Nothing says "hot rod" quite like multiple carb setups, just as, according to the owner of my local speed shop, nothing says "hot rodder" more than building engines for cars you don't yet own, and seeing as I purchased a bunch of rebuilt carburetors a while back that included a number of Rochester two-barrels, I figured it'd be neat to put together a tri-power setup for my next project. Except I didn't fancy the idea of running all three carburetors all the time and wanted the setup to work properly.
Small base (1 7/8x3-inch mounting pattern with 1 7/16-inch bores--there are later, larger bases but it's the small, early ones needed here) Rochester 2G-style carburetors aren't exactly the hardest to find, but genuine tri-power examples are. However, Speedway Motors offers a kit to convert regular Rochesters to operate as a tri-power, with the front and rear carbs converted to act as secondaries, the center carb working as the primary. This center carburetor retains all its carburetion systems, such as idle, main metering power, pump, and choke, while the secondaries contain only float, pump, and main metering systems. When using a progressive linkage such as the one that is available with the Speedway kit, the center carb operates during idle and part throttle while at low speed, which has incidental economy benefits, then all three carbs will operate at higher and full throttle.
Of course a tri-power is one of the more nostalgic induction setups you could employ, so what could be better than sticking to the theme and mounting the carburetors on an Edelbrock triple deuce intake, complete with front oil fill tube for that traditional look? It just so happens that Edelbrock lists the three-two intake for a small-block Chevy as part of its current product range, so no trawling the swap meets is necessary, unless that's your kick. I already had a 265ci Chevy small-block under the bench with finned valve covers and no breathers, so this setup was a natural. Now I just need a car to put it in. What did that guy at the speed shop say?
