I get the politics thing.
Schurkey's signature posts a political statement.
Why didn't the OP flag that?
LEAN on both banks
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Schurkey's signature posts a political statement.
Why didn't the OP flag that?
Everybody says that when their big plans to conquer the world fall apart. I had a buddy at work who'd seen a Covey carburetor on a Challenger back in the day and had always wanted one. I told him I thought it was bunkum, so we researched it. While Covey's theory was sound, in practice it didn't give the fuel economy he'd hoped, and in later years he dialed back his claims. With the internet, people who had experience started posting their knowledge, and we found all the info about the carburetors carboning up. Interestingly, there was a guy in the early '00s who followed Covey's work by instead machining mechanical fuel injection ports into the valve seats - early direct injection. The air charge remained cool until the valves closed and then the injection shoved scorching hot fuel into the cylinder. It got a 10-20% increase in fuel economy, but had the same carboning up problems that Covey's carb and modern direct injection have.
There's only so much power you can get out of fuel, and there's no magic carburetor that is going to break the laws of physics. Anyone telling you differently is selling something. Spend an hour googling the Fish carb, and specifically look for what the old guys say about it. They don't denigrate it, but they don't celebrate it either.
The Infamous Fish...
Hey there Everybody. I have managed to get my hand on one of those rare pieces of carilogical history.. The Fish Carb AKA "100mpg Carb". It is a M1, I...
www.jalopyjournal.com
Can you tell me about Reece Fish carbs? | Retro Rides
Heya! had a conversation in the pub the other night about my Imp, and one man i know said 'i havea Reece Fish that might fit' which prompted a very bemused look from me, an
I don't disagree that modern vehicles are purposefully overly complicated, but saying that carburetors are "simple" is dead wrong. I've seen the tool kit for tweaking a Quadrajet to spec. If you rebuild a Q-Jet, it's another hour of work to measure and correct all the linkages.
Recently I've been helping a friend get his '65 Mustang back up and running. It ran wrong for so long that now that we're fixing it, it's a game of whack-a-mole. The carburetor was leaking. The new carburetor's needle and seat were bad. The fuel pump quit. The timing was off. The distributor was clocked wrong. Are you really harping on L31MaxExpress for needing tools and knowledge to work on EFI while ignoring the knowledge and tools needed to understand and work on carburetors? There's a reason my friend asked me to help him.
I'm not telling you not to try a Reese-Fish, I'm just saying, go in with your eyes open and understand that your acquaintance has an interest in selling it. The factory TBI has some really stupid engineering, but when you get them right they start and run reliably. Do you really want to try and reinvent the wheel?
Everyone's got an opinion.Everybody says that when their big plans to conquer the world fall apart. I had a buddy at work who'd seen a Covey carburetor on a Challenger back in the day and had always wanted one. I told him I thought it was bunkum, so we researched it. While Covey's theory was sound, in practice it didn't give the fuel economy he'd hoped, and in later years he dialed back his claims. With the internet, people who had experience started posting their knowledge, and we found all the info about the carburetors carboning up. Interestingly, there was a guy in the early '00s who followed Covey's work by instead machining mechanical fuel injection ports into the valve seats - early direct injection. The air charge remained cool until the valves closed and then the injection shoved scorching hot fuel into the cylinder. It got a 10-20% increase in fuel economy, but had the same carboning up problems that Covey's carb and modern direct injection have.
There's only so much power you can get out of fuel, and there's no magic carburetor that is going to break the laws of physics. Anyone telling you differently is selling something. Spend an hour googling the Fish carb, and specifically look for what the old guys say about it. They don't denigrate it, but they don't celebrate it either.
The Infamous Fish...
Hey there Everybody. I have managed to get my hand on one of those rare pieces of carilogical history.. The Fish Carb AKA "100mpg Carb". It is a M1, I...Can you tell me about Reece Fish carbs? | Retro Rides
Heya! had a conversation in the pub the other night about my Imp, and one man i know said 'i havea Reece Fish that might fit' which prompted a very bemused look from me, anforum.retro-rides.org
I don't disagree that modern vehicles are purposefully overly complicated, but saying that carburetors are "simple" is dead wrong. I've seen the tool kit for tweaking a Quadrajet to spec. If you rebuild a Q-Jet, it's another hour of work to measure and correct all the linkages.
Recently I've been helping a friend get his '65 Mustang back up and running. It ran wrong for so long that now that we're fixing it, it's a game of whack-a-mole. The carburetor was leaking. The new carburetor's needle and seat were bad. The fuel pump quit. The timing was off. The distributor was clocked wrong. Are you really harping on L31MaxExpress for needing tools and knowledge to work on EFI while ignoring the knowledge and tools needed to understand and work on carburetors? There's a reason my friend asked me to help him.
I'm not telling you not to try a Reese-Fish, I'm just saying, go in with your eyes open and understand that your acquaintance has an interest in selling it. The factory TBI has some really stupid engineering, but when you get them right they start and run reliably. Do you really want to try and reinvent the wheel?
I'll have one when I use my FISH.
I'll read your articles.
The guy I know is now in his 90's, and he's been around the block a few times.
He didn't tell me 'sell', he told me experience, story after story he personally experienced.
I'll take his experience over 'internet lore' any day of the week.
Personal knowledge testimony vs. hearsay wins in an honest court every time.
Incidentally, I never heard of the Convoy carburetor.
I've heard of Pogue's carb and some others, but not Convoy.
I know a guy around these parts whose family was friends with a guy who 'invented' a method to run a car (Pinto) on water.
That same guy 'invented' another method to run a 4 cyl on compressed air.
It wasn't powerful, it wasn't fast, but it ran from point a to point b, even loaded with weight.
They aren't stories, they're historical facts.
Incidentally, I didn't raise the FISH issue b/c of better gas mileage.
I raised it (see above post) b/c of its simplicity and reliability.
I never had hours of work setting up an OEM carb.
You bought a pot of HydrySeal.
Then any carb that needed rebuilding you bought a complete rebuild kit for $8-$12.
Then you soaked the carb in the HydroSeal and blew out all the ports.
Then you reassembled it while making the proper adjustments.
Then when you put it back on the vehicle, you did a few more adjustments.
2-4 hours time at most.
I recall one guy who towed a trailer into the mountains of Pennsylvania to go hunting.
He had a 318 w/a 2 bbl Carter.
After I got through with it, he complimented me b.c he was getting 27 mpg on the highway with it (vs. 18-21), and it had substantially more power on the inclines than when he bought the car new. I have many stories like that, esp. w/the Weber and SU/Stromberg carbs. Anyway, it's not as complex as you say. But then again, if you want to RACE and want HP, then you pay for what you get. In that case, the prices of things, maintenance and repairs are an entirely other subject.
One more thing:
I knew many people (I personally worked on some of their vehicles) who had cars and trucks that had well over 300k miles on them, some of them over 500k. Every one of them who had over 250k didn't have nearly the problems that the many digital vehicles have that I've seen over the past decade. The mechanical vehicles were 'high-mileage' merely b/c their owners were faithful on their maintenance (fluids and filters, etc.). Granted the mechanical designs were not as good as today (except for Honda!). But I bitched about that and wrote to the 'big 3' about it a number of times to no avail. Having been a Honda tech back in the day, I saw what good engineering was. So I knew it was totally possible with the 'big 3'. Problem is, POLITICS. They didn't implement good engineering until they stole it from the Japanese designers and Volvo, to name a couple. So in reality, the problem with the older cars wearing out and being a bit more mechanically maintenance intensive than the newer cars, was THE REFUSAL OF THE BIG 3 TO MAKE QUALITY PRODUCT due to the GREED involved. Same thing today, except today it's GREED-DRIVEN ELECTRONICS shyt that should never have been shoved down all our throats.
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