Special 4×2 for Jalopy Journal

Jalopy 4x2 1Wow, big mention yesterday on the Jalopy Journal. We built the carbs and a double tricky linkage for the Y-block mounted 4×2 blower plate for their Project 38 nostalgia drag racer. And it all turned out real nice.

Our buddy and Stromberg reseller Aaron Von Minden supplied one of his 6-deuce tops for 6-71 blowers and the car’s builder, Keith Tardel, cut and shut it (awesomely, I might add) into a very cool and unique 4-carb blower plate.

So why so tricky? Man, these carbs sat so close to each other that the accelerator pump rods were touching the carb in front! There is no space to get any linkage in between the carbs so we made some cool stainless steel throttle shaft extensions to get the right-side carburetors to meet the left hand linkage, but the fat ends literally hit the jet plugs on the left-side carbs. We solved that with a further lathe visit to skinny them up, then our ace fabricator Rick P made up some little support brackets with oilite bushes to keep the extension ends from waving back at us in the breeze.

Next? Well, race cars need a rod end linkage so we made each carb link individually adjustable – four swivels linked together on a straight rod like a convict work party just wouldn’t cut it.  We didn’t want weird-looking short links either. Rick came up with this crazy plan involving two levers on the front carb. Good on the intake and good on the eye too. But even then we had to shave some iron off the left-hand bases to ensure unhindered WOT on all four carbs (..too close together!). Remember that crazy Navarro 4-carb deal we posted recently? That was for a blower plate too. Same issues…no space. Anyway, problem solved. You can read all about it on the Jalopy Journal..

And….Looks like we might make some more of those throttle shaft extensions, by the way, as they came out real nice. They cover the steel throttle shaft bush, which helps the looks, and using stainless instead of brass helps reduce the torsional twist you get on all long throttle shafts. Stay tuned…