Carburetors

[bernardi]

What easily available four barrel carb is a good substitute for the original Rochester carbs on the 1955 and 1956 senior V8's?

[mrpushbutton]

A properly rebuilt and adjusted Rochester 4 GC.

If you live in a "cousin marryin'" state you'll want to adapt a Holley on 'er, and then you are on your own.

[carbking]

With all due respect to Eric, who seems to be happy with his eclone; the eclone is calibrated for a "screamer" engine (low torque, high RPM), whereas the Packard engine is more of a "torquer" (high torque, lower RPM). If cost is no object, the eclone can be modified. However to make it work as well (not better) as a rebuilt (assuming the rebuilder knows what he/she is doing) original Rochester 4-GC; the eclone would need different rods, springs, jets (both primary and secondary), the auxiliary air valve; and machine work done to the primary venturi clusters (location of the idle tubes and airbleeds).

Not saying the eclone won't work; simply saying that without major modifications, it won't work as well.

The above comments for a normally driven street vehicle. Remember the current price of gasoline.

If going faster is your thing; then, with major modifications, there is probably more horses available with the eclone than with the original 4-GC as the CFM can be larger (however, there are larger 4-GC's available as well).

Personal reccommendations: (A) for normal street use, go with the original; (B)for going faster, try a larger 4-GC (Palmer marine has one for a 355 CID which is a 625 CFM) or a genuine Carter AFB (preferably from a Pontiac 389 or a Chrysler 383, as these engines more closely resemble the Packard fuel curve, thus fewer and easier modifications).

For someone who is a whiz at welding, would love to see results of grafting a spread-bore plenum and flange on the runners of a Packard manifold and install a Rochester quadrajet or Carter thermoquad. The square-bore to spread-bore adapters just don't cut it.

Jon.

[Guest imported_PackardV8]

For simplicity and good all around street/Interstate performance and ease of tuning and maintenance why not just run the Cater WCFB????? Probably does not flow quite as much as the 4GC but they seem alot easier to work with. My preference for performance end would be dual WCFB's. They are relatively simple and avilable for Packard.