Technical Help! Spotting Factory Tripower Chevy Carbs

Hi guys,
I wasn't around when this stuff was common so I don't yet have an eye for it.... I'm gathering for a tripower 348 and I need to know what to look for on the carbs. I know I can get an aftermarket kit to convert a normal Rochester 2gc to outer carbs, but I want to know what to look for with originals in case I get lucky. Center carb can be any old 2gc, right? Outer carbs aren't drilled to have an idle circuit or a choke, and the butterflies close tighter, right? Anything else to look for or watch out for? Is a core carb worth $50? $200? Thanks.

 

You want the carbs with the fuel inlet facing the side. Such as these;

 

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but are the side inlet 2GC’s the smaller sized carbs?

 

Thanks for the pic! Are these original carbs?

 

They are supposed to be as far as I know. But I am no expert.

 

Side inlet is needed for rear two, not enough space between them to run a front inlet fuel line

 

Pretty sure the original carbs were front inlet, with pipe to inverted flare elbows screwed into the inlets.

 

1958 were front inlet.

1959~1961 were side inlet.

Jon

 

I might be mistaken but looking at some of the factory intake manifolds from back then it looks like they had a different base bolt pattern than the regular Rochester 2GC single 2bbl carbs.
Real end carbs should be recognizable by the lack of the bigger lever on the driver's side and the presence of a small lever on the passenger's side. Also no idle mixture screws.
Front inlets on these;

 

For some reason, I cannot find the picture of the 1958 tripower I restored several years ago; and it is long gone, so cannot take another picture.

But if one were to look at Ebay 284417839212, these appear to be 1958 Chevrolet tripower carbs.

Jon.

 

Didn't the front and rear carbs NOT have idle circuits?

 

centre, 2GC
outer 2G

 

The throttle blades on the original front and rear carbs are nearly twice as thick as the center carb. This achieves a better seal when idiling.

I used one of Charlie Price's "Vintage Speed" kits to convert regular carbs on my 61 Impala 348 but made my own linkage, The bases worked great.

 

Thanks for all the input and pics guys. This is all super helpful. If I run the conversion kit, there’s still a local yard with early sixties stuff that I could pick core carbs from. I’ve already got maybe 4 2Gcs around in various conditions. One from a running engine, one came with my tripower intake and a couple off junk 265s.



The car is a 60 El Camino, the engine is a 59 250hp 348. The intake is 59 as well and I’ve got a 58 348 as a backup if the 59 can’t be used.