Thread: 351C 2V Carb adjustment

Tweet

Hi, I just bought a 1973 Mustang convertible. It has the 351 Cleveland 2V engine. The good news is it passed emissions easily the first time! The bad news is I have tried adjusting the carb twice now, and really haven't been able to improve things. The Carb says Motorcraft, I think it's the "climate control" model. The choke seems to be working fine, but the idle mixture screw seems to have no effect and it's running rich at idle. Also there's a solenoid idle adjustment (is that the fast idle?) as well as a more regular idle speed adjustment screw. My Chilton's manual is basically useless. It has an exploded view and that's it. I'm thinking of putting a 500cfm Edelbrock performer on it if I can use the stock manifold. I had one on my Jeep wagoneer with a 401 V8 (600 cfm version), it was easy to tune, ran great and very adjustable.

Thanks,
Chuck

4bbl's don't fit on 2bbl manifolds. You could get a Holley 2bbl in 500 cfm tho, Edel dosen't make 2bbl's at all.

I'm not really looking for a big performance increase. I really want driveability, and ease of adjustment (I live at 6000 feet elevation). Everything is stock on the car, I'd hate to swap out the manifold, maybe just a rebuild on the carb and swapping out for smaller jets ...

Chuck

Here's my suggestion, buy all the original factory service (shop) manuals for this car and learn to work on it yourself. I've bought scads of manuals from Faxon over the years and found a set of 5 (chassis, engine, electrical, body and pre-delivery inspection) for you for under $70. The engine manual will give you all the info you need to rebuild the carb back to good as new.....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1973-...temZ8003317277

Also, here are some words of wisdom from Bubba....

http://home.earthlink.net/~bubbaf250...rb/carb02.html

http://home.earthlink.net/~bubbaf250...rb/carb03.html

Hi thanks for the links and the suggestions. I do have some experience with carbs, I've rebuilt a few, adjusted more and replaced my 401 carb and manifold myself. The car was originally purchased in Denver (I got that off of the ID plate), so maybe it has high altitude jets in it. I'm a little confused by the fast idle adjustments, and like I said, screwing the idle mixture screw in our out doesn't seem to have an effect. On my other older cars, screwing in the idle mixture screw would generally richen the mixture, screwing it out would lean it. Usually the effect in one half turn was really noticeable. I'll give it a try again tomorrow. I hate all the pollution crap on the car, but in my opinion the cast iron manifold has it's advantages. I had to go through a lot of hoops to prevent vapor lock when I installed my performer manifold and carb on my 401 V8, that aluminum manifold and carb acted like a big heat sink drawing the heat off of the head.

thanks,
chuck

[i]Originally posted by colorado ...screwing the idle mixture screw in our out doesn't seem to have an effect. On my other older cars, screwing in the idle mixture screw would generally richen the mixture, screwing it out would lean it.

Maybe the mixture screw is not having an effect because the idle speed screw has the throttle plates open far enough that the idle circuit has little effect. Also, turning the screw in will lean the idle mixture and turning it out will richen it.

Also, on another subject, remember the old rule of thumb regarding timing at high elevations. I was always taught to set the timing one degree advanced for each 1000 feet. So here in Cheyenne at 6000 feet, if the manual calls for 6 degrees BTDC, I would set it at 12 degrees BTDC.