Thread: early production 327 performance advice wanted

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Hi, I have a 28 Ford Model a 5 window with an early production 327. When I bought the car it had a Carter 625 CFM carb. When I would stomp on the accelerator it had a major bog at the bottom and less than stellar performance. My brother has lent me a 650 CFM Holley double pumper to try. It has a new rebuild kit in it. The car also has a mild cam in it but not sure exactly which one. It has an Edelbrock intake manifold. It also has corvette ramshorn OEM headers. My question is what bolt on mods can I do to maximize the potential of this engine without decreasing reliability? Does anyone make a set of aftermarket headers that will bolt on the the exsisting exhaust system without having to cut and weld the exhaust collectors? I'm not wild about the look of the rams horn headers, I'd like to go for some chrome aftermarket headers being its an open hood car. I bought some chrome edelbrock signature series valve covers and air cleaner so I am going to install a pcv system and plug the old road draft outlet. Here's a pic of the way it sits now.

http://coogan.efirehose.net/car/28ford1.JPG

Great looking 28 coogan. Love the blue color. As far as headers try sanderson as they can make you just about anything to fit your vehicle.

As far as bolt on's a good set of headers will help. then maybe some roller rockers. other than that everything would be kinda pricey clyinder heads,cam,etc.

I bought some block hugger headers today which I'm going to get ceramic coated. That should look nice against the edelbrock chrome valve covers. I've decided aginst the Holley double pumper because I want to have some degree of fuel economy considering the car is using the stock Model A gas tank.

My question is will an Edelbrock 600 performer series carb work ok on this 327 ? I want some power when I put my foot in it but also want some fuel economy when I'm highway cruising. Any suggestions on this carb or is there another carb that would suit my needs?

Why don't you rebuild the Carter? Sounds to me that you have accelerator pump and/or float adjustment problems with the Carter. They are fairly simple to rebuild and the tuning possibilities almost endless JMHO.

So this engine had a missfire and carb problems. I decided I wanted to dress up the engine, so I installed a chrome edelbrock performer manifold and a edelbrock thunder series 650 CFM carb. When I went to remove the old manifold I discovered the distributer cant be removed without removing the tranny mount and dropping the tranny as far down as it will go. I opted for a Mallory series 42 distributor. I still have clearance issues when installing the new distributer but at least this one should need less maintenance than the old points distributer. So here's where my question comes in. After installing all these new parts the engine runs great......about 500 times better than it ever did. Does anyone know if the mallory series 42 distributer needs timed port vacuum or full port vacuum for the vacuum advance?
All the instructions say is to hook the vacuum advance to ported vacuum on the carb. I'm not sure what that means? Info appreciated