Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Carb mounting

Hey guys, getting ready to put the head and intake onto my 292. My question is regarding carb installation. I've seen some install the carb north-south, parallel with the engine, and some east-west, perpendicular to the engine. Does it really matter which way it sits? Isn't the fuel going to be pulled into the manifold no matter which way it mounts? I'm using a 400 cfm Demon Holley-style carb to start with, Clifford intake, lump port, 1.60-1.84 valved head. It seems it would make life easier keeping the linkage as a pull type, as opposed to having to tap the intake to mount a bellcrank of some sort. Advice is greatly appreciated.

in a perfect world, I think the primaries should run with the length of the motor, preferably next to the valve cover, rather away from it, just to have a shorter path for seemingly better response. Tougher for linkages, but its no hill for a stepper. Otherwise the primaries would be a bit off and favoring the front cylinders- at least this is the way GM did the four bbl Pontiac ohc, as well as the experimental Chevy factory manifold shown in Leo's book (probably a copy of the Pontiac or versa/vicey). Would carb mountain be very far from wolverton mountain?

If I only knew where Wolverton mountain was...

Bing found this!
" Woolverton Mountain is located a few miles north of Morrilton, Arkansas."

Be careful! They say don't go there.

I've been to Morrilton! So has Leon Rausch and the Texas Playboys.
There is an inliner that lives in the hills near there, he's got a 261 powered fire truck with sway bars-lives in Perry? Arkansas. Real close to Petite Jean state park, names, ah... robert...... ah AAh, here in my inliners directory, Robert French of Perryville Ark. He must know where Woolverton Mt am. Helloo Robert!! Hep us!

Anyone else have any thoughts on this topic? Besides mountains?

HD motorcycles have a throttle cable that makes a 90 degree turn leaving the hand grip. Could that be used to eliminate the bellcrank?

Sorry for the puns,
Try some late model cable&pedal arrangements-all you gotta do there is to make a brkt to hold the cable housing in position to allow the actuating cable to do its job. A brkt could be made out of something as light as # 14 ga. flat stock and held down by a carb mounting bolt, or a seperate mounting plate sort of a "porch" for the brkt to sit on, again secured by one or more carb bolts-just so the cable's housing dont move in relation to the carb. No bell cranks, pulleys or voodoo there, just be sure to use a return spring.

clifton clowers had a gun & a knife............but I'm sure he's dead by now! Morrilton's perfectly safe I go there all the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L51dm8h3DE

the carb orientation has been kicked around alot. I bet you couldn't tell the difference either way.

The Sprint had the primaries parallel to the crank and outboard to improve mixture distribution. The secondaries are next to the cover.
It looks nothing like the Clifford manifold.

Whoops, I misspoke, indeed both the chevy & pontiac factory intakes were oriented with secondaries next to the valve cover. I would then go with their ideas as they probably had a few more coffee break discussions and skull sessions than ourselves. I tried to adapt a pontiac intake to a chevy 230 saveral years ago and gave up due to too many attachment bolt problems. In my case, the use of a thick spacer, say 2" thick (instead of a flat 3/8" "headder" plate would have provided enough room for some of the fouling bolts to coexist. The slight misalignment of ports were easily sloved by a combination of grinding the ports and the adapter plate, Both intake and exhaust manifolds were cast iron (heavy)with the exhaust looking very tubing like, and having dual 2" outlets, the stock dual exhaust pipes were then crushed together to fit into a single 2-1/2" exhaust pipe and on to the muffler. I think this particular setup was off a Firebird Sprint body. A buddy had a F-bird Sprint and they looked the same. No sweat to run duals, just cut rear pipe while still individual and add length.

So basically, nobody has any empirical evidence either way?

I have actual experience....Mounted a 390 Holley 4 bbl both ways on a 261 Chevy.First with the primaries foward like a V8,then wirh the carb sideways and the primaries outboard.I didn't notice any difference.
I think with a central mounted carb on an inline 6,the fuel distribution is poor at part throttle no matter what the carb position.
I don't like cable linkage,too dampened,reminds me of a modern car....Used traditional rods a home made bellcrank mounted on the intake for the sideways carburetor

nobody has any empirical evidence either way

You mean, except for Pontiac Motor Division?

I drove my 63 Nova for ten years as my daily driver and tracked mileage with every tankful. I ran water heat to the manifold. I drove the car with the primaries oriented like a V-8, then changed to the primaries parallel to the crank and towards the outside of the engine. I had to increase my jet sizes, but my mileage still increased and drivability also improved. I suspect that having the primaries as far from the engine as possible increased fuel distribution to the end cylinders at lower engine speeds. When the engine was spinning fast enough to open the secondaries, the air was moving fast enough through the manifold it didn't matter as much.

Thanks all.

I gave you empirical evidence from actual observations from rod testing.And so did another guy after your reply.
Pontiac had dynos,scores of engineers to evaluate carb position on the OHC engine. And these same engineers doing dyno and road testing failed to uncover the premature camshaft wear on these engines that caused excessive warranty claims when they were new.Same GM guys dropped the ball on the Vega engine.

Right, so if they ever made a mistake they were wrong on everything?

If you say so.

They are far more often right than wrong.But on some issues they may not explore around the edges because of time and cost reasons.