain the inhibitor (or at least most of it does, check the label). Jon.
Well I have now done a little again . I heard that a water pump for a 383 mopar was a close fit for the desoto hemi so I bought one and yes it is close . I took my timing chain cover water pump housing to a buddy with a milling machine and just had him open up the water pump opening by about .100" and just clean up the housing as the impeller scrubbed a bit. Then I just had to slot the holes in the pump slightly to match the housing bolt pattern. Pics to follow later.
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