Slick 60's

I have an opportunity to buy a "tri-power" (I believe this is not the Ford name for it) for my FE 390. It's originally from a 62 Thunderbird and has 350cfm in the center and 250cfm on each end, which are supposedly stock. The guy had it on a drag car until he blew the trans and now is rethinking his setup. Wondering what is involved in setting this up and getting it tuned right. Are these carbs correct for street or?
Thanx in advance for any insight or advice.

Steve

Actually about the best street setup you can get.
You have the 2 bbl primary for economy with basically a whole extra 4 bbl carb for performance.
You probably won't have to do much to it seeings as he was running it.
Skip can tell you more specific info on the FE unit.
I'd buy it in a "Hoofbeat".........................

The only thing I know about them is they are bucketloads of money to buy.

Mine was seriously easy to set up,Use a holley power valve and they are pretty much trouble free.

Mike

Going to look at it today. I hope it's not a piece of junk....

most of the parts are still avaiable. http://carlsfordparts.com/

Mike

I picked one up and need to rebuild the carbs before I put it on. The rebuild kits are available on evil bay and in addition to the link mentioned above www.hptrends.com has not only parts but a great manual that really is a great how to book.

This is a great book for the 6v setup:
http://www.gerlecreek.com/brattland/for ... dition.pdf


There was also a Ford Thunderbird Shop Manual Supplement that dealt with this setup.

Great, thanx for the info guys!
I wasn't able to look at it last weekend, but soon.....

If it's a Thunderbird setup the carb mounts will be parallel to the manifold, the regular Galaxy style ones they mounts are angled and the back carb is higher than the front.

It turns out that it is a Galaxy intake, but it's all there with 3 Holleys and the Galaxy air cleaner and all the linkage - SCORE!
Can't wait to bolt it up....

Galaxy set..... sweet.
A couple of things.
Make sure you have the small 30 cc accelerator pump and not the big 50 cc unit. Get one of the newer 6.5 Holley power valves and use the blue Teflon impregnated gaskets to put it all together.
When you tear them down, make sure to do one at a time and bag and label the parts so you don't mix and match, record your jet sizes and take a machinists straight edge to the mounting boss for the float plates to make sure they aren't warped. This is where most of those carb's get damaged because people over tighten the screws that attach the float bowls and warp them. So be aware not to over tighten them when you put everything back together.
Let me know what jet sizes you have and in which carburetor before you put them back together. Most of these setups have been used for drag racing and you can find some real oddball combinations out there that won't work for street applications. I can recommend some starting points for jet sizing and maybe save you some work and effort.
Get back to me if the mounting bosses are warped and we can talk about how to fix them later.
Welcome to the Tri Slamma (gear)Jamma fraternity.

BTW, the Gertle Creek manual is worth the money. Mike is a multi carb expert and a good source for parts if you need them. He has at least one (and by now maybe more) of the six original experimental tri-powers that were built for the 429-460 motors for Gapp and Rousch. Way cool.

So, the motor is rebuilt, the 6V setup (tri-power, 3x2, etc) is on and running (holy crap it's been a year!). I need pics of the factory throttle return spring. Mine didn't come with one and I'm at a loss how to add one..
any help would be appreciated -Thanx in advance!

slickstysix wrote:So, the motor is rebuilt, the 6V setup (tri-power, 3x2, etc) is on and running (holy crap it's been a year!). I need pics of the factory throttle return spring. Mine didn't come with one and I'm at a loss how to add one..
any help would be appreciated -Thanx in advance!

You know we like pictures of motors.

Go to the link I posted above. Plenty of diagrams/pictures/part numbers.