Hi Steve,

Welcome to the Forum. A Carter WCFB was used on the '56 Mercury Montclair and Monterey model cars. The Carter number for these carbs is 2361S and 2361SA. As best I can tell, the difference in number refers to a production change in the aluminum carburetor base. '56 Mercs all had the 312 engine. FoMoCo did not use the WCFB on any other 239, 256, 272, 292, or 312 y-block applications over the life of the engine, '54 to '64. This particular carburetor is a bit of a stand-alone orphan. It used vacuum controlled secondaries and, as Ted indicated, was designed to work with FoMoCo LoadoMatic distributors, thus the spark control valve between the two idle adjusting screws! As Ted indicated, the LoadoMatic distributors used a vacuum signal from different sources within this carburetor to provide the ENTIRE distributor advance curve. As designed, the '56 WCFB will not provide the appropriate vacuum signal for the '57 and up FoMoCo distributor without modification.

If you use this '56 Merc 312 carb on the '54 Merc 256, you'll likely have to make at least some jetting changes...

Recommendation: Google 'The Carburetor Doctor' or www.carmd.com
On the Home page that opens, look in the left hand column under 'Service Information Catalogs and Pictures'
- Under 'Carter', Toggle 'WCFB'
- On the page that opens, look under the center section that is headed 'Manuals'
- Under 'Manuals' notice item 'CM 416 Carter' which is devoted to the '56 Merc WCFB
- Toggle that manual; it will open to their downloadable Carter factory manual on this carb.

The copy of this Carter factory manual will cost you $5.00
- it's 22 pages in length!
- it covers WCFB rebuilding procedure in-depth
- it provides ALL '56 Merc WCFB adjustment specifications when rebuilding
- it provides step-by-step adjustment procedures for the '56 Merc WCFB

As someone who has downloaded this particular manual and others that are offered on this Internet site, I think you'll find it to be worthwhile...

Hope this helps!

NoShortcuts
a.k.a. Charlie Brown
near Syracuse, New York

Have everything on my home computer and will do it when I get off work.............

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

DryLakes Racer.....can you email me at smjfritz@charter.net please. I would like to see your pictures and talk about carb rebuilding. Thanks!

Steve

I use a 52 Cadillac WCFB on my 56 292 and am very pleased with it. I use the later distributor also. I can e-mail you pictures of the installation. The smallest Cad was a 331 and Olds was a 303. There are guys out there who have the jets and metering rods for these. Cadillac also used a Rochester 4GC which is supposed to be a step up from the Carter but I have 2 early restored ones and cannot make them perform as well as the Carter.

I have heard the 56 Cad that had the 2 four barrels was the best one but have no evidence. Plymouths, Dodges, and Packards also used the small base 4 barrels. Kits are available for all of them and the Cad had a very easy hook up using stock parts or or stuff I bought at the hardware store, online or parts house...Good Luck

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

I used Teds modifications on Holley 94 carbs to use ported vacuum with the later model dist & it works great. Im sure his modification to the Teapot will work fine also.

Dan      Kingman Az.      86409

The Carter WCFB for the ’56 Mercury has a vacuum signal suited for the L-O-M distributor which makes it incompatible with the ’57 and up distributors if attempting to use the vacuum chamber on those distributors. While the conversion for the Teapot carbs is now reasonably straight forward for changing the ‘venturi assisted’ vacuum signal to a true ported or staged vacuum signal that’s suitable with the late model distributors, I haven’t even looked at a Mercury WCFB to see what’s involved in converting that particular signal.

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Here’s the link to the article showing the necessary modification that permits the Holley Teapot carburetor to be compatible with the late model distributor. By looking at this, you may be able to determine what is required of theWCFB to do the same.

HolleyTeapot Mods For Late Model Distributor Usage

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Another alternative option would be to use the WCFB off of a mid-Fifties Olds, Buick, or Cadillac as they would have the correct ported vacuum signal for the ’57 and up Y distributor and still have that small base pattern that would fit your Teapot flanged intake.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Thanks for the comments so far. I am OK with the distributor changes , using a 57 style distributor with mechanical/vacuum advance. Bubbas will do the modifications by grafting a 54 distributor lower end onto the 57 distributor top end. That way the lower end will mate up with my older 54 style cam gear and older spade type oil pump drive. My question really deals with the Carter WCFB carb , does it use the same advance system as the later model holley, edelbrock and autolite carbs? Will it be compatible with the later 57 style distributor for vacuum advance??
Thanks again!
Steve

Sounds like you already have the distributor part fixed unless you fixed something that wasn't broke. As far as the WCFB I see no reason why it wouldn't work if you don't want to run a later carburetor & an adapter. I ran them on my Chevy back in the 50's & 60's & they worked fine. Lots of cars had them back then.

Doing Fords for 45 years. '56 Customline Victoria

E.J. in Havana FL

John makes a good point regarding the '54 239 and 256 engines. My recollection is that there were early and late series engine blocks. The early ones had a different size cam bearing, for one.


NoShortcuts
a.k.a. Charlie Brown
near Syracuse, New York

I don't know if this is true for all EBY 256 blocks, but i have one here that takes the small cam bearings and therefore late style distributor gear.Have you checked yours or were they made both ways?

http://ford-y-block.com 

20 miles east of San Diego, 20 miles north of Mexico