Welp, after taking the day off and traveling in what amounted to a monsoon ending in snow by the time I arrived 4 and a half hours away from my residence, I was rewarded with what amounted to a holy grail (or at least the shroud of Turin ). The carbs look to be correct and in very good shape. The o-rings for the secondary tubes - those have only been staked once. The butterflies operated normally and nothing seemed wobbly - even the bores were pretty clean. I have not opened up the bowls yet but would assume they are dry. Thankfully, the intake was very clean inside with no corrosion showing anywhere, and the coolant ports look very good. No repairs have been made and the belly looks to be very solid. The big bonus in all this was the air cleaner and original FoMoCo air filter. There was only one phenolic spacer under the front carburetor. While this purchase was not exactly cheap, I was glad to locate the setup.

Question 1 - It appears that these 2x4 ECG9424D manifolds do not have the same bolt pattern for the accelerator linkage to bolt to the manifold. The holes look to be closer together than the standard Y Block intake. I would assume that this would be because of the base of the rear carb. How difficult is it to find a 1957 passenger car accelerator linkage that matches? more hen's teeth?

Question 2 - I would assume that both carb bases would require phenolic spacers, but it appears this may put the carbs not exactly at the same height. Is this correct?

Question 3 - Can I assume that this air cleaner is from a 1957 passenger car in original application? Is anyone reproducing the air filter?

Question 4 - I have heard that Ford did have a matched distributor for the E code. Does anyone know where I could find the specs on that? 




Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Great find, congratulations. I’m looking forward to seeing this in your blog.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

You will need another phenolic spacer to get the carbs at the same height.  Or you can remove the existing spacer if hood height ends up being an issue.  Unless you are doing a restoration and you are dealing with a standard shift car, I typically do away with the pivot assembly at the back of the intake manifold and hook the carb linkage directly to the pedal linkage at the firewall. Here’s a picture of a ’56 where the linkage was converted to be a straight shot from the firewall to the carb.
  

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Dan, those ECJ carbs are the correct 2-4 carbs.  The air filter is indeed '57 passenger.  Did you get the valley pan for the 2-4 setup?  The stock single carb valley pan will  not  clear the bottom of the manifold.  The 2-4 pan has a depressed center to clear the manifold bottom. If the car is an automatic, you will need the bellcrank for the kickdown linkage.  If it is a standard shift, then Ted's post  would  work fine.  Somewhere I have a copy of a Ford bulletin that has tune up specs for 2-4 and supercharged engines.  I'll try to find it when you get to that part of your project.

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

NoShortcuts
a.k.a. Charlie Brown
near Syracuse, New York

Hi Dan -
I seem to be having difficulty with accomplishing a reply to your entry.

Comments 
- Notice that both of your carburetors are ABs and, as you said, the air cleaner housing was for a passenger car.  As you may know, a pair of ABs were used for vehicles with 3 speed standard or 3 speed with overdrive transmissions.  Put another way, the AA carburetors had an anti-stall dashpot that was not utilized on the AB carburetor.
- Notice the indentation in the upper air cleaner housing on the passenger side.  This was to clear the oil fill tube breather cap coming from the valley pan.
- The last I knew, E code owners were using a GM supplied air filter element from '50 3x2 set-ups in their '57 'Bird air cleaner assembly.  I believe the air filter element number was #204.
As I recall, for individuals with the T-Bird air cleaner housing, some trimming of edge of the element was necessary for it to seat properly in the 'Bird E code air cleaner housing.
- Because the 'Bird air cleaner housing assembly was 1 inch less tall than the passenger car unit, a spacer board had to be fabricated to sit on top of the air cleaner element in the passenger car housing.  I believe that the spacer had to be 3/4 inch in height to permit the GM air filter to fit properly in the passenger car E code air cleaner housing.

• the secondary centrifugal advance spring (the part number was different because of its spring rating), and
• the specific shims used to calibrate the ignition distributor vacuum advance chamber operation.

- Other than those two variations, an E code marked distributor had the same:

• primary centrifugal advance spring
• centrifugal advance weights
• distributor cam
• ignition points
• condenser
• distributor vacuum advance chamber
• rotor
• distributor cap

NoShortcuts
a.k.a. Charlie Brown
near Syracuse, New York

I have a case of the GM aircleaner filters if you are interested.

Good luck with your find. I chose to use GM WCFB’s with my setup and was able to use the carbs in the conventional direction and made make a shortened throttle rod to use the stock linkage for my Ford-O-Matic trans. I used a 3/8” phenolic spacer under each carb. I am not familiar with the 57 car or Thunderbird E code distributors. The 56 over the parts counter kit came with 2 carbs matched to work with the Loadmatic distributors. If you’re going to use the Holleys and in 57 they were still used the Loadmatic on the E’s you can possibly make Ted’s revision to use a centrifugal distributor. If they are the correct carbs you may not want to alter them if they are for the early ignition. I also made mine progressive and I don’t believe Ford did that on the Y-blocks. Just a thought. 

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

As a FYI, the 1957 dual quad Teapot carburetors are designed to work with the 1957 and up distributors.  Those 1957 Teapots for the dual quads were list numbers 1434 & 1437.  The standard shift cars had a pair of List #1434 carbs while the automatic equipped cars had one of each, a 1434 and a 1437.  A verification of those carbs working with the later model distributors is the absence of the spark advance valves that are located on the side of the carburetors opposite of the linkage hook ups.

The 1956 dual quad set ups used a pair of List #1268 Teapot (model 4000) carbs and those were designed to work with the Load-O-Matic (vacuum only) distributors.  The List #1268 carbs do have the spark advance valves on them.  The spark advance valves look similar to the later model Holley power valves but work in an opposite manner.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Thanks Ted, with the change to a centrifugal ignition in 57 it would have been difficult for me to believe Ford engineers would have stayed with the early ignition for these E code engines since they performed so well. I’m sure Dan will like this addition to his engine if is going to use it. My carburetors are matching numbers but have different choke linkages, there were always revisions during the year. I would only remove mine if I decided to sell my car. 

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