Another "Is Fuel Injection a Worthwhile Upgrade?" Question
Once again, CAFE standards. Get that? It’s all part of the same issue. If you think tail pipe emissions are killing the earth ride a bike like they have to in China.
So you have carb icing issues. It’s a good thing that EFI came along just as the earths temperature started to drop. Otherwise, no one would have been able to drive anywhere with-laying around in Stock Eliminator with it, he put 2 x 4’s on it. My mom would take us to school in it. I had to go out and scrape ice and snow off the windows. The old man would put SNOW TIRES on it every winter. 4.56 gears, a 4 speed and the 2 x 4’s and my MOM could drive it. Never iced up. I can’t explain how others get carb icing, but how did people go anywhere before EFI?
I get why people have carb issues. Virtually EVERY book is wrong. All of them. Guys read the books and try to do as the book says and it sucks. That’s not a carb issue. Like I said before, Holley is the biggest reason why people are carb ignorant. They’ve had decades to develop the education of the public on carburation, and yet, they didn’t.
They decided to leave that up to the aftermarket, and no one wants to give away free what they make money on.
Again, CAFE and if you want to separate the two the unconstitutional EPA, the giant unelected bureaucracy that makes law and is wholly unaccountable to anyone are the reasons why we have what we have today.
The earth is fine with the exception of the fools who think man is destroying the planet, and the same fools will accept any and every “remedy” to save something that doesn’t need saved, just to feel good about themselves.
EDIT: what do YOU run roller cams in? Unreal.
Honestly the ignorance about air pollution and especially China where they alone sell 25M+ vehicles a year (its roughly 15M a year normally US/Canada/Mexico combined) speak for itself. People will get sick and die thanks to tailpipe emissions, especially if we only had to meet 1970 standards today. They had no standard whatsoever in China for a long time and you could barely see the sky at all. I look forward to your supreme court case also.
Honestly you will be less likely to have carb icing with dual quads or a really large carburetor than a small one. The amount of physical space that needs to freeze plus the reduced pressure drop alone would reduce the likelyhood. The reason why the ice forms is just down to physics. If you cool air, the water will come out of suspension, and if it gets cold enough it will freeze on a surface. That is what causes it. So since a venturi creates a low pressure area that draws the fuel in, and the fuel being vaporized both drop the temperature in the general area of the throttle blades substantially, the air temperature in my 40 degrees F 80% humidity scenario would drop, maybe 25-30 degrees in an average carburetor in this general area. Now, on a P-v-t diagram for water you've now reached the point where the water can be no longer suspended in the air and therefore comes out as a liquid and deposits on a surface (just like the beer can getting condensation on it during the summer). When there is not sufficient heat to keep the carb body above 32 F, then ice will start to form. This is the main reason for the heat riser, exhaust crossover, and that tube that goes to the bottom of the air cleaner snorkel from the driver's exhaust manifold on a bone stock A-body. It just warms it up enough to keep that from happening. It's covered also in that hemmings article though maybe not to the level of detail needed.
As for roller cams:
My 340 has a custom roller cam from Lunati in it - when I was looking to build the engine the general idea is to learn from a newer engine (an LS1 is a good analogous engine to a 340). I'd have to dig out the paperwork on the cost but it was maybe $700 with the cam and lifters given that I was getting it through someone with a wholesale account, I already had pushrods since I bought out pretty much the entire top end of someone's race engine that they were upgrading full race heads, I can't remember if it was W9's or what anymore, to get the edelbrocks. It just happened to be right because that also had a hydraulic roller in it. Basic edelbrock heads with a tiny amount shaved off the deck and a better valve job - wanted to take advantage of what they could do. This cam doesn't need a bronze gear or anything since it's cut on the same blanks as a towing cam for an 85-91 LA 318. It's really a nice setup. Finished out with some beehive springs, custom flat top very light forged pistons, which honestly weren't that much either in the grand scheme of things, K1 H-beams, stock crank, at the time had an edebrock air gap, 750 AN QFT carb. It made 470.9hp at 6000 rpm and 455 lb-ft at 4500 rpm IIRC and 400 lb-ft or more during the entire pull from 2900-6200 rpm. Anyone can argue for days that you can make dynos say anything you want but the water temp was fully warm and it was a warm-ish day. Other than changing to the EFI, its been together almost 8 years now, still wonderful, can drive up a moderate hill in 6th at 1400 rpm with the EFI. Its a 227/231 duration @ 0.050 .530/.530 110 LSA cam, I'd have to find the other numbers.
On the other side, I have a friend who wanted to get into owning a car like this, he bought a 71 Demon, which the car is a little ratty with a knocking slant six. We tried to make the cheapest decent engine we possibly could for the car given that he just likes driving it and is going to fix on it little by little as the years go by. So, given what we have an abundance of 5.2 Magnums in this vicinity due to the massive amount of rusted out 93-01 Dodge trucks there are, we were able to find a $200 longblock that someone rebuilt and tried to stuff into a dakota in place of a V6, but never got it running. We swapped in a Lunati cam they sell for an 86-91 roller 318/360 engine with a long snout. I don't remember the exact spec but its something like 213/217 duration at 0.050 and we have "free" 1.6:1 rockers and no need for new lifters given that the rollers were already there. We ended up using the heads from my old 360 that had magnum swap as well as the air gap, 600 holley VS, LA front cover, etc. It's good for what it is, honestly was better than that low compression 360. It's an automatic car with a stock converter, but we can't complain for an $1100 total investment engine. The thing has even been rally crossed. 5 years together already.