Carb question and recommendation

So after the other night and the car not running right, I think I have something wrong with the carb. It's a race gas 1050  Holley L8896 which is an old carb and supposedly different compared to the 8896. I sent pics to Patrick at Pro Systems and he said that the boosters in it won't ever work well and also the carb body being as old as it is, would not work well with one of his electric pumps and vacuum regulators and bypass.  Never have heard that's before, but it sure as heck didn't work the other night .  

I also have a 6464 carb that I could probably use, but it seems to also be very old tech and not meant for a true racecar.  Would I be best to send the carb off and just go ahead and change it over to alcohol, or do you think I can get one of these to run on race gas? Any help would be appreciated.

Forget Pro Systems, call Dominic at Thumper Carbs. He knows his stuff, he's already had to fix and correct quite a few Pro Systems carbs, as well as a few Quick Fuel carbs as well.
Call him and explain the problem and what you are seeking. 760 900-3895

you say its not running right, Whats it doing ?

what compression? fuel? total timing?

pmrphil wrote:Let's see, Patrick at Pro Systems said that the boosters (in HIS carb) won't ever work well. That's his product, and says it won't work. I certainly wouldn't send him anything. The early 8896 carbs work fine (usually) unless someone has monkeyed around with it.
For alcohol conversions, it's hard to find anybody better than George Rupert, bolt his stuff on and forget about it.

Sorry phil, i thought i had added it, but this carb isnt one of his When i traded for a motor it had this carb with it and someone had taken his bowls and put them on this carb. When I first sent pics to Patrick when I first got it, he told me it wasnt one of his and it also doesnt have is numbers added to the body of the carb. He told me months ago that the carb wouldnt work with an electric pump and bypass and that also the boosters in the carb dont work and thats why he uses annular boosters in everything he builds. I didn't listen to him and took the dragster out Saturday night and after about 330 or 400 ft the car would spit and sputter and pretty much die needing gas. The fuel system is completely new, I got a steal from an old pro stock guy with a weldon fuel pump along with bypass and regulator and Jim Craig told me although its a little overkill, this combo has worked on motors like mine plenty of times and sent me exactly how to set it up properly and tune the system. The carb has 50pump, 37 squirters, dogleg boosters and 94 jets square in it and the floats seem to be completely fine, it's just a pretty old carb and isnt one of the new HP bodies with the Holley dom's now. So now I am wondering if I should try and send this out and pay a small fortune to get it tuned, but still have an old carb, or buy a newer HP or Quick Fuel model and use that and try and get it to what I need myself because it seems this one is way out in left field. As far as Rupert, that is all we have ever ran, but I kind of wanted to stick with race gas in this motor instead of alcohol, but I guess if i am going to spend a fortune on a carb I will most likely just get it changed over to alcohol and be done with it.

pmrphil wrote:Let's see, Patrick at Pro Systems said that the boosters (in HIS carb) won't ever work well. That's his product, and says it won't work. I certainly wouldn't send him anything. The early 8896 carbs work fine (usually) unless someone has monkeyed around with it.
For alcohol conversions, it's hard to find anybody better than George Rupert, bolt his stuff on and forget about it.

Patrick at Pro Systems is great to work with.
You should check out Larry Meaux's forums. A very reputable engine builder. Guess what carbs he likes?


Cheers

I have dynoed with a lot of PRO SYSTEMS CARBs. 6 DIFF ones in the last 2 months,along with QF,hp's,and 1 other brand. I like Patricks stuff

Have always made the MOST power,and the best et slip.

I am probably going to try out this 6464 we have sitting here and see what happens, just can't justify spending 600+ right now to send an old carb to someone to have it built, I mean you can buy a new carb and do a little tweaking for a little more and it would not be a carb from the 70's. If the 6464 doesnt work I will just buy one someone else spent a ton of money on just to sell it for less than they have in having a builder go into it and work on it . Also does anyone think a 1150 would work better on this motor or is the 1050 better? 521, 14.5/1 compression, 726 lift cam(yes small), A460 heads look like untouched but I could be wrong and running VP112. Thanks!

A well set up 1150 should work well.
Any carb will need fine tuning.

I’ve used a number of out of the box 8896’s over the years, they always functioned fine, but like all carbs they needed some tuning for the application.

Now is their better stuff out their that will make more power...... yes. Will a 8896 work on you application absolutely as long as it hasent been monkeyed with and chopped up

BOSS 429 wrote:you say its not running right, Whats it doing ?

what compression? fuel?  total timing?

Boss 429
Sorry, not sure how i completely missed this.

Compression is 14.5/1, fuel is VP112 and timing is around 30, our timing light broke so we have a new one coming in and hopefully that gets us to where we need to be in case the other timing light was wrong since it just quit while trying to time the motor.

It leaves ok(think making sure the timing is where it needs will help this) as the best it had was a 1.33 60ft and of course thats really off, however once it gets to 330 to 400 ft out it almost quits and starts sputtering like its out of fuel, we went from 8PSI on fuel pressure to 10 and it did exact same thing. Next time out we will take it down to 6 as Jim Craig told me 5-6 should be the sweet spot for this motor.

It probably needs the larger .120" high flow needle and seat assembly. Sounds like the bowls are running dry and the small needle and seat cannot fill the bowls fast enough for recovery.

I'll 3rd what these guys said. Patrick is great to work with. When we built my last pulling motor, I sent him the engine specs and intended use and rpm range and he sent us a carb. When we dyno'd the motor, it made the most power just as he sent it.

68galaxie wrote:

pmrphil wrote:Let's see, Patrick at Pro Systems said that the boosters (in HIS carb) won't ever work well. That's his product, and says it won't work. I certainly wouldn't send him anything. The early 8896 carbs work fine (usually) unless someone has monkeyed around with it.
For alcohol conversions, it's hard to find anybody better than George Rupert, bolt his stuff on and forget about it.

Patrick at Pro Systems is great to work with.
You should check out Larry Meaux's forums. A very reputable engine builder. Guess what carbs he likes?


Cheers

BOSS 429 wrote:I have dynoed with a lot of PRO SYSTEMS CARBs. 6 DIFF ones in the last 2 months,along with QF,hp's,and 1 other brand. I like Patricks stuff

Have always made the MOST power,and the best et slip.

HorsinAround wrote:I'll 3rd what these guys said. Patrick is great to work with. When we built my last pulling motor, I sent him the engine specs and intended use and rpm range and he sent us a carb. When we dyno'd the motor, it made the most power just as he sent it.

68galaxie wrote:

pmrphil wrote:Let's see, Patrick at Pro Systems said that the boosters (in HIS carb) won't ever work well. That's his product, and says it won't work. I certainly wouldn't send him anything. The early 8896 carbs work fine (usually) unless someone has monkeyed around with it.
For alcohol conversions, it's hard to find anybody better than George Rupert, bolt his stuff on and forget about it.

Patrick at Pro Systems is great to work with.
You should check out Larry Meaux's forums. A very reputable engine builder. Guess what carbs he likes?


Cheers

BOSS 429 wrote:I have dynoed with a lot of PRO SYSTEMS CARBs. 6 DIFF ones in the last 2 months,along with QF,hp's,and 1 other brand. I like Patricks stuff

Have always made the MOST power,and the best et slip.

I agree and while I have not used a ton of his carburetor builds what I have used have worked well.

One time a customer from Michigan hired me to build a 557 engine and he sent me one of his Pro Systems Dominators to run on the engine. When the carburetor came in the vent tubes had poked through the box and they had been sheared off! I called Patrick and he said that he could send me the right vent tubes but it can be easy to crack the body changing them so he told me to just send him the carburetor which I did and he repaired it for free! I think that's pretty darn good service. The carburetor worked nice and ran very well on the engine.