144 air flow

if you cut the top surface away on the log intake of a 144ci and then welded up a plenum that raised the base of the carb up about four inches would this help the engines performance? i thought it might encourage better air flow.

could you just fab up a spacer? they aparently help performance not sure if you can feel it tho

since i posted this i actually did fab up a spacer under a new carb. now the van is haulin. the spacer was just some 3/8" micarta to keep the carb cool and avoid hot starting issues. the spacer likely did nothing for the power but the carb replacement sure did! i used the 806 instead of the 808 carb that was stock. had to do some tinkering to fit it up but it goes up a hill now.

nicee!! it's amazing what a simple carb can do...was the 806 brand new or you rebuilt it?

the 806 was new to me but it was rebuilt at a factory somewhere, the other thing i did last night was box in the aircleaner and run a tube out of the engine bay for some fresh air and let me tell you what a huge difference!!! there is a hill coming to my house and i would lucky to get up it at forty and now the van is taking it at fifty five or sixty mph. totally amazing change, i cant see why i'd ever ditch that 144 now, i will polish the intake and maybe bend up some headers. as it is its a keeper.

good to hear! I need to get mine running!!!!

you have a 144 as well? what year is your van?

65...had a 170 when I got it..now it has a 68 200 that was fully rebuilt by a guy who ended up swaping in a 302 instead...but doesn't bolt up to my trany.

turns out my pcv circuit was totally plugged solid. so i unplugged it all and cleaned it up with the following effect...there is now fumes being pushed out of the oil filler neck instead of a large vacuum sucking inward. the van wouldn't run after i cleaned the pcv circuit so i had to set the mixture screw leaner and turn the idle down. now the van no longer backfires after i let off the gas and it has lots more power and it doesn't stink of gas after i turn it off. this along with a high mileage synthetic oil change hugely affected the performance of the motor. it idles super smooth now. i can probably do a brake stand if i wanted to as opposed to barely getting up the hill home. tomorrow i am going to pour sea foam into it and blow the rest of the carbon build up off the intake valves. the motor pulls 21 in/hg at idle and oil pressure at 1500 rpm is in the high 40s. this motor was poorly maintained and was suffocating. it feels like a 2L 6 now!

Good job!