I have a 1962 Dynamic with a 394 V8 and I would like to convert my two barrel carb into a 4 barrel carb. What intake manifold could I use. Would an intake manifold from a 1959-1960 fit? I know in those years they had four barrel carbs on them. Or was there an option in 1962 to upgrade to a four barrel? Thanks for your input.

 

A 1961-64 394 4-barrel intake will fit just fine. They were on all Super 88, Starfire and Ninety Eight. Keep in mind you have to use a Rochester 4GC carb and probably reset all your HydraMatic linkage to work with the 4-barrel. I recommend getting the entire assembly- intake, carb and all linkages. Your life will be simpler.

If you elect to use an Edelbrock AFB carb, you will HAVE to set up the transmission linkage to work with it. Otherwise you will have a very unhappy HydraMatic that will do all sorts of hateful things.

 

Hey thanks for your advice. Would a Holley carb work with it as well?

 

I would think an intake manifold from any 394, from '59 through '64, would work fine. The 371 engines had a lower deck height, and those manifolds would be too narrow for a 394. If I recall correctly, both the 371 and 394 were available in '59 and '60, so be certain which engine the manifold is from.

 

I have all of these parts to swap my old 2 barrel to the 4 barrel and was wondering if anybody knows how this setup runs on the low compressiion 394's???

 

The 4 bbl. manifold and carb. should work fine on a low compression 394. The factory Rochester 4 bbl. is very forgiving as to compression ratio, camshaft variations, timing curves, exhaust systems, and other differences among the various versions of the 394. It is possible that the carb. jetting would not be optimum for all variations of the 394, but the engine will probably run well enough.
Installing a Holley carb. will work, but there can be complications. The carb. bolt pattern will probably be different, unless Holley made a replacement carb. designed to fit the Olds manifold. I once tried to use an adapter to install a 600 CFM Holley carb. on my 394 manifold, and the setup did not run well. In particular, the idle was way too rich , and did not respond to adjustments. I did not persue the cause of the problem, and simply reinstalled the original 4 bbl. carb. Such issues have causes and remedies, but it may take some trial and error to make a different carb. work well. A classic mistake is to install a carb. that is too big for your engine ( i.e. is designed for a lot more CFM airflow). The result is usually poor throttle response and driveability at low to mid rpms. I think the factory Rochester 4 bbl. carbs on the 394 were rated at around 400 to 450 CFM, which is low for most high performance Holley carbs. Holley even had a 500 CFM 2 bbl. carb. ! Good luck with your conversion . Such are the origins of hot rodding , and in the 1950s and 60s, the Olds was a very popular engine for hopping up , from street rods to gassers to fuel dragsters.

 

Any 371 - 394 intake will work from 1959 -1964. If you have the Slim Jim transmission in there, find the correct kickdown linkage if you want this thing to somewhat shift normally

 

I have the carb...it does need rebuilt...the entire linkage and of course the manifold. I am updating the electrical system with a 94 amp alternator and switching out the points with a Pertronix setup. Hopefully it will improve the way it runs (it actually runs pretty good right now). I am also swapping out the rearend gears for the 3.42's from the Starfire.

 

Are you sure that a 371 intake manifold will fit a 394 ? It's always been my understanding that the deck height on the Olds block was raised each time the displacement grew, as from 371 to 394, and therefore the intake manifold had to be wider. I suppose multiple gaskets could be used as shims, but weren't the ports on the later 394 heads also substantially larger than on the earlier 371 motors ?

 

Dont confuse the '57 - '58 371 with the '59 and up 371's.. The earlier '57 -'58 371 had the short deck.

 

Just wanted to let you know that I am changing my low compression 2-bbl engine to a 4-barrel rochester also. Seems to be working though haven't put the tires on yet to take it for a spin.

 

wish the 324 4bbl would fit, I'm selling one with a carb right now