FORD HOLLEY  TRI-POWER (6V) TECHNICAL INFORMATION!

   Mike Brattland The Tri-Power(6V) Guy..................                         

• If you own a Ford Small or Big Block Powered automobile with a Holley 3x2 (6V), Model 2300 Carburetor setup (Holley Lists 1673/1674; 2436/2437; 2497/2498/2499; 2867/2868; 2881/2882 & 3208/3208) on any of the following motors, including 260, 289, 302, BOSS302, 351C, 352, 390, 406, 427, 428, 429(385 Series), BOSS429 or Lincoln 430, then the above graphic might be familiar to you!

• Here are five pics of my personal Joe Bunetic restored (Apr '03) 289 6V intake manifold with Holley List 2881/2882 carburetion....pic#1,  pic#2,  pic#3,   pic#4    and  pic#5

• If it looks familiar, you may already know it for what it is, a Ford 289 Tri-Power with List 2881/2882 carbs! Those are O'Brien Truckers Individual Air Cleaners (See Tri-Power Classifieds for details). Now if your tri-power looks similar, but it resides in a slightly different setting, have a peek at this graphic! If it looks familiar, then you probably know it for what it is, a diagram of the Ford Holley Big Block Tri-Power (Lists 2436/2437; 2497/2498/2499; or 3208s)! If you need some technical help with these carbs, you have come to the right place on the web! It is available as a technical bulletin! Read on!

• Announcing the availability of a COMPREHENSIVE 60 PAGE TECHNICAL GUIDE(4th Edition!) for Small and Big Block Ford Holley Tri-Powers! This technical guide includes:              

• For your own copy of the "TRI-POWER BULLETIN:" 

• If you would like a further sample of some of the information that has found a home in the TRI-POWER BULLETIN, have a look at the following remembering that it will take a bit of time to down load each graphic! ******Author's429SCJ Tri-Power with MoparSixPac Carbs*******Bob Champion's 351C ,  The Cleveland 6V intake manifold, according to A Tom Vaught, currently Ford Motor Company's Boosted Engine Design Engineer and former Holley Engineer on the design team responsible for the development of the Holley Carburetion for the Cleveland 366 6V intake manifold, came about through Ford's 366 NASCAR Engine program where they built 500 366ci Cleveland motors with 6V intakes for NASCAR competition, only to have NASCAR disallow their use, causing Ford to physically destroy all the intakes. As apart of the Ford NASCAR 366 Engine program, Tom Vaught of Ford Motor Company (Holley Carburetors then) was a member of the design team that  built the Holley 2300 6V carburetors for this special Ford project, using Holley 2300 vacuum secondary 6V carburetors. During the testing, it was determined that the 1350cfm flow of all three carburetors was too much air and fuel for the Ford 366 program so these carburetors were sleeved for the Ford NASCAR 366 Program. After the comprehensive destruction of the 500 original motors, intakes and 1500 Holley carburetors, very few survived.  The few in existence today were hiding on shelves and missed the actual Ford directed physical destruction. Recently, a single Holley Sleeved 6V carburetor was sold with one of the very few 4296V intake manifolds still hanging around.  This intake manifold was an original which had remained in the care of Buddy Barr Castings in Los Angeles , being  sold in late 2004 to a Ford collector in New Mexico. Below are several pictures of the original Holley Sleeved 6V carb which

•  belongs to Eric Hirengen of  Farmington, New Mexico.  This carburetor is an ultra rare piece.  When Ford cancelled the Ford 366 NASCAR program, they decided to abandon the Holley 6V carburetors which they had Holley develop for them.  Holley then offered them to GM and MOPAR. GM was not interested, but MOPAR was. These specific carburetors were then modified and converted from vacuum secondary to full mechanical in the form of Holley List 4782/4783s which MOPAR offered for competition uses thereafter. I run a set on my Ford 429 6V intake. They work exceptionally well.  These carburetors were returned to their un-sleeved size of 1355cfm total for all three.  Tom Vaught also indicated "that an engineer at Ford at one time had two complete sets of sleeved carbs for a 429SCJ  71 Mustang, one set on the car and a spare set, so there are more out out there" besides Eric's single carb.  The sleeved carbs ran very well on the 429 Mustang.

• Here are several recent pictures by the author of a NOS 366 6V(Cleveland 6V) intake recently sent to Rick Walker of El Cajon, California (May '03) to set up the Mopar series SIXPAC Holley carbs for the customer.....pic#1,  pic#2,  pic#3,   pic#4,   pic#5,    pic#6   and   pic#7.  Author's 429SCJ Tri-Power with MoparSixPac (Holly List 4782/4783) Carbs, Pete Sessler's Photo of a BOSS302 Tri-Power Intake, as well as a his very nice photo of a bare 351Celeveland Intake. Bob Sutton's 429SCJ Tri-power with a set of Mopar Six Pac Carbs. Very nice shot of Bob Sutton's custom made divorced choke for his 429 tri-power using the internal spring from a Mopar SixPac choke and the divorced choke housing from a 429 CJ Rochester 4MV setup which mounts to the intake manifold. Check out the Ford 429 version of the O"Brien Trucker's bitchin individual polished air cleaners for the Holley List 4782/4783 2300 3x2 carburetors.  Nice photos of  of a '69 Plymouth 440Sixpac(PhotoA and PhotoB) at Rialto June 2000 taken by the author. How about a nice photo of the "Blue Thunder"  Small Block Ford(260/289/302) Tri-Power Intake on the Holman & Moody Web page or how about the "Blue Thunder" Web Page! How about Dave Lee's recently finished '53 Ford F-100 with a built 302, List 2881/2882 Holleys on a Buddy Barr intake. Just a very nice truck all the tricks including T-5 speed, Dana 44 and 3.91 gears. Or for a nice photo of a FE Tri-Power! Here are two of Harris May's photos of two very nice FE tri-powers, including this Galaxie setup and his personal T-Bird setup. Very nice detail on Harris May's air cleaner photos for people looking to see an all original correct setup. Harris has been busy working on his '62 T-Bird and it's 3x2 setup. His web page is up and running and can be found at http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/harrism/ .It is just an excellent web site and a must review for FE 3x2 guys. For a specific direct link to a series of just excellent shots of Harris' '62 T-Bird 3x2 setup with some very excellent shots of the linkage, intake, firewall linkage and kickdown linkage, try http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/harrism/tri_power/my_3x2/My_3x2.htm   . For the ultimate rare intake, have a look at this series of four pictures of Tom Frayer's recently acquired Interchangeable351C intake. This intake was designed with a series of replaceable top plates so that the discriminating owner could run either a single Holley 2 barrel, a 3x2 Holley setup, a 2x4 Holley setup and an inline Autolite four barrel. Interchangeable351C/1, Interchangeable351C/2,   Interchangeable351C/3, and Interchangeable351C/4 .  Recently Ron Duly took these three pictures of a complete Interchangeable 351C intake manifold complete with the 3x2 top plate along with a set of Corvette Holley 3x2 carburetors and linkage....Interchangeable351C/1a,  Interchangeable351C/1b,  Interchangeable351C/1c.  Very nice pictures and many thanks to Ron Duly for sharing them.  A picture of another similar intake recently showed up in MUSTANGS & FORDS Magazine, October 1999 page 96. That intake belongs to Rick Kirk in Ripley, Oklahoma. Rick indicates that he acquired this intake with the carburetors in the mid 70s directly from Ford.  Looking closely at the carburetors, they are most likely a original set of Holley List 4782/4783 Vacuum secondary carburetors with side hung fuel bowls.  As Tom Vaught from Ford Motor Company indicates, these were developed specifically for Ford for the 429 6V intake as well as the BOSS429. They were also used on the Ford 366 Engine Program (CLeveland 351C 6V), but Holley had to sleeve them to reduce the airflow to make them work on the Cleveland motor.  When the program was cancelled for the Ford 366 Nascar Motor and the 429 and BOSS429 6V programs, Ford was no longer interested in these carburetors.   Holley asked the other manufacturers whether they were interested in these carbs and Mopar immediately  answered up, so Holley ended up producing this list series for Mopar.   After further changes, the carbs were converted to mechanical with full metering blocks, accelerator pumps and progressive linkage.  The carbs were offered as a performance option replacement for stock Holley Mopar SixPac vacuum secondary 3x2 carbs with a special Edelbrock produced set of progressive linkage and fuel log.  How about two shots of a Lincoln 430 3x2 Intake  with carbs.  Here is a excellent shot of Ken Weldon's rare Supermarauder 430 alum air cleaner   that goes with the intake above. Or how about this great shot of Ken Weldon's very nice original 260 version of the small block tri-power with List 2667/2668 carbs! Check out Mike Dunbar's very nice '69 Mustang fastback with a small block 3x2 setup......very nice! Check out Tom Crocker's bitchin '58 Ford with a Tri-Power FE motor.........How about Santee California's Fuzzy Knights very nice 63 1/2 Falcon Ranchero with original 260 V-8, 4 spd and  Ford Factory 260 6V with the very rare 260 Holley List 2667/2668 carbs restored by Rick Walker of El Cajon, Ca....pic#1,   pic#2,   pic#3,  pic#4.

• TRI-POWER CLASSIFIEDS-If you have Ford Tri-Power related carbs, complete carb setups, manifolds, fuel logs, air cleaners, linkage, etc. for sale, drop me an post with the particulars of what you have for sale, your name, address, telephone number, e-mail address and price and I will be glad to post it on this web page to assist the Tri-Power Guys out there who might be looking for what you have. Please be specific on the carburetor list numbers! If you are shopping for FORD HOLLEY TRI-POWER GOODIES, try Tri-Power Classifieds! It might be your lucky day!

• Those reading this page who are looking to buy an original tri-power intake and carburetor setup should contact Mr. Joe Bunetic. He buys and sells, as well as restores Ford Holley Tri-Powers! This graphic shows the typical inventory of Tri-Powers at Joe Bunetic's in St Louis(618 397-3580)! Call him anytime as these days he has retired and is just doing carburetors! For a look at the "Ultimate Six-Pak" for the FE Motor built and owned by Joe Bunetic, click on ultimate six-pack. A Ford 427 NASCAR Tunnel Port Intake! Awesome!! 

Last updated 02/12/08