Anyone having one of these relatively rare 7040245 carbs ('70 350 manual transmission 4BBL), please post your date codes. The only two I've seen over the past couple years of looking are: 2189 3239 Surely there must be more. I probably stupidly (who knew) turned one in as a core back in '86. My current '70 350 4-sp is a late build (May, '70) and while not the end of the world one way or the other (trying not to go too crazy), I have 3239 carb for it. Ironically, IIRC the distributor I have is also late '69. Wouldn't mind getting closer on both but no biggie if not. Regardless, it'd be nice to have a list of known date codes like we do on the 7040246's.
Wow, thanks for replying! Pretty sure I don't have that one on my list - It's actually the closest I've seen (and probably is the correct one) for my 05B car. Like the 246's, they probably only made a few runs of these throughout the model year. I've been happy just to get parts for the correct model year/timeframe and not necissarily the correct date code as it's a basket case/labor of love but if you ever want to sell it, please let me know.
Interesting. These dates all match known dates of 246 Stage 1 carbs. Makes one wonder if "Specialty" carbs were built on a fixed schedule of some sort.
Your are correct cousin Jimmy, the Rochester Plant did quite a few low production number carburetors and factory "hot-rod" models in small batches, so many will share the same Plant Code and Julian build date. So it's not surprising and likely that they built/used a lot of the 1970 Buick carbs for both the Stage 1 and 350 Manual transmission on the same date(s). For example I'd say at least 70 if not 80 percent of the 1970 Pontiac 400 RAIII and 400 RAIV manual transmission carbs that I've had in here had the same date on them. They also built quite a few Service Replacement carbs in batches so many share the same build dates. I'll also add here that I typically don't freely give out a lot of that sort of information, it's just helps the "restampers"........
Happens on rare occasion I guess. Thanks for the positive reinforcement Cuz. How is it that this forum has become the only place we hear from each other??? I've gotta' make it a point to pick up the phone more often. Hope you and family are well.
Doing good here, retired in April, at least from most of the things I was getting paid to do. Wonder up this way and we'll do lunch. I also bought up all the property around me if you want to put some venison in the freezer this Winter. I'm going to keep the parts business a couple more years, but done with restoring carburetors and don't take very many in. I still open up a couple of Saturdays a month for custom tuning, and working on cars that don't run for chit. I've done quite a few Buick's, and a couple of cars like yours. Every single Buick 455 brought here with running issues has some cheap POS Chinese spring/weight kit in the distributor in futile attempts to get ALL the timing in right off idle. The big Buick 455 is a race horse, it does NOT need the timing in quickly and for sure leave the vacuum advance hooked up. It's fine to speed up the mechanical spark curve some, and even shorten it up a tad if you are tuning a higher compression engine on this new fuel. The 1971 and later engines that were lower compression don't mind all the timing in a tad sooner, but this right off idle chit is just flat does not work, and you'll NEVER get stable idle in and out of gear, or even get the engine to "settle down" when you bring it back to idle. I'm really not bitching here, those cheap POS advance kits have made a nice living for me, just like a lot of other "high performance" items folks buy related to this hobby that aren't worth two squirts of duck poop!.......
It's been pretty tough to find ANY new spring kits or adjustable vacuum advance canisters lately. The spring kits I did find were all really weak for my Delco distributor. I ordered several different springs from McMaster Carr and Grainger instead and was able to get what I was looking for through trial and error. The Accel adjustable vacuum advance unit that I bough two years ago "lost" its counterclockwise stop. I tried to buy another adjustable one and everyone was out.
"What’s that cow doing in your woods? Just kidding. Nice buck. Enjoy your retirement." Thanks, I am enjoying it! We have some bruisers in these parts. This buck was taken about a mile from my property. I was just a tad out of his range, but saw him cross the road a couple of times late at night on my way home from town, pretty close to where he was taken.......
There used to be really nice VA cans available that were adjustable for how much timing they added. They also started pretty early so could be used with "big" cams if you were trying to use MVA and get a lot of timing on the engine at idle speed. I haven't seen any of those in at least 10 years. I still buy certain part numbers that have the spring tension/start-stop points I'm looking for, then I modify them with the MIG and a file for how much timing they add. I have a nice supply of OEM style springs, but probably woln't use to many of them as I seldom do any distributors these days...........
