A Rare Holley Prototype Carb? - Lots of Photos

[Jason in TX]

Hey there. A few weeks ago, OldWhizzer here on the Barn posted a thread asking about an unusual Model A Carb. I was fascinated to see it, and especially when Ray In La Mesa brought up the fact that it looked like the experimental Holly carb that Vince Falter wrote about on fordgarage.com. This really sparked my curiosity about the carb.



Fast forward a few days and I saw the carb on eBay. This is the kind of strange Model A stuff that gets me excited, so I placed my bid and won it. OldWhizzer packed it really well and I was happy it arrived safely. It wasn't out of the box for more than 5 minutes before I had it laid out in pieces on my desk here at work snapping pictures to share with you guys.

Here is a link to Vince Falter's Ford Garage article from Feb 2001 about what he believes to be an experimental Holley Carb that never went into production for the Model A. http://www.fordgarage.com/pages/holleycarb.htm



He states that his carburetor came from one of the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village property dispersal auctions in the late 1980s and he speculates that it may have been a prototype carburetor that never went into production.

On his carburetor is the patent number 1,742,376 which shows a carburetor unlike the one pictured, but that the patent number was granted on Jan 7th of 1930, so his carburetor must date later than that since the tag holds that number rather than saying Patent Pending.



Here is Vince's carburetor. More photos at his link.

Upon internal examination of the carburetor I just purchased, it is apparent that this one I just purchased was made by the same manufacturer. Internally, the needle adjustment valve, bowl shape, brass float, venturi tube, the white felt gaskets used, etc appear to be exactly like the Holley 440 carburetor pictured on Vince's page. Externally, my carburetor is held together by the bailing wire, and the vented cover on the bottom was difficult to remove because of the choke shaft sticking through the hole causing interference.

Here are a few pics of my carburetor.





A few other observations were the welded vented screen on the bottom, but how nicely it was finished on the outside.





Also, the GAV is brazed inside the bowl, but also finished very nicely on the outside.






I believe that my carb may have been a one off test carburetor for visual inspection due to the high quality of exterior finish, and there is a faint smell of gas and oily residue at the bottom of the vented screen, so it was also run on an engine at one time.

It may also be a slightly earlier variation on the once Vince pictured because of the fact that there is no sign of a name badge ever being mounted on mine, only the numbers on the top, and the fact that the vented screen on the bottom is SO hard to remove that the design was done away with, requiring the bailing wire to be rethought into the tabbed wings on the bowl.



I have not yet tried to run the carburetor because the brittle cork gasket around the bowl broke when I took it apart. I would ultimately love to take this by Dennis Piranio's shop and have him put it on the dyno to get more performance information about it.

Please review the additional photos below, and I look forward to the discussion that this thread brings.