my goal is to have a fun car to enjoy around at shows and cruises.  

I have what I believe to be stock 272 , with 2 barrel carb, dual exhaust, three on tree with OD

have 272 stock with dual exhaust, three spd with OD.  want to use to enjoy  shows and roll in and just good driving 

flash backs are Great to hear that's what we all do 

I want to go the other way.

I had a 2 hole Holley and bought a 4 hole intake for my 292 and put on an Edelbrock.

Now I wish I still had a 2 hole.  There is no real "performance" increase but a marked decrease in MPG.  Not like my 292 was a racer to begin with.

I do like the look of the aluminum intake I have but since this car is just a long low custom I'd rather have the gas mileage back.

Anyone have success using an adapter to go the other way???




1959 Edsel Ranger, 1916 Ford "speedster"
"I may not be a rich man, but I can give you a million dollars' worth of bad publicity."

What size 4-barrel carburetor did you use to replace your 2-barrel? A small 4-barrel would have smaller primaries than an equivalent cfm 2-barrel? Were your 4-barrel carburetor and distributor compatible?

Skyhunter: 1st of all we need to know what year your car or engine is ? '55-56 engines came with vacuum advance Distributors (no centrifcal advance) & carbs that were designed to work with them.. If you installed a 57 or later model carb on one of those engines with the original Distributor, that is why it's not working properly.. This is a  long standing problem going years back!  Unfortunately, Ford was out of step by 1956 with this setup.. Another unintended performance set back.. You need a 57-62  distributor to get started on the right foot..

N.B.- just noticed that the original starting posting here is 3 yrs old... 


Paul

If you installed a modern carburetor with your original 1955 distributor, you went backwards not forwards.  Upgrade the distributor and you will see a noticeable difference.

Ditto on the distributor comment.
 
The factory four barrel set ups are engineered combinations.  When arbitrarily just converting a 2V engine to a 4V set up using a universal carb, then some extra calibration will be required to make that compatible with the current engine combination.  I have experimented with a variety of 4V carbs on my 272 and after some tuning, most of them get a reliable 19+ mpg on the highway.  I have seen as high as 21 mpg.
 
The current carb is the Summit 500 cfm unit while the previous carb was the 525 cfm Road Demon Jr.  After eight plus years with the Demon carb, it needed a kit and rather than rebuild it, this was a good time to try the new Summit 500 carb.  The Summit carb has been on the car now for four years and runs good although it's just a bit on the small side when pushing the speed up there.  This car has been used in the Big Bend Open Road Race so it's not just a Sunday cruiser.  Before that Demon carb was a number of Holley and Carter carbs.  I was always at a loss with the Carter carbs in getting the fuel mileage I get with other carbs so I’m simply not a Carter/Edelbrock carb fan. Keep in mind that all this is with an engine that now has almost 200K miles on it since that last time it was opened up.  The car now has over 300K miles on it.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

As a note... the Summit 500 cfm are currently back ordered stating end of February for shipping. Seems like the HAMB and mentioning here might be increasing sales.

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.