Hurricane F134 Driveability

I have a '59 with the original F head. I've rebuilt it (twice ... more on that later) and it purrs like a kitten. It is an excellent motor and will run happily all day long at 50 MPH. I still run the original 9" drum brakes and they work fine for me, just be prepared to stand on them (literally) if you need to stop suddenly.

One word of advice is to get a good oil pump. Do NOT buy an Omix-Ada one! My Omix-Ada oil pump failed after only 100 miles on a completely rebuilt engine so I had to tear it down a second time. I found an NOS oil pump on eBay. So either rebuild your existing oil pump or search for an NOS one.

So if you are happy with 50 MPH, you will be very happy with the F head. Easy to work on, very forgiving, and never fails to start. I'm a sucker for stock so my opinion may be somewhat biased.

 

Glenn,
In the case of the Weber, the problem is that the base of the adapter is quite small, and in order to accommodate the much larger base of the carb and yet not make the carb stand too tall off the manifold, the angle of the metal between the adapter base to the top side which connects to the carb is quite large. As such, there is no way to get a tool down from the top onto the nut. There is not enough room between the valve cover and the base of the carb. You have to come in from the side, but there is no room from the front or the rear. The only option is under the valve cover, because the valve cover has to be in place, too. You cannot put the valve cover on once the carb is on. See pix below. Once I figured out how to do it, it really wasn't bad.

 

Maybe it's a stupid question, but is it possible to have the carb mounted north-south instead of east west? It looks like the adaptor has that capability.
Would that ease the nut access problem or am I not seeing things correctly?

 

I was wondering specifically about the Weber set up Eti is using. Agreed that the linkage would need tweaking, but that would seem feasible.

Stock YF is no problem, especially with a custom wrench...

 

Good observation, Pete.

You could mount it that way, but then the choke and throttle linkage is an issue. It works well this way. The base of the adapter is a four-hole base, but you only use two bolts to mount it. One other thing I found that really helps to mount this carb more easily is to pull the mounting stud out of the manifold and replace it with a bolt. You have to work this and the inboard nut together to get it on due to the shape of the adapter. I know it sounds difficult, but once I figured out how to do it, it really wasn't that bad, and the rewards were well worth it. When my brother came out from Utah a few weeks ago, he was surprised at how the four-banger ran. He said he expected it to be quite gutless and didn't expect it to be able to get along nearly as well as it did, especially with 31-inch tires. He owns a Bronco with a 460 in it, so coming from him that was a compliment.