411 383 Carter Carbs

[Claude]

Richard, have a look at the prior thread http://www.bristolcars.info/forums/8...l-407-8-a.html which has a discussion on the subject including my posting.

When I began restoration of my 411-S1, I bought a "replacement" ABS which ran awful despite paying a great deal of money to tuners to try to get it right. Then I tried bold-on fuel injection; a total waste of money. Finally on the advice of Chris Browne who had gone down the same path, I looked at Holley. Searching the net, I found a firm that prepares custom-rebuilt carbs and bought a Holley 670 avenger. It runs very well. Custom means the fellow in Texas had a long questionnaire that described what it would be powering and for what purposes from which he set the carb up on the bench with the right jets and adjustments. It makes it a bolt-on proposition instead of then paying a performance shop another $150 to put the car on a machine and tune it.

If you do buy this (2010 price was US$250 plus international shipping from Brandon Bates in Waco Texas Batesperformance@cs.com) make sure to buy the linkage adaptor kit (HLY-20-7 $8.25), the carb spacer (TRD-2084 $19.95) and optionally the dual fuel line adapter (34-150 Fuel Line). Alternatively, you may find the Holley 20-124 Universal Carburetor Installation kit has most of the stuff you may need (I did not go that way, so cannot comment with knowledge, just web browsing).

To see the new-carb specs go to Holley Performance Products 670 CFM Four Barrel Carburetor.0-80670, but you are better off buying the custom tuned rebuild.

Claude

[livermoreb]

[When I began restoration of my 411-S1, I bought a "replacement" ABS which ran awful despite paying a great deal of money to tuners to try to get it right. Then I tried bold-on fuel injection; a total waste of money.
Claude[/quote]

What was the problem with the fuel injection? Has anyone else tried this conversion?

[irienz]

Here is a short history of my experience with EFI conversion. My car was converted from stock carb to a Holley single point injection system in 1986 by Martin Barnes in London. I was very happy with it; the car was quieter, more responsive and more civilised (but no more economical). I imported the car into NZ in 1987 and for a period it continued to run well.

Problems emerged and were diagnosed as a component failure in the Holley unit. However a replacement component did not resolve the problem. A local tuner recommended and installed a Link engine management system to replace the Holley. However it could not be made to run consistently - the idle would move about for no apparent reason (and I discovered that trying to stop a 411 in traffic when the idle suddenly sticks on 2500 rpm is a bit challenging). The tuner gave up and replaced the Link set up with Holley Commander 950 (from memory) but, while an improvement, it was still insufficiently stable in operation. After seeing whether another tuner could set the Holley up acceptably, on his recommendation, I fitted a Holley Avenger 670 cfm. I have had no further trouble with fuelling - the only thing I now miss from EFI is seamless cold running.

I never categorically determined the reason for the EFI instability but most likely explanation was probably insufficiently stable voltage in the car's electrical system. As I understand it, EFI systems require absolutely steady voltage readings as their reference points and any instability (never an issue for a carb set up) destabilises the settings in an unpredictable manner. That is why I gave up and installed a more modern carb.

Chris Browne

[Claude]

Originally Posted by livermoreb

What was the problem with the fuel injection? Has anyone else tried this conversion?

As we all know, when Microsoft established the benchmark for anything related to programming, customers paying good money were used as Beta Testers. That's what happened with my EFI purchase for a 1970 Big Block Chrysler in my 411. After spending thousands, I never was able to find a shop who could get it to run right. It was beyond my skill to figure out what was happening in an environment that requires access to the electronic brain and precision engineering.

If you are serious about EFI, it makes more sense to buy a complete system, not a bolt-on. For example, try https://www.summitracing.com/int/par.../make/chrysler... only tell them you don't want a fire breathing monster, just a Chrysler big or small block set up for fuel injection. When it comes to messing with this stuff, it works out best to rely on a single shop that does everything every day.

If you are not in America and want your Detroit-powered Bristol sorted and are prepared to pay real money, consider sending it over to America for the work. Shipping costs are equal to about 30 hours of shop time. Where a Chrysler is an exotic overseas, in America it is bog standard, even 40-50 years old, thanks to the hot rod culture that keeps them running.

Look on line for classic car shops near Newark NJ or Port of Norfolk VA, a major shipping port to/from UK. For example, this shop is about 30 miles from the port and comes with good online comments:
https://www.facebook.com/DanielsPerf...61282873937416. With Yelp it is easy to get a sense of quality without face-to-face first.

Or, as Chris finally concluded in NZ (it was his advice I followed) just buy a Holley 670 Avenger, get it tuned for your Bristol (I used BATES PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS | eBay Stores), bolt it on with a Wieand 8008 manifold or equivalent and drive off into the sunset, happily ever after.

Claude

[livermoreb]

Thanks for the heads up. After reading about your experiences I think I'll stick to the carburettor! I was considering an EFI system from a local company - http://www.classicfuelinjection.co.uk/carlist.htm - but I will forget it now.