Carburetor Gimmics of old.

A couple of the guys were talking about composite carb spacers and it reminded me of a product I came across in Utah back in 1979.
Has anybody heard of or seen the drilled fuel adjustment screws that were being marketed in 79-80 ? I cannot remember the name of these things, I ran them all over Idaho and Utah for the guy promoting them, he had a fuel meter mounted in the car and we were able to monitor the gas consumption at all times.
A couple of guys ran tests on them at the engine lab in Brigham Young University, Provo, UT in the summer of ’79. The MPG improved and CO measure went down.
These were the metering screws at the base of the carburetor; they had a small hole drilled right through them allowing for a specified amount of air to enter into the air/fuel mix below the throttle plate. Then right after that the electronic throttle bodies came out.

JWVONL

 

I remember seeing them in the J.C.Whitney catalog, along with the "mini superchargers" that went in between the carb and intake, so they must have been really hot.

 

They had the same stuff back in the 50's.
The drilled metering screws and the mini super chargers that had two free wheeling propellers that rotated when the engine ran. Both were supposed to give more power and better gas milage. If you imagined that they worked, they probably did, otherwise just a lot of snake oil.

 

I've always been interested in all the gimmick gadgets. Some actually worked. Then there is crap like the "Tornado" or the magnet that you fasten around your fuel line. Its too bad some of the ones that did work just never did find wide acceptance. Some of the old ideas have been repackaged over and over through the years.