383 b engine carburetor replacement

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Michelin
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383 b engine carburetor replacement

Post by Michelin »

Hi,
The meccanic who rebuild my 383 b engine (1966) advised me to change the carburetor. I would like to be closed to the original but would you advise me to change the model with a more performant one ? Or keeping the exact copy of the original one will suit the car ?
Thank you !
Laurent
Sincar Jensen interceptor mk1 - 117/2603 & 117/2606
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rta50car
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Re: 383 b engine carburetor replacement

Post by rta50car »

Hi - I have rebuilt my 383 (1969) and have fitted an Edelbrock 1406 carby with Auto Choke. You may wish to also consider an Edelbrock lightweight intake manifold and Edelbrock Pro Flo Air Cleaner (model no 1221 in Australia) This combination does the job for me. You will no doubt get more options from other members. Cheers
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grottenolm
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Re: 383 b engine carburetor replacement

Post by grottenolm »

Agree to the previous post: Edelbrock 1406.
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Michelin
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Re: 383 b engine carburetor replacement

Post by Michelin »

Thank you for your answer. Can we keep the original air cleaner with that carb ?
Laurent
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Grant
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Re: 383 b engine carburetor replacement

Post by Grant »

Michelin wrote:Can we keep the original air cleaner with that carb ?
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slotcarone
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Re: 383 b engine carburetor replacement

Post by slotcarone »

I used a 1406 on my '72 440 and it works great. Original air cleaner fit fine too. Just make sure you determine if you have a square bore manifold or a spread bore design as the carbs are different. The square bore design has 4 equal size ports at the carb mount and the spread bore has 2 small primary ports and the other 2 are bigger secondary ports. :)
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Grant
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Re: 383 b engine carburetor replacement

Post by Grant »

slotcarone wrote:I used a 1406 on my '72 440 and it works great. Original air cleaner fit fine too. Just make sure you determine if you have a square bore manifold or a spread bore design as the carbs are different. The square bore design has 4 equal size ports at the carb mount and the spread bore has 2 small primary ports and the other 2 are bigger secondary ports. :)
Does an Eddy 1406 fit a Speadbore Mani then Mike?Image.. I somehow thought the primary size bores on the spreadbore were too small.. But I am unsure. :?
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Re: 383 b engine carburetor replacement

Post by slotcarone »

I am for sure not a carb expert but the 1406 is for a square bore manifold which my car had from new as it came with a Holley carb originally. The bore types don't interchange carb wise on the manifold. :)
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Re: 383 b engine carburetor replacement

Post by Chris_R »

Laurent, what is wrong with your original carburettor or is it your mechanic does not like the Carter carb? Everyone is too eager to replace with something different but a properly rebuilt Carter should be perfectly good. The original was a Carter AFB.
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Michelin
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Re: 383 b engine carburetor replacement

Post by Michelin »

I think he doesn't want to waste time trying to repair it.
But I will go and take the carburetor to know which model is it. And I think that I would try to find a carburetor specialist to repair it if it's possible.
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Re: 383 b engine carburetor replacement

Post by Chris_R »

Laurent, the original specification for a 383 'B' series engine was a Carter 4131S. This number will be stamped into the base of the carburetor on one of the side flanges. If you have one of those and want it refurbished, Dave Barnett here in the UK can probably do it for you.
This is an extremely useful book
Carters.jpg
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available from the USA from several ebay sellers at around $25 - $30 (plus postage).
There are a few already refurbished carburetors on the US ebay site but at $550 - $699 plus shipping they are quite expensive. It depends how much originality you want on your car.
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kenny38
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Re: 383 b engine carburetor replacement

Post by kenny38 »

20 or so years ago I had a completely new Hi Comp.440 engine without enviromental thingys fitted to my 4592 SP. All the whistles and bells. About 10 years ago I had a new carb fitted (the old 6 pack went to paradise at time of replacement engine and only 600 fitted) They put a Holley 780 street avenger on a 400 torker Edelbrock. The engine since then starts from cold first time, every time on one turn of the key. Guzzles fuel like crazy but car is a VERY quick vehicle with none of the problems of a 6 pack. Actually am told this set up delivers same power at same 6 pack opening. Touch wood no problems since and power has been enhanced by those who know............ Runs like a new car. Really!! Block was supplied blue Kenny38 8)
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Re: 383 b engine carburetor replacement

Post by Roh »

Personally I'd have the original professionally rebuilt. If I was to replace it with something else it would be efi.
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johnw
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Re: 383 b engine carburetor replacement

Post by johnw »

The carb and manifold originally fitted to the car really must be treasured and preserved! It may still have the gold tag on the float chamber, try and keep that. Buyers checking originality on an early Vignale car like this will soon spot a replacement. If someone is in the market for a Vignale built car they will be looking for things like this.

If you do swap manifolds (I don't see why you need to really), the new alloy ones are not backward compatible with the old thermostatic choke. You could store the old carb on the manifold with thermostatic choke in place. If you get one of these Carter derived new carbs made by Weber, Edelebroke, etc, they need a 12v supply for the electric choke as you would guess. The new carbs are almost the same as the old ones apart from choke, they are cheap and work really well.

Long term I would recommend staying with the original carb and manifold and cleaning it. They work brilliantly, but they can also be a pain if they are not setup properly and they then make ownership a chore. The same is true of a points based distributor, those are great when they work well, they last for years and no electronics to rot! However, given the price of a new carb it is worth getting one to keep things going smoothly with the engine builder. Just make sure that the original fuel line is not cut to splice on a new fitting, and that all old choke parts are saved. Make a complete new fuel line if required. It is great to have a new known working carb when getting a car up and running, and to set a standard to which the old carb should conform. I rebuilt an original '68 carb from a car that had been dumped in a swamp for 20 years, using a $20 strip kit. While it worked, I was never completely sure if engine niggles were due to the timing chain, or worn distributor, or the carb.

What I plan on doing is welding a nut on an old downpipe, so that I can fit a Lambda sensor when I need it to monitor fuel mixture on the go.

I am hoping one day that these Holley Sniper systems can be used completely unobtrusively, and reliably, without needing a return fuel line to the tank. This way they could be installed/removed in an hour or so without affecting originality and could be used for setting up and monitoring the car. The dream then is to extract a self learnt ideal fuel map from a system like that, re curve the original distributor on the bench using a stepper motor and a box of advance springs to match, and then jet/adjust the original carb too!

I am sure there are quite a few people out there who would swap a nice original unrebuilt '66 carb for a new Edelbrock one at no cost!
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Michelin
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Re: 383 b engine carburetor replacement

Post by Michelin »

Hi everybody
Thank you very much for all your advises. I decided to keep the original and sent it to a specialist who of course will keep the gold tab on the float chamber. He already ordered the different parts and said there weren't any problem to repair it.
Here is a picture before refurbishment.
I look foward to receiving it !
I will post a picture a soon as I received it.
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Laurent
Sincar Jensen interceptor mk1 - 117/2603 & 117/2606
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