1964 Carb for a standard 390

Qewrty1234
Last seen
Joined
Aug 30, 2018
Thunderbird Year
1964
I was looking for a carburetor for a regular 390 big block in my 64 t-bird. I want to find the best Cfm for the car. I'm looking for a rebuilt one so I don't have to spend too much money. Right now I have a 2 barrel edelbrock and looking for a 4 barrel
 
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Hi there Qewrty

When I bought my '64 TBird last year, it came with a 600 cfm Holley. After I rebuilt it, the carb worked fine. However, I had the opportunity to get a used 670 cfm Street Avenger carb which I installed last month and I'm glad that I did. The old bird has a lot more power and better throttle response, especially when the secondaries open up.

I don't know whether or not you could go bigger than 670 cfm, to say 750 cfm. My gut tells me that with the stock intake manifold, that would be too large and would actually inhibit engine performance.

Another bit of advice: whatever carb you have, take the time to make sure that the throttle linkage is hooked into the right place on the carb linkage so that when you push the accelerator pedal all the way to the floor, the carb is opening all the way up.

By the way, a while back I called up the Holley technical support guys and asked what cfm was appropriate for the 390. The guy I spoke with dutifully did calculations which he said indicated that all the engine needed was a 470 cfm carb. Boy was he wrong!

Keep us posted on this please.

Doug
 
Agree with Doug, for many years using Holley 600's on 350 chevys with great results a 600 on a 390 does work well. Being a bigblock up to 750 would work but as Doug said - depends on the mainifold and engine tune / state!
 
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