411 383 Carter Carbs

[Ronald G. Stephenson]

I don't know how the messages got mixed, but I didn't suggest going to a Ford engine, but most any engine will work in a speicalist car like a Bristol. With the Chrysler small block as installed, it is among the widest of the small V-8's from the American manufacturers. I have dimensions on all American V-8's. Sit back and enjoy this one: A fellow in the Mopar hobby was able to purchase an Aston Martin DB series with a blown engine (destroyed), and he substituted a Plymouth slant six and Torqueflite. Takes it to many meets. My wild experiment was with an XK-120. Tired old six got a transplant with a Chrysler hemi. You could start from a standstill in any gear. Much torque, very much. The small block Ford is among the lightest of the small vee eights,and has gone into many sports cars, perhaps the most famous being the AC Cobra. Never say never, but the small and big blocks from Chrysler are among my lifetime favorites. They are practically bulletproof, even when abused and neglected.

[Richard Leslie Phillips]

OK - finally rebuilt the carbs with the right kit and fitted earlier today. However all is not well. The car started up instantly and then died - investigation shows the secondary set of barrels totally full, and I mean FULL, of fuel with the venturis tight shut. How is this happening? I checked the floats, swapped them round in case there was a bias in them - they seem to move freely and needles are OK. Autochoke is clearly operating as car has not had any chance to warm up so how and why is petrol getting in - the level was so high that it was pouring out of the hinges for the flaps. The accelerator pedal was not depressed at all, nor was any priming or pumping done. Where am I going wrong? Have I a linkage the wrong way round? The gaskets all look tight. Fuel flow is normal so not a high pressure thing from the pump. Clearly I have made some kind of mistake in reassembly but cannot think what. HELP! I am going quite mad trying to work it out....

[Richard Leslie Phillips]

Finally established the problem - the floats were full of petrol. Whilst resettting the levels I clearly weakened both joints which resulted in a crack in the seams. So....does anyone have a spare set I could have for an AVS?! It was a rather disasterous weekend - having fixed the leak with epoxy the car made it to the hotel I booked...or 200 yards from it as we ended up coasting to the entrance where the car remained for the rest of the night! Stripped the carb down this morning in the hotel car park to discover the problem was the epxy had not set and was pourous - tried to solder but no luck and had to have her recovered back to Cambridge on the back of a low loader so missed the BOC lunch at Gaydon. Damn it. The joys of old car ownership. Lucky I have an understanding girlfriend! And it was a lovely sunny day....

[GREG]

I have a spare carb you can swap floats from