Carb swap advice sought

[rbruner]

Hey, folks, I'm obviously no expert so I'm asking advice on a carb & intake swap on my '63 Champ. I bought the truck on ebay last year from a retired minister in NC. It has a 259 from a Lark & has also been converted to AT from 3spd. I have no documentation but P.O. stated that engine was rebuilt 10 years ago at a speed shop in Beckley WV. He claimed that it has been bored .40 over, increased stroke, balanced, heads polished etc. Also has AC & a GM alternator.
The intake manifold is a 1950's 232 & the carb is a new Carter 2bbl that belongs on a 318 Chrysler. Also has manual choke that is out of whack. The old school mechanic ,[a block away] that works on it ,confirmed that the heads have been polished. The canister oil filter has also been remotely mounted on the fender. Stickers on the inside fenders claimed
" Cam by Competition Cams". Anyway, Bob Helm in Turning Wheels is advertising an Edelbrock manifold & 4bbl carb set up for Studes. Whaddya think? I'm no hot rodder but it just feels like there's room for improvement in performance. Truck is a dependable daily driver. Thanks,
Rob Bruner

[Mike Van Veghten]

What Edelbrock manifold.
To my knowledge, Edelbrock never made an intake manifold for a Stude.
The manifold may be a modified, early Cadillac manifold. Made to fit the Stude engine. If so, unless there was a LOT of money spent on it to do the modification correctly, I'd stay away from it. They don't fit correctly with just some grinding like many claim.
There are a few ways to go when looking for a four barrel setup. Stock iron, aluminum copies of the stock R2 manifolds (for small ports), Offy manifolds (small port, but work well on large port heads), and a few oddball types out there.
I'm interested how your mechanic learned the heads were "polished" unless he had the intake off..!? "Polishing"...as the word goes isn't a good idea, espicially in the intake ports. I'd be interested, when you do change manifolds to see some pictures of your intake ports.

I'm also fairly sure Comp. Cams never made any Stude cams. They may have reground an original, but not new as far as I've ever heard of.

Good luck and have fun with your project.

Mike

[Bud]

I agree with Mike, I don't believe that Edelbrock ever manufactured manifolds for Studebakers. To be sure, I'll call a friend of mine who works for Edelbrock and I'll ask him about Stude manifolds. Isky at one time had Studebaker cam blanks, but now all they do is regrind a good core. Bud

[gordr]

IMHO, the simplest solution is to buy a 500 CFM Edelbrock carb new in the box from your friendly local speed shop, and buy a converted late model 2-barrel manifold* from one of the vendors that does this conversion, like Jeff Rice right here on this Forum. That carb should work pretty well right out of the box, but a little tuning with jets and metering rods might make it work better.

If that's what Bob Helm is offering, I'd say go for it.

*63-64 Studebaker V8 manifolds all used the same basic casting, and were bored with two ports for the Stromberg WW carb, or four for the AFB. The modification can be done to either manifold, and consists of boring out larger ports for the newer four-barrel, and adding an adaptor plate.

[r1lark]

I believe the 'Edelbrock' reference in Bob's ad is specifically referring to the carburator, not the intake.

[studeclunker]

Okay... well as long as you stay off it, (but whay guy can?
) a four-barrel will increase your mileage a bit and also considerably increase the performance of the 259/89. If you don't stay off the pedal... well, the mileage doesn't suffer that badly, LOL.

Then again... if your system works well and the truck is reliable, why monkey around with something that you can depend on? I know, I know, reliability and dependability are dull. Still, you want a hot-rod... get a Hawk or Avanti. Trucks are for work. Unless you're a gear-head and grease-monkey. Then, sky's the limit (or your wallet, whichever comes first).

[PackardV8]

FWIW, anyone who would put a 232" intake manifold and 2-bbl carburetor on a supposedly hot-rodded 259" . . . well, everything else they told you about the engine is definitely suspect. That's the one thing which is easily verifiable and it is exactly the worst part they could have used.

Yes, a good 4-bbl intake and carburetor will increase the performance above 3,000 RPMs. Just figure how often you rev above that, and divide into the $500 the conversion will cost and there's your cost-benefit-analysis.

jack vines

[rbruner]

Thanks, guys. I need to do more research. My mechanic had the intake off earlier when he installed a stock manifold & Stromberg carb from a vendor that proved to be unsatisfactory. After 2 weeks the truck stumbled & sputtered constantly like it was starved for gas. He instructed me to send it back. That's when he said the heads were polished. I tried to find the WV speed shop but no luck. That old 232 manifold looks good but I can't figure out why it's there to begin with. He also had a nice Champion in his garage. Wonder if he swapped parts before the sale?