Just fitted my carb, but what a B**tard

Chorlton · Post by **Chorlton** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 3:44 pm

Just finished fitting my Edelbrock 1404 along with the 5 degree angle plate
WHAT A BITCH !!!!

It was bad enough getting the angle plate to fit but when I came to dropping the carb on it would just not go untill I opened the stud holes out a little and shuffled the studs around, even then I had to slowly tighten the nuts bit by bit to get it to go down tight.

Is it usually as difficult as this ??
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kev_the_mole · Post by **kev_the_mole** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 4:03 pm

Is it usually as difficult as this ??

It shouldn't be! Any chance some of your studs are bent?

And if you've had too tighten it in the way described there must be some pretty unwholesome stresses in the die-cast body

Chorlton · Post by **Chorlton** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 4:55 pm

I checked the studs and they looked fine, I dont know what else it could be.
A Bit worrying when I finally get it running what with expansion and contraction etc.

Pocket rocket · Post by **Pocket rocket** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 5:28 pm

Mine was exactly the same

I put it down to secondhand manifold

sidecar · Post by **sidecar** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 5:30 pm

Personally I wouldn't bother with a degree plate, I think that hollies are very sensitive to float heights and the carb angle but the Edelbrock ain't so bad. After all people stick them on Landrovers and then drive up mountains at 45 degrees!

An heat insulator between the manifold and the carb is a very good idea.

Things to beware with this carb are that they over fuel most RV8 lumps if you just run them with the out of the box settings. By all means fit the carb and drive the car for a while but you should think about getting a calibration kit before borewash sets in.

The choke is a waste of time, best thing to do with it is take off the actual plate and lock wire the choke shaft and lever so that the fast idle won't engauge in a random fashion. (I've actually connected my choke up but minus the actual plate so that I can use the fast idle when the engine is cold).

The carb is easy to work on and changes to the jets and needles make quite a big difference to the mixture strength so it's quite easy to feel when it's right, or wrong!

AJMHO

HTH,

Pete

CastleMGBV8 · Post by **CastleMGBV8** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:22 pm

If it's a 3.5 or 3.9 with mild mods say stage 1 head, Hurricane cam then the standard primaries will be far to rich.

The recommended Rods are 1441 and Jets 1421 and are not necessarily in the standard jetting kit and you can get them from RPI seperately.

Personally I would not remove the plate as I have it from good authority that doing so messes up the calibration.

Kevin.

CastleMGBV8 · Post by **CastleMGBV8** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 11:51 pm

I was referring to the choke not the leveller.

Chorlton · Post by **Chorlton** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:19 am

Taking a look at the setup last night Im convinced its because of the angle of the seat of the manifold (JWR Offenhauser)
Then you put a 5 degree plate on and you are pulling the studs across.
Without the plate the carb drops straight on, no problems but as soon as you use the 5 degree plate you are pulling the studs across at a 5 degree angle also

sidecar · Post by **sidecar** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:16 am

CastleMGBV8 wrote:I was referring to the choke not the leveller.

I am supprised that the choke plate effects the mixture when its open, after all did should not being doing anything in that position.

I did try removing the vac controlled plate in the secondaries as a bit of a test thus making the carb into a manual secondaries only carb.
That did effect the mixture in a BIG way! It was possible to kill the engine stone dead just by flooring the throttle at 3k rpm. It would then re-light back up as you took your foot off the gas!.

Regards,

Pete

jefferybond · Post by **jefferybond** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 3:34 pm

sidecar wrote:Personally I wouldn't bother with a degree plate, I think that hollies are very sensitive to float heights and the carb angle but the Edelbrock ain't so bad. After all people stick them on Landrovers and then drive up mountains at 45 degrees!

I didn't use a leveling plate on my edelbrock 1404, and it's fine.

Also, be careful with RPi's recommended jetting because it was way too lean on my 3.5 (only mods at the time being a tubular exhaust manifold and 9.75 CR pistons). I'd start with the stock carb jets and work from there by plug colour and 'seat of the pants' tuning!

As someone else commented, it's very easy to feel the difference a one step rod or jet change makes.

Jeff

Post by **katanaman** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 4:05 pm

JWR is already at a 5deg angle so you don't need a plate or have you put your engine in level so you need to correct the angle?

sidecar · Post by **sidecar** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 5:25 pm

My motor has stage III heads, Typhoon Cam, Edelbrock dual plane, and fairly crap headers.

My carb setup is as follows:-

Pilot screws at 2+1/4 turns out.
Orange piston springs (Standard)
86 main jets on the primaries (Standard)
94 main jets on the secondaries (Standard)
67x55 needles (part No 1463)

I found that it was still running rich on the above setup until I found out that the baffles in the sidepipes had been hammered flat to get the car through the SVA test! Once the pipes were sorted out the plugs turned a light tan colour.

Edit... just googled to find out what size a 1421 jet is (77) and found this calculator site for jets and rods:-

The RPI settings are WAY too lean (Using the jet minus rod method gives 15 cruise, 25 on the step)

http://www.302w.com/Edelbrock-Carbureto ... lator.aspx

HTH,

Pete

Chorlton · Post by **Chorlton** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:52 pm

katanaman wrote:JWR is already at a 5deg angle so you don't need a plate or have you put your engine in level so you need to correct the angle?

Yes the engine is in Level as there is not enough space to angle it back