In guessing that the venturi size is 1.125”, then you should be looking at around 200-225 cfm in a single two barrel application depending upon the booster nozzle design and also assuming that the choke plate is located within the venturi area rather than above it somewhere.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

For me it was easier to change the gear, oil pump and oil pump driveshaft than cut and weld a distributor.

  Dennis in Lititz PA

Thanks guys! A lot of food for thought here. So how many cfm was the original teapot 2V carb?

Thanks Bruce, I see the light. Your saying the oil pump drive is part of the shaft not the gear. Dennis must have the later oil pump also. Make sense now.

"The Master Cylinder"

Enjoying life at the beach in SOCAL

The oil pump drive on the early distributor shaft is a flat tab, like a big screwdriver blade. The '55 and up oil pumps had a hex shaft drive and a hollow hex hole in the end of the distributor shaft to accommodate the shaft. Cutting the distributor shaft above the gear gets you the correct gear (to match the engine it came from) and the correct drive too. Bruce

pintoplumber (9/4/2013)

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If you have a 13 tooth distributor, the gear on the camshaft is for a 13 tooth gear. That's why we have to put the 13 tooth gear on the 57 and up style distributor.

Couldn't you just put the 13 tooth gear on the '57 up distributor shaft as Dennis suggests and do away with the cutting?

"The Master Cylinder"

Enjoying life at the beach in SOCAL

Replacing the loadamatic with a '57-up dual advance unit will be a huge step in the right direction. Unfortunately, the new dist. will not drop in your '54 motor without making some changes either to the dist. or the oil pump/shaft . I've just done this change to my '54 Merc and I modified the distributor. You need to cut off the bottom end of each shaft (about an inch above the gear) from BOTH distributors and fabricate a sleeve so you can connect the old shaft/gear/oil pump drive to the new distributor. I used 3/32 rollpins to lock the shaft sections to the sleeve. The only critical measurement is the overall length of the shaft which you must measure before cutting, and as I recall it's very close to 6" from the bottom of the aluminum housing to the end of the shaft (including the oil pump drive tab). Any local machinist can do this or you can send it to Bubbas Ignition to get done (they do great work and are a pleasure to deal with). The other concern you should have is the vintage of the 4V intake you mentioned. Your early Y block (239-256) has small port heads and will not accept the '57-up intake although everything external will line up. If you still have the original small port heads, you will need to use the early intake (1954 Mercury, or '55-'56 Ford or Merc) with an adaptor to allow the installation of a modern carb. I used a Holley 390, and the combination is absolutely perfect, with lots of power and 25 MPG. Good Luck : Bruce

If you have a 13 tooth distributor, the gear on the camshaft is for a 13 tooth gear. That's why we have to put the 13 tooth gear on the 57 and up style distributor.

  Dennis in Lititz PA

There's something odd about just changing a distributor gear to one of a different tooth count. The laws of physics suggest that this will cause a 7.69% increase in distributor rotation speed relative to the cam. So, though I have read this "easy" fix many times, my take on it is that a change to a '55-up cam would be required to accommodate the swap. Is that not so?

As for oil drive rods, I will suggest that Arp makes a stronger-than-stock unit which is less prone to bending.

I have spliced a modern small block (302) distributor and loadocrдpic distributor shaft together. The Y-block distributor is 1" longer than the small block distributor and the gear is different. The relative placement of the two locating (roll pin) holes was minimally different on them also. Therefore, they were spliced at the region of the upper hole and the common location of the two holes is held with the roll pin that the upper collar is pinned with. I think that the MSD 8383 is a good solution but it is kind of pricey.

Edit- Sorry, Ted. I re-read and I see that you (wisely) informed him to use the 13 tooth gear. Not to change to the 14-tooth gear. It's early. Anyway, one would have a really hard time changing the cam to fit a 14 tooth gear. The bearing journals are markedly different. I think I'll sit back and learn some more.

If you have dual diaphragms in your '54 and it is original, then you must have a governor on it. If it is the original '54 distributor and it has a flat tang oil pump drive, there is a good chance the drive gear will have 13 teeth, the later one will have 14. If that is the case, you will need to swap the 13 tooth gear onto the new distributor. If the oil pump is flat tang drive, you will need a '55 or later pump and drive rod. You also need a '57 or later cap and rotor.

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"