Thread: tri power compared to a 4 barrel

Tweet

hello i just bought a 2gc tri power set up edelarock intake had a edelbrock air gap intake and a edelbrock 1404 500 cfm it is on a 327 ported pocket ported flowed heads supposed to be 11 to 1 but i have been told you cannot run that on 87 octain with out pinging so im not sure what compression ratio it is . it is supposed to be balanced and blue printed to but still not sure. it is on a 1938 olds business coupe not sure what tranney yet it has a turbo 350 now . i also have a 4l60 and a 4l60e not sure what 1 i will go with i was thanking of the 4l60 so i can have over drive for the highway . my question is how will the tri power set run compared to the edelbrock or holley ? thanks kelly

Tri power will work great....once you get it set up, tuned, and the carbs balanced.... A good working four bbl will probably outperform it, but for eye candy the three deuce setup is the winner hands down.

ya i have allways wanted a tri power i was at a car show today and there was only 2 cars with tri power. 1 69 goat and 1 36 chevy coupe but it had a buick nailhead in it . kelly

Multiple carbs just say HOT ROD, loud and clear. Gastrick on here recently put a set of trips on the 350 Chevy in his '32, replacing the former single four barrel, and he said the gas milage increased and I think performance did too.

If you can keep your foot out of them, trips can be pretty economical.........problem is, who can keep your foot out of them?

Don

"......problem is, who can keep your foot out of them?....."

I resemble that remark

I like the new Demon six-shooter setup, but $2400 is a bit much to swallow

I would think of it as a compromise, for the sake of a nostalgic performance look. It can be more troublesome than the four barrel, and you will notice that no racers use tripower any more,...... but for "cool factor" on a street rod, it is a great choice. :-)

P.S. I had a '37 Olds coupe way back in 1967-'68. Never finished it though. I sold it so I would have the money to go to the Indy Nationals! :-)

Running a 4L60E will cost an arm and a leg for the electronic controls - unless you can salvage them from a junker and rewire. A 700R4 has pretty much the same advantages with less trouble to set up.

Tri-carbs are a little harder to tune, but they raise a flag that says "Hey . . . this is a hot rod." If I had a set, I'd use them.

A-h-h-h-h-h

There is nothin' better to look at then a nice tri-power. I had a 406 Ford with the OEM version, then put it on my '65 390 Police Interceptor engine, then a 390 Torino GT, again with that same set up. All 4 speeds engines. And yes, those Holleys were a throbbin' pain where I sit - but did they ever look nice. Power valves, mostly as there was no check valve mod "way back then".

Then there is 'that sound' when the end carbs dump at full throttle with that open air cleaner

I finally sold that setup about 5 years ago - for a lot of $$$!!

I run tri-power on my 32' and 31'. Even my 65' Chevy has dual quads. The 4 barrels performed better, but off idle response was better with the tri-powers.

Once you get the carbs dialed in they shouldn't give you any more problems than a 4 brl would. I have a tri power set of Rochester 2G's on my 57 Olds and once they are dialed in there are two things to remember. Keep you foot out of it and don't tend to tinker.

4 brl's under 600 cfm tend to be better at gas misering, but there's no comparision when you get all 6 brl's flowing. You can actually watch your gas guage needle go down if you get into it long enough. Used to be fun when gas was under $2/gal. Not as fun today.

Tri Power for sure. I've run 2 different set ups and about to put this on my SBC.

Wow Chevy 37, that trip setup shure is purty! Even better looking than Carmen Electra............ah, no, wait, scratch that, but they are still nice looking.

Don

thanks everyone i like the looks like every one is saying it says hotrod . i found a set to run the 4l60e but it is 1000 dollars i thank i could spend that thousand on sum thing better like the tri power set up i bought used for a thousand dollors i need to redo the paint and take the paint off the intake and polosh it or get another intake i have pics but not on this computer so i will try to post a pic tomorrow thanks again kelly