Joined: Mon Oct 10 2005, 08:36PM
Location: NJ
Posts: 16
In an earlier thread I mentioned I was looking for a replacement for a stock Holley 4160 4bbl carb for my 68 New Yorker with a non-HP 440. I have a new question:
Can I bolt a Carter AVS 4bbl (available on the 440 TNT version of my car) directly in-place of the Holley, or is the bolt pattern and/or linkage setup different?
Joined: Tue Oct 11 2005, 12:30PM
Location: Home of the SuperSpeedWagon
Posts: 49
As copied from EZboard:
I don't know about the Holley 4160, but on some Holleys the primary and secondary throttle valves were the same size. The Carter primaries have a smaller dia. than the secondaries. For some Holleys even the dia. of the primaries is smaller than the dia. of the Carter primaries. You should check to see if your intake is a Holley 'true' squarebore-only intake.
Also, if you were to use a carb flange gasket, get one that has holes of sufficient size to allow for the throttle valves on the Carter to open up completely. I once made the mistake of using a Holley squarebore gasket - probably fora 4500 - , which lead to the primary valves not opening completely because the valves were too big for the holes in the gasket. You're probably better off using a gasket with one big hole in it.
IIRC, the throttle cable/kickdown linkage adapter is also different between the Carter and Holley. I think Holley uses just one mounting screw and a register pin (?), whereas the Carter adapter uses 2 screws. I made a Holley adapter work on a Carter, so it might not be that big of a problem. Also, my linkage adapter came off of a Holley 3310 and I don't know if Holley had separate linkage adapters for each carb. Bolt pattern should be the same. You might find yourself having more room on the front and rear of the carb, since the Carter has the fuel bowls on the DS and PS of the carb, instead of at the front (and rear) like on the Holleys.
I did the holley to Carter AVS swap on my 440 in the early 90's. I swapped the stud that the throttle cable and kickdown linkage mounts to from the holley to the carter (no mods needed). Bolt pattern and barrels lined up without a problem. Only interference was choke spring housing was too high and prevented carb from sitting flat on intake surface. I "resolved" this by rapping the choke spring cover down with a ballpeen till i had the clearance i needed. YES, the spring still works. There was alot of room between spring and underside of cover on mine. This was done at least 13 years and 40,000 some miles ago and it is still working great. My suggestion for a possible better fix for choke housing would be to have some one at auto parts store see if there is different choke spring applications for holley and Carters. If you would like photos, e-mail me. Mine was originaly holley car and am using original intake. I did the swap because in my experience holleys always leak and warp, sometimes at the same time.
