I didn't know they made this for the 390, any one looking should see if he would ship it.
http://albuquerque.craigslist.org/pts/1004326548.html

That would be fun to have on a hot rod but extremly hard to tune all of them carbs.

I'd like to hear Bill's take on how factory that Tri-Power actually is.

Ford made tri powers there just arent that many. Bill would know for certain though.

1985 Ford F-150 said:

That would be fun to have on a hot rod but extremly hard to tune all of them carbs.

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They are very easy to tune, you see only one 2bbl carb works for driving and is tunable the others are made to only run wide open no ideal mixture or jets depending on the carb I think.

UTfball68 said:

I'd like to hear Bill's take on how factory that Tri-Power actually is.

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I would highly doubt it factory unless it some thing very rare, most likely a old Edelbrock or some other aftermarket like Bluethunder or that weird German named company.

I just looked it up in my parts book and Ford did make a tri power set up and also a dual 4bbl. They also had em for clevelands and small blocks too. I also saw a in line four barrel intake and carb setup.

I know about the dual quads...but woulda never guessed about the other 2. What did you use as a reference? Could you scan it and post it? I'd be interested in seeing it's applications.

I dont have a scanner and dont know how to use one if I did. But its a HOW TO REBUILD BIG BLOCK FORD ENGINES by steve christ. Its on FE motors only and has pics of heads and intakes and stuff. I alsoused my other book called High performance Ford engine parts interchange by george reid. It covers all Ford v8s from 221 to 460 and is a little more general. The in line four barrel carb was for the boss 302 and was race track only. Go on to google and type in the names of the books and it should be able to find em.

UTfball68 said:

I'd like to hear Bill's take on how factory that Tri-Power actually is.

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Optional on 1962/63 Thunderbirds.

The T-Bird's 390 VIN engine code is M with this factory installed setup.

This manifold (carbs & linkage) was also available for 1962/64 Galaxies, Mercury's and 1964 Bird's in the Ford's HiPo parts catalogs.

1964/66: Ford offered a 4 deuces Weber setup for 289's.

Dual quads were available for 1962/64 406's and 427's.

Thanks for the verification Bill, I was a little skeptical.

BKW said:

1964/66: Ford offered a 4 deuces Weber setup for 289's.

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4 deuces?! wow.

Ford offered the Tri-Power system in 1958 on the 430 cid Turnpike Cruisers. The first Ford 2X4 set up that I know of was available on the 1956 Fords and Mercurys as a high performance dealer installed option. The kit included a steel crank, better rods, forged pistons, an Isky E2 cam and lifters, intake,carbs and air cleaner. Very few were sold as it was a very expensive option. It was rated at 260 hp. !n 1957 Ford offered a similar package in the production cars rated at 270 hp and also a Paxton Supercharger option rated at 300 hp.
The Tri-Power shown appears to be original and they were made in at least 2 variations for the FE. There was one for the T-Birds and another for the Galaxies. The difference being one had the carb mounts progressivly higher front to back and the other was even or flat from one carb to the other, like the one shown in the ad. I believe that one is for the T-Bird and would not be satisfactory on a passenger car or a truck as the Float levels could not be set correctly without spacing the 2nd carb up a bit and the 3rd carb even higher. Correct linkage, carbs and other stuff related to the Tri-Power will be hard to find and expensive.
The 4 bbl manifold is definately not Ford OEM, it looks like an old Offenhauser or Weiand 360 deg. intake, good for high rpm mostly and not much on the low end.
Good wall hangers. IMHO

McCollough Superchargers were used on 1957 Fords and Birds (VIN engine code F).

The same Superchargers were also used on 1957/58 Studebaker Golden Hawks and the 1958 Packard Hawk.

McCollough later sold the business to Paxton, circa 1960.

McCollough originally made his money selling chain saws.

He bought what he thought was the Tower Bridge in London, that spanned the Thames River, moved it to Lake Havasu, AZ.

What he actually bought was the London Bridge.

Here is an original 6 pack (Tri-Power) Intake on my Late friend Phil's 26 T Pickup.

Carls Ford parts and other vendors sell new re-issued 3x2 Holleys. Blue Thunder and others make the air cleaner, linkage and other bits. The Ford 3x2 intakes themselves are the only things that were never repopped. There are some good websites and sources for parts. They are in fact pretty easy to find. Barry Grant used to offer 3x2 carb kits for the FE. But you had to machine the holes in the carb pads larger for the BG carbs butterflys. Long as the carbs themselves are in good shape they are easy to rebuild and tune.

www.hptrends.com there's a good website on the FE 3x2's.

Ahh! lol come on guys I just posted this because I thought a 390 fan could use it, I didn't know they made these for 390s I have never really seen them i've heard of them but never seen them and I thought for the price it could be useful to some body

You guys got me wantin a setup like that now for my 410 thats goin in my truck sometime.

BKW said:

McCollough Superchargers were used on 1957 Fords and Birds (VIN engine code F).

The same Superchargers were also used on 1957/58 Studebaker Golden Hawks and the 1958 Packard Hawk.

McCollough later sold the business to Paxton, circa 1960.

McCollough originally made his money selling chain saws.

He bought what he thought was the Tower Bridge in London, that spanned the Thames River, moved it to Lake Havasu, AZ.

What he actually bought was the London Bridge.

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The superchargers that Ford used in the 312 cid/300 hp cars were always called Paxton at the time it was supposed to be the newest and latest design and only Ford had it.
The McCollough superchargers that were sold through speed shops were a very different design that originally had a 2 stage pulley that operated on low boost under normal conditions and on demand the pulley would open up allowing the belt to go deeper into the pulley raising the supercharger's speed making more boost on demand. There was a solenoid under the trade mark crest on the body of the charger.
The Studebaker and Packard McCollough units were single speed only from the factory and were rarely modified to the 2 stage level, usually just replaced with the 2 stage unit if the owner wanted more power.
Andy Granatelli had a speed shop at Lincoln, Lawrence and Western in Chicago and sold a lot of the McCollough chargers. Probably thier biggest dealer at the time. A friend of mine had an Olds Super 88 with a pair of McColloughs on it along with a lot of other mods by Granatelli and possibly the quickest car in the area. I believe Andy's brother was a Deputy Coroner for the city and somehow managed to get a 300 hp Fairlane for his official car and somehow he wrecked it on the Outer Drive at Oak Street.
As the story goes Andy Granatelli went to a dealer show in California where he met his wife who was the daughter of either Paxton or Mccollough.
I new Andy when he was promoting stock car races at Soldier Field in Chicago about 1949,and running his speed shop and competeing at the Indy 500.