Hi Keith, just some comments , combined with some (admittedly) opinions, based on recent experience putting Edelbrock 650 on "AFB" 58 or 59 383 . First off, they are not at all the same despite common confusion. Including me. The Eddy has a wider inlet neck,and I think sits lower ; carb is larger overall. The ratio of where the throttle linkage turns the shaft is different, I had to extend the throttle rod ,to get WOT . The Eddy "pin " travels more, in retrospect might have redrilled it, but I thought the stock rod adjustment from firewall would fix that ,it did not extend enough That might screw up the trans kickdown travel, not sure yet --- not an issue with a stick The distance between 2 carb center lines may have to be larger compared to WCFB which are taller but I think narrower .(carbs might hit,Holleys often do) The centerlines of the actual passages were OK on mine , AFB to 650 Eddy single quad but not sure about WCFB . I changed it because the AFB bog was killing me , it never ran right if floored and seemed to /was finally traced to having no air valve over secondaries --ever ---and no provision for it either (before someone says it was missing, fools sometimes took it out). Never did get to the bottom of that,some marine carb? Don't know .
More generally it now runs great, perfect 1.5 turns open mixture on idle , much more stable idle , less tendency to stall, (car has mild cam) it was super fussy before , stable now even at 500, I run it at about 650. Unexpected benefit greatly appreciated , no bog no hassles-- carbs have 40 years of improvements now especially in idle circuit design (imho) . Electric choke got rid of a lot of hassle.
I was ready to do the same thing on power pack WCFB 325 57 dodge , but had second thoughts over the special 57 air cleaner not fitting Eddy neck .
Got into that 57 WCFB 3-4 times , gets really frustrating, but finally figured out ---after Daytona carb screwed me ,---(send it to experts--right!) it was air bypassing shaft. One side of the shaft bearing bore is shorter, long side was ok. The early WCFB had cast iron lower throttle body base later changed to die cast. Cast iron bulletproof, later ones wear fast .There is a kit with reamer for about 40$ on Ebay to ream hole and put new bronze bushing. .Get correct OD on shaft .
Daytona Carb rebuilt it ,they are clueless crooks ,robbed me of 400$ to make it worse. did not fix the shaft leak correctly, long incompetent story, finally fed up, did it myself . A shaft leak causes subtle stuff, the vacuum advance port is no longer seeing the same designed vacuum , at tip in ---as the throttle plates are more closed at idle ,and just off idle, due to air leak , vacuum advance starts acting wrong causing unstable idle rpm-- odd behavior just off idle, you think it is carb which it is ---but not directly ,it is carb impacting advance) . I bought (for big $ at the time ) , a large 2" thick book, Carter listing of one full page for each carb version of WCFB going way back to first use on Buick straight 8 ----trying to get to bottom of vacuum advance at idle or not----many opinions on that advance at idle, mostly wrong . Mopar tells you to block that advance line setting timing. I did , but it immediately advanced on reconnecting it at idle, up went RPM (WHA?) . It turns out on all WCFB except Corvette with dual carb there is no idle intended advance per carb specs which makes sense. You tip in just off idle or when cruising with plates hardly open, 'ported vacuum" you get max vacuum advance which later falls away as you open more. But there IS a slight vacuum in line at idle, supposed to not move the setting , why they tell you to block it. That vacuum at idle really confused me , if it is not all working right it will move it.
WCFB is a very good carb, once that is fixed , and won all those Nascar races.
I'd think twice on a cobbled up dual carb setup as front and back carbs are not the same, stock, as you know, can get into a can of worms around fast idle etc --if the Eddy fits side by side at all. Do not know that .And how to run linkage? Progressive? Both at once?
Takeaway is fix what's wrong imho, unless it is already a single 4 bbl and want more CFM etc Eddy much better than old AFB if those two are swapped right, but not a bolt in swap. Probably to do dual carbs right you need to machine a WCFB manifold ? But why? Adapters will raise it up, may have hood and airflow issues.
Further WCFB were only around 350-400CFM, so finding a single 4BBL dual plane manifold and machining or adapting one 750 new design eddy or holley brawler will get you more than the duals, run far better typically, and probably far better manifold design --a single quad real 180 dual plane will walk away from those old single plenum duals.
The 392 dual quad manifold in particular a real dog , for 392", squeezed down, essentially just a plenum, a single 4 bbl hotheads real dual plane w 750 will kill it probably by 30 HP . But if all you had was a 350-400CFM in 1957, dual quads were better.
We don't want to be like Ford guys, looks good (dual quad 312) but does not go,so they chrome it. ("dress up kit") Laugh
Good luck interesting thing, keep us informed.
jkg