Inliners International Forums General Discussion Hi Performance Soldering the Power Valve shut

I read somewhere that racers back in the days used to solder the power valve shut to prevent leaks in their race engines and also that power valves were good for nothing except for leaking and wasting fuel. Another guy did this on his car and is now getting around 24 MPG on a sixties ford van. What happens if you solder the power valve shut?? Wouldnt a heavy car going up a steep hill have trouble going up without the power enrichment system working?

What do you guys think?

You don't have to go to all that trouble. There is an off the shelf power valve plug for Holleys.
Any decent or semi decent speed shop should have one. Buy it and install it if thats what you want to do.

Race engines can run without a power valve but a street engine really needs it. When you eliminate it you have to increase the size of the main jets to compensate for the extra fuel that the power valve used to supply. Now the carb is rich rich at ALL times, not just under low vacuum conditions. If someone got better mileage by removing it then it was leaking by to begin with and now he has a leaner mixture at lower vacuum conditions if the jet sizes were left as is.

HP Books has a good Holley manual for about $25 that will answer any and all questions including when to block off the power valve.

Mike