Holley 4000 warped cover - looking for experience

[smtichy]

Hi fellow Ford fans,

I'm looking for someone who has actual experience with this, specifically trying to straighten a warped main body cover (fuel bowl cover) on a Holley 4000 teapot.

Yesterday I did a rebuild on a friends Holley 4000, and when putting it back together noticed the top gasket wasn't a tight seal. I put the cover on a flat surface and could see that on the passenger side of the carburetor (opposite accelerator pump side), at the center point between the two screws I could see the cover was warped upward about 1mm.

Question: I'm considering trying to put the cover in a vice or similar to try and flatten it out, but am concerned it may just crack it. Has anyone tried to do this on an Holley 4000? If so did it work? For now I just drew a bead of sealant around the outside edge of the cover, but know this won't stop any gaps between the various vacuum passages toward the center of the cover. Another thought I had was to stack 2 cover gaskets on top of each other to

FYI - The cause of the warping seems that in the past someone had stripped the air-cleaner anchor screw threading inside the main body, so they put a new threaded brass insert in the cover (instead of the body), drove a bolt through that, bottomed it out, putting upward pressure in the middle of the cover, thus creating a slight dome.

On one hand sorry if anyone's had this experience, but glad for their 1st hand know how on sorting it out.

[scicala]

Bad idea tapping threads in the top bowl cover for the air cleaner stud especially because that area needs to seal on the gasket for the vacuum channel to the power valve economizer that runs through the bowl cover.
Best thing to do if the threads for the air cleaner stud are stripped is to hope you can tap the bowl to 1/4-20 thread size and use some 1/4-20 threaded rod for the air cleaner stud.
You would have to put a 1/4-20 nut on the stud too, so you can tighten it downto seal the center of the bowl cover gasket.
As far as the warped bowl cover, they will bend easily without cracking. I do it to every Holley 4000 I rebuild. Just bend three of the four corners slightly above flush, and when you tighten it down it'll be flush.

Good luck, Sal

[smtichy]

Originally Posted by scicala

.... Best thing to do if the threads for the air cleaner stud are stripped is to hope you can tap the bowl to 1/4-20 thread size and use some 1/4-20 threaded rod for the air cleaner stud.
You would have to put a 1/4-20 nut on the stud too, so you can tighten it downto seal the center of the bowl cover gasket.
As far as the warped bowl cover, they will bend easily without cracking. I do it to every Holley 4000 I rebuild. Just bend three of the four corners slightly above flush, and when you tighten it down it'll be flush.

Good luck, Sal

Thanks Sal, as always I appreciate the good solid advice from you.
What kind of metal is the fuel bowl and cover made of? Is it aluminum like the throttle body?

[scicala]

The bowl and top cover are made of die cast zinc.

Sal

[55blacktie]

Sal, what's your opinion regarding zinc vs aluminum carburetors? Aluminum is obviously lighter, but I've read that zinc carburetors are machined better.

[scicala]

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Originally Posted by 55blacktie

Sal, what's your opinion regarding zinc vs aluminum carburetors? Aluminum is obviously lighter, but I've read that zinc carburetors are machined better.

I've never noticed zinc being machined better compared to aluminum.
If I had a choice I would prefer a carb with a zinc bowl over aluminum since aluminum attracts more heat.

Sal