Photo Caption: Here we have Double-Double Pumpers, kind of like Tim Horton’s, but packing a way harder punch. Both are 850cfm, older, and pretty clean. I can make one really good one, and one pretty decent one out of the two.
In old hot rod stuff, it’s Holley, Edelbrock, Rochester, Autolite, Carter, Weber, etc. I’ve played the fuel injection game a time or two before, and honestly, I have a slight grip on the understanding but an extreme dislike of the overall tuning and troubleshooting. Almost twenty years ago, I did a ton of research into GM EFI. Back then, the Megasquirt was the hot ticket for making fuel injection run right on almost anything. The learning curve seemed intense, and the wiring harness looked like a bowl of spaghetti, a bad carb, which should have been a sign. In the end, I settled for the maximum performance modifications that the GM EFI could handle without any tuning, which was an oddly incredible two full seconds off of my quarter-mile time. Aside from a small amount of LS swap research, I haven’t thought about EFI or the Megasquirt since those days. A couple of weeks ago, I actually had the opportunity to purchase a complete Megaquirt setup in a box. Laptop, software, boxes, wires, everything. I was impressed, it was almost an out-of-body thing seeing one of those systems in real life, so many years later, and with the opportunity to own it. I was so blown away that I didn’t know what to do, so I followed my instinct, did what I knew best, and bought these two greasy old Holley Double Pumpers instead.
I couldn’t care less about dropping in pistons or sliding in a camshaft, this is what I like to do: make things that already run do it better. I’ve rebuilt a dual-quad marine setup for a big-block Olds, an Offenhauser/Rochester Three Deuce setup, and countless single-carb setups in all shapes and sizes. Fuel atomization fascinates me, and it’s been proven time and time again that you don’t need a fancy computer to mix air and fuel together correctly. Sure, a computer can change things up on the fly, but is a flat screwdriver really that hard to carry or use? What happens when a ground gets rough or dirty, and your computer goes totally bonkers? Honestly, I think half the fun of building a vehicle is being able to tune and fix it myself almost anywhere, and with basic hand tools. The slotted screwdriver is the ultimate multi-tool, especially for an old carburetor. It can spin screws and jets out, adjust floats and bleed screws, the handle can be used as a hammer, and it can also be used as a handy pry bar in a pinch if a fuel bowl is baked on. As I finish typing this, I’ve got the second of those two carburetors soaking in some cleaning brine. What’s my end goal once they’re rebuilt? One will be wrapped up and put into storage for future use, and the other will be modified to take some boost from a sketchy budget turbo. The results might be catastrophic, but at least it will be an affordable catastrophe requiring only hand tools and likely some absorb-all.
Have a question or comment for Kelly? Post it at lmtimes.ca/kirk
