1966 Carb Setup? Holley 600cfm

[Cwink5]

I have 66 & just got a holley 4160 600cfm 0-80457S Carb used. Should I have just went with a new one? I also have the Holley Marine Carb on the car now but I had issues so going with the new one. From what iv read going with a Holley Performance Heat Shield 108-70 ($60) + 1/2 inch Spacer (don’t know which exactly)
Then there’s the Braided Fuel Line w/ Guage. I’m just super confused and overloaded with options so any help would be greatly appreciated. I’m willing to put 1-2k right now and have shop where I can do all the work myself but It will be using videos & shop Manuel. Considering Suspension rebuild kit, brake conversion. So if you have any advice for me at all i sure would appreciate, I won’t ever be getting rid of car also but still in my 20’s. Included pic of carb & the car

[jtschug]

The picture of the box does not match the carb in the picture.

The box says: 600 Polished, which would be an aluminum carb. The carb in the picture is a gold color, indicating that it is made from zinc and covered with chromate, which is definitely not "polished". So we know that the box does not describe the carb, so now you've got to start over and identify the carb. It does not look like a 4160, which would have a metering plate in the secondary, this looks like it has a metering block, which is a 4150 design. I don't know why the bowl vents are connected with a copper tube, I've never seen that before. So given that we need to identify this carb, and maybe fix some things that have been messed with before considering installing it, yeah, probably should have gotten a new one. That said, a 4150 Holley is more tunable than a 4160, but who knows if this one is a good size for your car.

Which gets to the question not asked: why are you changing the carb? Why not put a stock Autolite 4100 on it? What kind of air cleaner does the car have? What are your goals? Is the car not running right? Do you want more power, or better MPG?

[Cwink5]

my goal is to just get it running. The Holley carb that’s on it from when I purchased choke wasn’t working/not hooked up I don’t know. To start I would have to manually open the choke spray a little starter fluid and once running I could close the choke and it would run just fine. This worked good until one day it would idle fine until I gave it any gas and then it would immediately die but i could keep it going as long as I didn’t let off the gas. I don’t even know if there’s anything wrong with the carb but I didn’t have the time to mess with it so I was just going to leave it alone and look for a mechanic and just get it all fixed but when not at home one day my father came and took carb to “fix” when I told not to touch bc anything iv ever let him mess with ends up worse then before to the point its hard to argue it isn’t the goal so after finally getting back I have no idea what’s going on with it so just getting a new one made the most sense. Since the carb isn’t the right one I will send it back and go from there

[Cwink5]

I also have this I forgot about it’s a summit Racing And was going into a 72 Chevy Truck being restored but im not ever finishing the project so might as well get some use out of what parts I can. Only pictures I have but it’s a good looking carb just not sure if a good fit for T-Bird

[jtschug]

A carburetor isn't like a distributor cap. If your engine isn't running well you don't just put a different carb on it and then suddenly it runs nicely. Maybe that works sometimes with a brand new carb, but it is never that simple when just bolting on a completely unknown carb on to an engine. If you knew you just pulled this carb off a nicely running 390 that would be something, but I don't get the impression that is what we've got.

The Summit carb is a lot closer to what the Ford 390 came with from the factory. It is the descendant of the old Autolite 4100. Do you know if it still has it's original jets? Does it work well on the engine it is on? What is the size of the engine and how aggressive is the cam?

Expect you will need to make some carb adjustments to get it dialed in unless someone has it all set up on an identical engine and hands it to you ready to go.

[Cwink5]

Of course but if the new carb is still having problem after tuning then I will know the issue is somewhere else and not the carb and if the carb has an issue I can simply send back and then I can go ahead and purchase the new one. Seemed like a good idea since I could potentially save $300+

[jtschug]

That works if you have a “known good” part you can try. It breaks down if the other part is unknown whether or not it works

[64Tbird3]

My recommendation if you can swing it buy a new Holley Street Demon with the phenolic housing.
Dump the water cooled (actually heats the air) original carb spacer and replace with an aluminum Holley spacer (sorry don't have the pn).
All the issues from summertime heat soak hard starting to failing out of adjustments have been eliminated - Completely.
Increase in gas milage was a big plus and welcomed surprise.
The D shaped secondaries sound fantastic when opened up.

Anyway.
One of the best mods I did.
Note - My 64 is just a very nice reliable driver.