I am in the middle of a rebuild with parts still soaking. I was lucky enough to have 2 NOS discharge nozzles, given to me by an 88 year old Ford lover who gave me his Holley stash. As careful as I was, I still broke the elbow off of one of the stuck ones. While the carb is apart, I noticed the jet sizes were 50. I happen to have two new unused jets marked 53. I am not a hot rodder and would like the car to be as smooth and efficient as it was when new. I hope someone can recommend which jet size to choose being that fuels are not what they used to be . I will do the Eaton conversion to make this carb compatible with the later distributer. It worked well on a teapot I rebuilt last year. I noticed it has a little click in the throttle shaft. To me , and I am not an expert, it did not seem excessive. I will consider one of the throttle shaft repair kits if it does not idle to my satisfaction. I hope anyone on this site who has done one of the kits will chime in with advice.. I appreciate all the advice I get .

If you can post the list number of the carb, I can provide you with what the original jet sizes were.  The list number will be at the rear of the carb on the base plate.  50 sounds about right for some of the 1956 carbs.  Based on this, I have found that jets that are ~2 numbers richer than stock will help to compensate for gasoline that has 3-5% ethanol.  In my part of the country, premium fuel (91-93 octane) has 3-5% while the 87 & 89 grades have the full 10%.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

List-  1161 was the number

Hello  If  you  have any wiggle in primary  throttle  shaft is  sign of wear (usually on left side). I have used them  with a lot of wiggle, only effect I had was inconsistent idle. The original bushing are bronze . Replacements are Teflon. Sal (hangs out on  Ford barn forum) thought shafts wore more than bushing. Kits are available with or without shafts. But if using just bushing you will  have to grinded throttle  linkage arm off  (left side of carb to get shaft out) and center bore and tap shaft for screw to hold arm  back on. Kits with shafts are all ready bored and taped. I would not  have done this but planning on boost pressure.

The List #1161 series of carbs all have #50 primary jets.  There are actually three of them during the 1956 model year with the numbers being 1161A, 1161-1A, and1161-2A.  Another tidbit of information is that those carbs were standard equipment on the 1956 Ford and Mercury cars with the 312 engines.   The 292 equipped cars had a different 4V carburetor and the Thunderbirds were yet another number.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Thanks Ted. I'm running a 292 that has the small valve heads and probably started life as a truck engine. Good enough for me though. I think I'll stick with the 50 jets.

For the FYI file.
Here’s the list of Holley Teapot 4V (model 4000) carbs showing the factory installed primary jets, secondary jets, and power valve sizes.

List #           Pri Jet         Sec Jet          Pwr Valv                        Application
R-1074A         50                    86                  43                   1955 Ford & Merc 292
R-1074-1A      50                    86                  43                   1955 Ford & Merc 292
R-1074-2A      50                    86                  43                   1955 Ford & Merc 292
R-1075A         51                    86                   40                   1955 Ford & Merc 292
R-1075-1A      51                    86                   40                   1955 Ford & Merc 292
R-1075-2A      51                    86                   40                   1955 Ford & Merc 292
R-1076A         53                    120                 43                   1955 Lincoln, 341 Eng
R-1076-1A      53                    120                 43                   1955 Lincoln, 341 Eng
R-1076-2A      53                    120                 43                   1955 Lincoln, 341 Eng
R-1077A         51                    86                  40                    1955 Thunderbird
R-1077-1A      51                    86                  40                    1955 Thunderbird
R-1077-2A      51                    86                  40                    1955 Thunderbird
R-1078A         50                    86                  43                    1955 Thunderbird
R-1078-1A      50                    86                  43                    1955 Thunderbird
R-1078-2A      50                    86                  43                    1955 Thunderbird
R-1094-1A      60                    96                  44                    1956 Linc & Cont, 368 Eng
R-1094-2A      60                    96                  37                    1956 Linc & Cont, 368 Eng
R-1094-3A      60                    96                  37                    1956 Linc & Cont, 368 Eng
R-1094-4A      60                    96                  37                    1956 Linc & Cont, 368 Eng
R-1161A         50                    73                   28                    1956 Ford & Merc 312
R-1161-1A      50                    73                   28                    1956 Ford & Merc 312
R-1161-2A      50                    73                   28                    1956 Ford & Merc 312
R-1162A         50                    73                    28                    1956 Ford & Merc 292
R-1162-1A      50                    73                    28                    1956 Ford & Merc 292
R-1162-2A      50                    73                    28                    1956 Ford & Merc 292
R-1163A         50                    73                    28                    1956 Thunderbird 292
R-1163-1A      50                    73                    28                    1956 Thunderbird 292
R-1163-2A      50                    73                    28                    1956 Thunderbird 292
R-1164A         50                    73                    28                    1956 Thunderbird 312
R-1164-1A      50                    73                    28                    1956 Thunderbird 312
R-1164-2A      50                    73                    28                    1956 Thunderbird 312
R-1268A         48                    55                    28                    1956 Ford T.B. HiPerf, 2-4 Bbl
R-1434A         45                    55                    32                    1957 Ford 2-4 Bbl. 312
R-1437A         45                    55                    32                    1957 Ford 2-4 Bbl, 312

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Just remember that if you run a 10-15% ethanol gasoline in your vehicle, you may need to jet up a size or two due to the ethanol.  If you incur a backfire upon acceleration, or from cold start you may be too lean and need to jet up.  Just a thought.  Joe-JDC

JDC