68 Imperial Holley Carb

[Stephen Richins]

I have a 68 Imperial Crown with the 350 HP 440 the factory service manual says it should have A holley R3918A which i believe is a version of the 4160 4 barrel carb i have never really paid much attention to the carb as i havent needed to service it. Well it has been sitting about 10 yrs or so and I tried to get it running again and it has a fuel leak upon closer inspection while trying to order a rebuild kit I noticed the carb that is currently installed has a motorcraft tag E6JL-9510-BA which is a version of the Holley 4180 from a mid 80s Ford pickup with a 460 so my question is. Besides the having a motorcraft part on a mopar is anyone familiar with these carbs & as far as performance goes is there any benefit to putting the original one back on or should i just stick with the one that is on it, or is there a better carb than the factory one to put on it?

 

[Davea Lux]

4180 was used on the 5.0 high output Ford engines in addition to the 460 truck engines in the mid 80's. Both the 4160 and the 4180 were rated at 600cfm in the unlikely event that one could get the secondaries to fully open. These carbs were mostly emission oriented carbs and were not well received as a performance unit even though the factory carbs were sometimes marketed as such. Most of them had vacuum secondaries that were fed by a metering plate as opposed to jets to discourage tampering with the original fuel flow settings. Vacuum secondaries were famous for failing to open due to a poorly placed velocity port. If you are looking for a performance carb this is not a good choice, probably ok for a daily driver that does not see much full throttle operation. I do not think either carb has much of an advantage over the other besides the fact that the 4160 was probably on the stock application.

Dave

 

[413]

Carter AVS would be my choice, Holley is not too friendly for a reliable driver
IMO

 

[CBODY67]

Does the stamp number on the front of the choke plate tower have a number that matches what the tag has on it?

You can do worse than rebuilding what is currently on the vehicle. After all, it's already there and a rebuild kit might be in the $60.00 range rather than the approx. $400.00 ranges (for a new Edelbrock AVS or AFB). If all you are doing is getting it running, what's there will probably do fine for that.

Many Mopars of that era had their OEM Holley 4160s replaced with either a Carter AFB or AVS for a prior, similar application. The Chrysler OEM Holleys, back then, had a poor reputation for long-term durability and usually (allegedly) needed a kit every year or so, kind of like the engines needing new spark plugs every 12K miles or so, as I remember hearing from the local Chrysler dealer service operatives. "Fuel leaks/seeps" due to the then-poor quality of the Holley gaskets for the fuel bowls and metering blocks/plates, they claimed.

To me, you'd be openning a whole barrel of worms to put a new carb on it now. Get it running and change to the "better carb" later.

Just some thoughts and observations,
CBODY67

 

[Stephen Richins]

Does the stamp number on the front of the choke plate tower have a number that matches what the tag has on it?

You can do worse than rebuilding what is currently on the vehicle. After all, it's already there and a rebuild kit might be in the $60.00 range rather than the approx. $400.00 ranges (for a new Edelbrock AVS or AFB). If all you are doing is getting it running, what's there will probably do fine for that.

Many Mopars of that era had their OEM Holley 4160s replaced with either a Carter AFB or AVS for a prior, similar application. The Chrysler OEM Holleys, back then, had a poor reputation for long-term durability and usually (allegedly) needed a kit every year or so, kind of like the engines needing new spark plugs every 12K miles or so, as I remember hearing from the local Chrysler dealer service operatives. "Fuel leaks/seeps" due to the then-poor quality of the Holley gaskets for the fuel bowls and metering blocks/plates, they claimed.

To me, you'd be openning a whole barrel of worms to put a new carb on it now. Get it running and change to the "better carb" later.

Just some thoughts and observations,
CBODY67

Yes the stamp on the choke plate matches the info on the Motorcraft tag if I were to change to a different carb should i stay with a 600cfm or go bigger if so how big should I go everything is completely stock. I also have a holley 670 cfm truck avenger carb laying around

 

[70bigblockdodge]

. I also have a holley 670 cfm truck avenger carb laying around

That would be fine. Be mindful of throttle hook up and trans throttle pressure/kickdown linkage movement with Geriatric Motors style throttle lever

 

[Stephen Richins]

That would be fine. Be mindful of throttle hook up and trans throttle pressure/kickdown linkage movement with Geriatric Motors style throttle lever

Well apparently I'll have to get a different 600 CFM carb I tried to put the 670 CFM truck avenger on & the secondaries hit the intake manifold