A new Edelbrock marine carb (or a pair of them) can make a boat run like new. If you have rebuilt your old carbs numerous times and they just don’t seem to be getting the job done, or perhaps they look like the one below, then a new Edelbrock 600 may be the ticket.







The carb above had just sat around way too long to mess with. It fell into the “life is too short” category. I’m sure there are experts out there who can rebuild these, carbguy in Sweden being an example, but I just didn’t want to pay the labor and still end up with an old carb this time.


more photos in next post..............

The answer for me, on a 327F motor, was a new 600 CFM marine Edelbrock. It bolted right on and ran great right from the start.




Below, is a photo of the new Edelbrock along side an old speedboat carb I pulled off another boat just to do some testing. It ran “ok” but the new carb was clearly superior.




It’s a pretty simple bolt on application too. Here is an iron intake manifold on the 327 motor, ready to receive a new gasket and carb.


A special banjo fitting from Edelbrock made hooking the fuel line up a snap.



Snugged up the carb body to the gasket, again, pretty simple.


Linkage adjustment was a little involved but worked fine without needing any new parts. The tricky part was the fact that on this particular boat, the single lever controlled the throttles and the transmission

In addition to the new carb, I also replaced the old fuel pump and fuel line too. Due to fears of what might be in the fuel tank, I installed a big Racor fuel filter, and then another small in-line “fuel injection filter” between the fuel pump and the carb. I didn’t want to take the chance of junking up a perfectly good new carb. You can see the small in line filter in this photo.



On any older boat, good filtration is a must. Here is the solution I used on a 40-year old project boat. These are high quality filters with replaceable filter elements. They also serve to take out water too.






Well here is the result of the carb swap. One sweet running 327 motor, lots of power, great response to the throttle, and now I can worry about something else going wrong because I have the carb situation pretty much solved.




The boat is my 1966 20' fiberglass Chris Craft Sea Skiff project, a full restoration thread can be found here http://www.network54.com/Forum/424840/message/1166307789

There have been lots of other endorsements of the 1409 Edelbrock too, including Curt Hill on his 427 motors. The 600 cfm carb seems a little big for a 327 running at 4000 rpm, and it may seem a little small to some for a 427. The fact of the matter is, it is a bit big for the 327 but there are no readily accessible alternative marine carbs on the market that bolt in so easily, and a 600 is the perfect swap for the 427. The big block came with a 625, and for a motor turning 4000 rpm, a 600 is just about perfect.

regards, Paul

Here is a report from Curt Hill, along with some additional links to original Carter AFB specs, and some exploded drawings. Curt installed a pair of 1409 600-cfm Edelbrock marine carbs on his 427s and we received a very good report back. It can be found here

http://www.network54.com/Forum/424840/message/1149658630/

Regards,
Paul

Hello Captains,

Another good report on the 600 CFM Edelbrock marine carbs. We replaced the old carbs on our 327F motors after seeing the step by step photos here, and they work beautifully. Thanks for showing the way, the photos and techniques used are very useful and gave us the assurance to move forward with the project. I think the advice about filtration is a good idea. That little metal cannister on the front of the motor was full of junk from the tank, and there was nothing between the fuel pump and carb jets.

All said and done, it was a pretty easy installation, but you need to take the time to get the right fittings before you start taking things apart. Be sure you do the homework, get all the clamps, adapters, and hose, etc., mock it up, and then dive in.

Dale Perkins