Ok, the carburetor for Ron’s Lola is finally finished and on it’s way to him. We normally fill orders within a couple of weeks depending on workload, but in this case Ron was gracious enough to let me bring this one along in my spare time, which worked out well for everyone involved. Here are a few more pictures showing a bit more of the modifications we performed.
The next three pictures are of the throttle shafts, stainless steel throttle plates, and the completed baseplate assembly. The primary throttle shaft uses a custom linkage plate that allows for 3 different overall throttle actuation ratios as well as two different secondary throttle actuation ratios. These shafts have the linkage ends welded on rather than simply swedged, and are thinned and profiled to reduce restriction to airflow through the throttle bores. Finally, they are Teflon-coated for corrosion resistance and smooth operation. In this case, I left the shafts .015” thicker than I would for a Nextel Cup application, since having a throttle plate slip out of alignment and hanging the throttle open usually results in hitting something really hard…and well, we need Ron healthy. After all, someone has to run this site, right?
Next is a picture of the float that we modify for road-racing applications. Along with our power valve baffles, these floats help combat fuel starvation through and immediately up off the turns by reducing the effects of fuel slosh.
The spacer shown in the next picture isn’t the one that we’ll be building for Ron’s application (this one is actually for a smaller carb) but it does show the general design and gives you an idea of our design and machining capabilities.
Finally; the finished carburetor. Take note that Ronnie Ongais…er, Ron Earp…has elected to use 1 to 1 primary-to-secondary opening on this beast, and is therefore certainly entitled to some additional respect around here owing to the fact that he obviously must have a pair of great big pair of brass ones.
This is a shot of the bare baseplate after finish machining but before assembly. Note the horizontal grooves passing through the transfer slots and curb idle fuel discharge holes. These work by way of capillary action to distribute idle and trasition fuel over a much wider area of the throttle bore, greatly aiding atomization and allowing us to run far less fuel through those circuits than would otherwise be necessary, contributing to better throttle response, power, fuel mileage, and even engine durability by way of a reduction in cylinder wall wetting.