Holley 4000 ECJ Rebuild & and Edelbrock Score!

Helping a Holley on a 1955 Ford Thunderbird

The Holley 4000 original to the 1955 Ford Thunderbird had seen better days!

A couple weeks ago I received a message in my Facebook messenger app asking me if I rebuild Holley 4000's. The individual just happened to be located 20 minutes across town and was in the middle of tearing into a 1955 Ford Thunderbird that still had its original ECJ 292 under the hood. He had tried in vain to get a few local mechanics to help out by rebuilding the carburetor.

"No one will touch this thing," he quipped. "Can you rebuild it?"

I replied pretty quickly, "Yes, I believe so." From there the conversation turned to a few Y Block specific items, parts, and gaskets that the restorer wanted to show me. As per usual, most of the guys down at the parts house had led him astray. Even the oil pan gasket was wrong. I spent a few minutes helping him get things squared away, picked up the carburetor, and let him know that I would tear into pretty soon.

The fuel bowl was the worst of the condition of the ECJ 9510 carburetor.

Later that afternoon I inspected the carburetor and began the tear down. Each year of Holley 4000 that I have dealt with (1954, 1955, 1956, and 1957) the 1955 versions are my least favorite. The secondary tubes and the way they feed into the fuel bowl lid are quite a bit delicate. Disassembly was not too involved, and it did seem that all the parts were present. The real need for a rebuild pertained to the multiple leaks - the fuel bowl, the fuel bowl plug, the secondaries, etc. Most anything that had a gasket or an O ring was leaking. Age and ethanol ladened fuel had done their damage.

While I do have other documentation and helpful tutorial videos about the Holley 4000 here on my website and my YouTube channel, I still thought it good to make a series of videos about this rebuild. The first one is included below - you can find more on my channel. As of this writing, I am waiting on the Daytona Parts version of a needle and seat for this carb. The version they sell is actually not a cone shape but a plunger design, and it works quite well for I have used several of these on other carburetors - even my own Holley 4000 that I have been running on my 1955 Ford Club Sedan most of the summer.

Very soon I will be giving the carburetor an initial tune on my 1955 Ford Club Sedan, take the car for a spin, and give the Holley 4000 a final setting or two before returning it to to the Thunderbird.

Edelbrock 573 Intake Manifold

Many subscribers have been following the work on the 3 deuce setup over the summer and early fall months. Suffice to say, much detail has gone into the preparation of the Offenhauser intake manifold I was originally going to use, and of course the Holley 94's had their own level of attention required.

I located a very good Edelbrock 573 intake manifold on Facebook Marketplace.

Just a couple weeks ago I was perusing Facebook Marketplace and notice a 292 "White" block for sale two hours drive time from where I live. Now, I often can be found window shopping from time to time just to see what is out there, pick up odds and ends, various Y Block goodies, etc. It just so happened that this listing included an Edelbrock 573 intake manifold in very good shape. So, I decided to message the owner and sure enough, he agreed to sell the intake manifold separately and even ship it to me.

When the intake arrived, I pulled it out of the box and gave it an inspection. No cracks were visible anywhere nor were there any modifications or repairs made to it over the years. There was one ear that was bent past the horizontal plane, but it appeared to be a minimal issue. From the witness marks on the flanges, I could tell that a previous owner had used the Ford clam shell hold downs that were the narrowest in width. The long style will certainly help negate any further problems.

A warped flange necessitating minimal attention was the only problem encountered.

After cleaning up the Edelbrock 573 in the blast cabinet, I took a few minutes to compare the Offenhauser to the 573. The differences were very noticeable.

I got a great deal on the Edelbrock 573 and will be swapping with the Offenhauser soon.

Plans are in the works to use the Edelbrock instead of the Offenhauser. However, since I am using my 292 and an ECZ 9425 A intake manifold to test the latest Holley 4000 I am rebuilding, it will be a little bit of time before I can get back to the 3 deuce project. I do need to give the Holley 4000 ECJ carburetor a test run on the road, ensure the secondaries open properly, etc, before taking it back to be installed on the 1955 Thunderbird.

If you have not done so already please subscribe to the blog to receive email updates at this page: https://www.hotrodreverend.com/blog-subscribe. There are a good number of you who contact me each week looking for information I have already posted to the website blog pages. It would help if you were receiving notifications every time a new post went live. Do not forget to tell your friends and your buddies - visit HotRodReverend.com today and share the link!

The Hot Rod Reverend

aka Daniel Jessup