Weber adapter for Ford L6 144/170/200/250

[Luva65wagon]

I know a few of you may want to do this adaptation to your car - going from a stock Autolite carb to a Weber. I've been looking at this for a few weeks and Kenny dropped off his patterns (from when he did it) at the park the other day. The more I look at this cobbled mess; look at the adapters on-line; Kenny's adapter; and mine - I say there has to be an easier way! Well... easier for me anyway.

So I think I am going to try making something like this. It really should not be very hard to make and will reduce the stacking of adapter on adapter. Essentially one plate that will bolt to the log and accept the Weber. Gouging out the aluminium will be the niggly part.

There may be clearance issues too, which I've not foreseen, but we will see.

[Luva65wagon]

I just pulled out a 65 head I had stashed in the shed to discover the adapter pattern you supplied Kenny is for a bigger carb base. So that isn't going to apply here. Also, the angle is much different. The difference won't make too much of a change from what I drew above, other than the recessed Allen-head cap screws will be under the Weber gasket a little more. I think it's going to work pretty good though... if I can work out the machining part of it.

Jeff, were you going to use a big-log head or a small-log head?

I'm seriously thinking it might be good to have this spare head reworked with hardened seats and swap it out too... while I'm at it.

[Jeff W]

Jeff, were you going to use a big-log head or a small-log head? :

I hadn't gotten that far along in my thought process yet... I didn't know there was a difference. Clearly, I will closely be watching this thread.

[Luva65wagon]

I got it about half-way done before I had to retire inside. It's coming along pretty nicely. I'll be grinding all the internals with a die-grinder and drill and counter-bore the recessed screw holes. Studs in the corners - and that's it.

Is really a pretty simple adapter. I'll bore a hole for vacuum to the PCV and another on the end for the rod I need to make for the bell-crank. Have maybe 2 hours in it so far.

[Luva65wagon]

It's been a few days since I was able to work on this again, but have it mostly done now. The only thing I have left to do is to measure for and create something to mount the bell-crank swivel. I will have to pull the carb on the car to get that figured out.

Also, there is a stop on the carb that interferes where I have drawn an arrow. Not a lot, so I may be able grind something away. Needed to counter-bore for the Allen screens first to see how much meat I had to work with. Kenny mentioned having a thicker fiber gasket to insulate the carb better, but if I had about a 1/4" or 5mm thick gasket, it would clear this section just fine with no more grinding. Kenny, if you have any information on what it is you used - that would help.

Other than that it's a 3/4" thick adapter. No other bells or whistles. I do need to drill and tap a vacuum port still too, just need to see where best to put it. That's easy.

[redfalken]

You do good work Roger! Do a search on eBay for "PHENOLIC SPACER WEBER" and there's a 5mm one that appears at the top. I got mine from that same seller for $10.25 + $3.50 shipping in Oct 2010. The one up now is $18 +$4.50 shipping. Inflation??

[Jeff W]

Since I am now rebuilding a newer head, my original adapter made for my older "small log" head will no longer work.

My brother machined a new adapter plate that I picked up last week. The "Large Log" not only has a much larger inlet hole for the air, but also mounts the carburetor closer to the valve cover so I had to move over a bit.

The new adapter is closest to my gasket template in the photo.

It still needs some manual work to smooth out the rough areas... but most of the work is done.

[Luva65wagon]

Just think of all the 144, 170, 200, 250 motors out there could use these! We could be rich! OK, you could be rich. I'll be happy with just a small percentage.



Looks and will work great!

[Tikitime]

So how did this end up? Did you end up with a weber on your falcon?

I am seriously looking into this right now, with a weber dg/v? An adapter plate.
But it then looks like I might need to run a different distributor as well?

Hrm So many thoughts in my brain right now.

[Luva65wagon]

Conceptually it came out great. It runs OK, but I may have chosen the wrong Weber. Kenny has a DG-V as I recall, but I can't recall what one I got. The powerband feels flat to me, but honestly have never had a lot of time since doing it to tweak at it. Seems to me the Autolite 1100 provided better performance. But I don't yet know the jetting on the one I have.

As for distributor, because you have no mechanical advance, there is a special vacuum-based advance function used with early Ford systems. If you put on a carburetor lacking the special vacuum advance function you will get poor results. So you need to upgrade to a later distributor having both mechanical and vacuum advance.

Doing a Duraspark II setup is the logical upgrade with a newer carburetor setup. Pretty easy to do if you csn find the parts. I found most of mine at a PicknPull. It's the harness you need since everything else can be bought new. I make my own module while Kenny did a MSD setup.

Good luck ciphering what things you can do while you're at it!