Hey, I recently bought a 1950 Mercury one ton truck for $350.00 for the flathead. Decided i wanted to use an old engine for my A tudor instead of a 302. It was a good find, it has a basically brand new bellhousing and clutch, and it doesnt seem to have been fun much since it was factory rebuilt. Just wondering how many carbs u can put on them. My boss was saying that any more then two and u get to much air and they dont run nice. So is there a way to add a third carb but have it not functioning? Thanks alot. New too it, but u gotta start somewhere.
He is exactly right. Most flatheads. especially mildly bored and stoked flattys wont take much more fuel than two carbs. Dual intakes are much cheaper than triple set ups. You pay bigtime for the looks of three carbs especially when you will be blocking it off. Congratulations on your find. Glad to hear we have another flatheader in the group. You'll love to hate them.
I am not a flathead expert, but I have all the various books dealing with flatheads, and the consensus is that two carbs flow the best amount of air through that engine. Go with a dual intake and two carbs. You'll impress those in the know with your smarts rather than impress those who don't know any better.
Sure. You can put a thin metal plate under the center carb of a 3 deuce intake and solder up or epoxy up the fuel inlet fitting keeping the center carb empty. Hook straight linkage up on all 3 carbs. Synchronize the outer 2 carbs just like a dual carb intake. The middle one will just sit there and do nothing. You will probably get some whining about being a "poser" if you choose to tell them, but if it looks cool and performs well, you are the only one that needs to be pleased. Noone can tell without removing the aircleaner. It's done a lot more than people want to admit.
I remember in high school when I wanted the "LOOK" of three carbs. Couldn't afford a 2 x 2, so settled for "cutting off" the carb bases from a couple of other manifolds and mounted them on a single manifold with "junk" carbs! They didn't work; but it sure fooled a lot of people! Plus I learned a bit about body work "moulding" the dummy bases on the single manifold with bondo then painting!!
After dicking around with Holley 94's for the past 3 years, I'd be sorely tempted to try a Holley 350 cfm 4-barrel if it were me.... Unless you already have 2 cherry Strombergs or 94's that are absolutely "as new" or something. Old carbs suck!!
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