MTFCA Forum

Hello all, many of you know of my early 1913 Canadian Ford built in Sept/October of 1912.

For many years it had the incorrect carb on it (NH) and I've made it a fun project to put the car back to as all original & authentic as possible. I started out thinking that the car should have a Holly "two screw" type S carb. I used this carb for about two years. I have all the correct tools and fixtures to make this carb work very reliably with no leaks or issues. My abilities as a millwright and machinist have allowed me to make changes on many of these early carbs so they now have viton needle valves, and modern floats, and do NOT leak gas at all, but that's not the focus here. I've successfully rebuilt dozens of Holley carbs: G's, S's, NH's..... This year, the Holley S carb seems to be out of adjustment. My car would be very difficult to start, especially cold, and more often then not, when hot. Once running, it's performance was quite fine though. One really odd thing was with this Holley S, you would NEVER, EVER choke the engine to start it, EVER! Unless you really enjoy cranking! I have not investigated why it's misbehaving yet, but I will, and I will report back at some future time.

Further study and research has led me to believe that a more "period correct" carb would be the Holley H-1, the 3rd variation with no hot air clamp. I restored, and calibrated one I had, and installed it two weeks ago. Night and day difference.

I find this carb behaves more like a 1915 T I owned (with a correct period Holley G) a few years ago. Typical choke, and crank: 2 quarter cranks with choke on, then crank, and go. Or from a dormant state of about a week: 3-4 quarter cranks with choke on, ignition off, turn battery on, and instant start 9 times out of 10.

The Holley H-1 seems to have more get up and go, and the car seems to want to run better with considerably more pep. Easy starting, hot or cold, and lots of free starts.

Does anyone have any thoughts similar or different from my own comparisons? I'm interested in hearing what you have to say.

Just for the record, my ignition system is completely rebuilt with newly rebuilt Heinze coils (new windings & caps) calibrated to the best of my ability on a Strobo-Spark (John Reagan unit with my specially made adapter to accept the Heinze coils), Anderson timer, new wiring, good Champion X plugs, etc....

I will also note the the biggest interior design difference that I've noticed between the Holley S and H-1 is that the S has a spun sheet metal brass venturi, and the H-1 has the (identical to the G's) aluminum intricately shaped venturi.

In conclusion, it seems that the H-1 which is built pretty much like the later G's, very well built and great performance.

One last thing, I hope this is not considered out of place, but I am curious if anyone knows exactly what changes the late Stan Howe made to Holley H-1's to make the floats and needles work safely and reliably. I have made some of my own changes and when my car sits for about a week, I can smell the slightest hint of fuel. The needle has a very very small leak. Something I do NOT like, and have never had with other carbs. I would appreciate any info regarding what Mr. Howe did if that's not out of place. I respectfully admired all of his work and he was a true gentleman, but never had the opportunity to discuss the matter with him. RIP Stan.

When I was helping Dad with his T Carb Issues, We installed a Wide Band O2 Sensor to get a feel for where the Mixtures were..

Innovate Wideband..

https://www.innovatemotorsports.com/xca ... -3855.html

This is the replacement for what I used..

When we were done I pulled it back out.. Plugged the Hole with an O2 Cap

Cap

The H1 works splendidly on my 1912 van, and has done so for more than 25 years of mainly city driving on promotional work. It did drop fuel every now and then if the needle didn't sit in the seat correctly when I stopped. In latter years it became a little more temperamental to start.

I had Stan rebuild a replacement for me. He altered the needle and set arrangement, reversing their relative positions and using a viton tipped needle.
It was way to nice to look at, so it sat in the shelves to be admired rather than put to work. I finally got sick of the fuel dumps at stops, and fitted it a few months ago. I could hardly believe the wear in the throttle and choke shafts. Now I am back to no leaks and one pull crank starts. I am thankful that I relayed this to Stan before his passing.

Allan from down under.

The H1 is the same as the G with a different float/float valve arrangement. The venturi, idle pickup tube, jet and bores are the same. After a year of the S, they went back to the H1 design but with a simpler and more reliable float valve.
You can modify the needle and seat from a GM Quadrajet and make another float arm to have a modern leak-proof setup. You don’t even need a lathe, it can be modified with a drill press a hacksaw blade and a file, drill where the original needle seated and tap 3/8”-24 and used a lead washer.

My car is a Canadian built sept 1912 Touring the original carb was the H1 With no clamp it worked on the car but not well .Dad tinkered with it for 2 years and even bought a second one that had been rebuilt and has all the new updates but still never ran quite right so for the last 40 years it has had a strait through NH and run strong free starts all the time and will run at 50 mph when I get the nerve. My thought is to rebuild the original carb and put it back on but it works so well with the NH I don't want to mess with it. This spring after not running for over a years, turned on the gas two 1/4 pulls with full choke, Switch turned to battery and free start I cant do better than that. I have been collecting all the rebuild parts for the H1 so one day ? This Picture was taken in 1967 just after Dad made the new top

Thank you guys for your input!!! Much appreciated!!