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1941 Buick dual Stromberg carbs tuning


Guest turquoisetom

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Guest turquoisetom

I have a set of 1941 dual Stromberg carbs on my 1940 Buick. I can't get them tuned at all. I live at an altitude of around a mile high. I think I need to get smaller main jets. Are there any offered anywhere? Also I thought the linkage was supposed to be progressive, but when the gas peddle is pushed both carb linkages move at the same time. Is there something wrong with the linkage or is it supposed to operate that way?

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They are supposed to operate together and that is about all I know about them. Hope Carbking shows up, he will know the answers. Do you have the part number or model number off the carbs? Is there a tag on them? If someone used non original carbs or parts over the years it could account for the problems.

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Question 1: smaller jets are available

Question 2: originally, the linkage was progressive

Other information:

Buick started experimenting with compound carburetion as early as 1935 (Stromberg built some experimental single barrel carbs for Buick, it this time they were experimenting with two single-barrel carbs).

The compound carburetion, as offered in production (two 2-barrel carbs, either Stromberg or Carter) never did perform to Buick's expectations. Most were removed in the first couple of years, and in fact Buick discontinued the production after the 1942 models.

Fast forward to today. We have seen many of these setups, and ever single one we have seen have had the following issues:

(1) Heat valves in the exhaust manifold stuck in the closed position, which caused excessive heat to crack the intake manifold creating a vacuum leak

(2) The auxiliary air valve under the rear carb warped in the closed position, so the rear carb would not open.

For customers with showcars, we have (in the past) freed the heat valves, fabricated new heat springs, machined new auxiliary air valves, and had the intake manifolds welded (not me, my welding looks like the underside of the desk I used in third grade ;) ) to fix. And the units still didn't perform as well as a single carb.

For customers with "drivers", we suggested:

(1) Removing the heat valves from the exhaust

(2) Removing the auxiliary air valve

(3) Using two exact matching carburetors from different engines (eg., two of the carbs from the small Buick engine from the late 1940's work great on the large engine).

(4) Rework the linkage so it is solid rather than progressive. This allows BOTH carburetors to operate all of the time.

All of our customers loved the results with the modified system.

Jon.

Edited by carbking (see edit history)
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Years ago, Mother-In-Law got one of those-cheap-as owners couldn't get it running right, nor could anyone else in small town in New Mex, incl me with hours of shade tree tinkering (I'll never forget that !@#*&!! thing). She solved the problem by passing it on to someone who didn't care if it ran lousy-seem to recall it guzzled fuel, too.

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