Im lookin for good gas mileage, four barrell, easy to rebuild and low  maintainance carberator for 272/292 range Y block. Something easy to find used that I can put a kit in and wont break the bank. Just a daily driver type carberator with simplicity and quality. I know you guys will give me some good recommendations. Thanks for all your help.

Darrell Howard Whitefish, MT Outlaw 56 Ford F-100's

I run an Edelbrock 500 cfm Performer on my 292. It worked great out of the box with no tuning needed other than idle mixture. Edelbrock bought the patents for the Carter AFB and made a few improvements and sells them as the Performer series. Depending on which manifold you have you may need an adapter (readily available from Speedway and others), and I suggest a 1 or 2 inch phenolic spacer. The spacer will prevent hot start issues due to the cast iron manifold heating the carb enough to boil our ethanol-laden gas out of the float bowl, and provides a very crisp throttle response.

Im hoping to get the ECZ 9425B so I will have a bigger window for options. I think if I go that route, I need to consider swapping out the distributer too, correct? Thanks Dobie.

Darrell Howard Whitefish, MT Outlaw 56 Ford F-100's

Not only do you need to consider it, it's a MUST. The Loadamatic dizzy won't work with any carb other than the original style. The '57 and later unit for full sized cars and trucks will have centrifugal and vacuum advance mechanisms. The Loadamatic has no centrifugal components.

On a mild Y-block, a Ford/Autolite  "cracker box" (4100) carburetor is really hard to beat.  They are easy to work on, not prone to leakage and just plain work.  They also keep your FoMoCo  more authentic, IMO.  Parts are readily available form multiple sources which keeps costs down. 

Darrell, Whatever 4BBL that you decide on will require you to rig up some sort of throttle linkage. That can be an issue. As you have been told the 56 and earlier Ford distributors were ONLY VACUUM ignition advance and need a carb designed to work in that system. A lot of cars only have mechanical ignition advance and that works OK. The vacuum advance is only in operation during steady throttle high manifold vacuum ( cruise ) and adds MPG on the cars whose distributors have both mechanical AND vacuum ignition advance.All the 4BBL carbs except Holley that are double pumpers will have vacuum operated secondaries and will be user friendly. Pete

All great information. I am getting a Z9425B from Marc which will go on the shelf. Until then, I will get a spacer between the intake I have now and the dizzy and hook up my PVC. I have another 292 that I already did the upgrade to an edelbrock and new distributer, but I have never started it. When I get ready to rebuild the 272, I will take the B intake off the shelf, replace the distributer, and have it bored for a 292. Three builds in progress. I also have a little 239 that was running sweet when I picked up the truck. That is going out the door. I hate to scrap it, but I can probably get $100 for it if no one wants it. I will try locally on Craigs list before I scrap it.

Darrell Howard Whitefish, MT Outlaw 56 Ford F-100's

Good ol' 465 Holley would be fine also [as well as 390, 450] very tuneable.. Buy new , cheap, done!



"Came too close to dying to stop living now!"

Thanks Wrench


Darrell Howard Whitefish, MT Outlaw 56 Ford F-100's

Further on the Ford/Autolite carb recommendation, best to go with the 1.08 version over the 1.12 according to those that know. Also avoid the later smog models used on big blocks. In comparison tests of several carbs, done by our moderator Ted, the 1.08 scored well, only bested by the later Holley 465cfm.


Paul