A few years back, when my H was fresh, I took it to the Lehigh Valley Meet in Allentown, PA where I first met John Hertog. He looked over my car, and I mentioned that I still needed to tweak the carbs. He took a look and listen, got some tools out, and made a bunch of adjustments on both carbs. I distinctly remember him saying the carbs need to run together. He adjusted my throttle connector rod so that when I was just over idle, the front carb would kick in. He also made some adjustment to the points. That had to be about ten years ago, and I haven't touched the carbs or distributor since. Still runs like a champ, just the way it ran when John worked his magic.
I guess I have to clear up a few facts about these cars.
Fact 1. The foil wrapped pad under the intake is not there to insulate anything. It’s a silencer pad to mask some valve train noise. The valley pan certainly does not need to be insulated from cross-over heat. It would be cooler without the pad and air flow going through it. Small block Mopars have oil from the lifter valley splashing directly on the bottom of the intake, except for one piece of tin directly under the crossover passage. Check the parts book and it calls the pad a silencer.
Fact 2. 60-61 Ram cars have a heat riser valve in both manifolds. 62-64 short ram cars with headers just have tubes with a restrictor on one of them. I drove a G for over 20 years and thousands of miles, and never flooded it. When set up properly, the ram system is quite reliable. They were no more troublesome than any other brand with multiple carbs, probably less in some cases. They were also never sold in anything coming close to large quantities, and the original owners likely knew what they were getting into. The big problem is lack of mechanics qualified to work on them, back then and now.
Fact 3. I don’t have an H so I can’t vouch for how those carbs are set up, but I do have an E (the intake and carbs are on my kitchen table), and both carbs have an idle circuit, and idle air screw. Only one has a choke though. The linkage opens in stages with the front barrels of the rear carb working first, then the front barrels of the front carb, then at wide open all eight. They do not go from 2 to 8. Ram cars are 4 all the time and 8 at full throttle. My C also has idle circuits on both carbs and won’t run right on only the rear carb. I found that out when the connecting fuel line went and I tried to run it on the rear carb only. It ran but idled rough.
That’s my rant for now. Did I miss anything?
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2014 2:01 PM
Subject: Re: [Chrysler300] Manifolds and carbs
The foil wrapped insulation pad between the underside of the intake manifold and the valley cover was placed there in the factory to keep the heat from the exhaust passage from transferring downward into the valley. They are/were present in all my big block cars, except rams.
When you say your heat riser valve was removed, do you mean they pulled out the butterfly and left the empty shaft, or did they remove the valve and shaft and fill in the shaft holes in one manner or another? Just curious...
My 300H had a very thick insulation pad made from some sort of fiberglass, or asbestos wool in an heavy aluminum foil envelope under the intake manifold and extending outthe back. It seemed to me to be factory made, but can't be sure. I've always wondered what had happened to cause the manifold heat valve to be removed, the choke to be converted to manual, and I had assumed that pad was all part of it.
When I got the car, my neighbor, who was an older mechanic and who was knowledgeable, commented that I should just use the choke to get it started and get it off choke as soon. Big engones, he said, don't need much choke once running (?).
My drivers side seat was raised up wooden blocks under each corner. The original owners was a Navy fighter pilot (F4H) who was killed in 1966, and I got it from his family.
Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network
Archive Sitemap