Carb on a 57 364

[SharkShark]

Right now I have a Holly carb and an Edelbrock intake on my 57 Super and I get 8 MPG and get no-too-great performance becuase they just dump gas in. I want to get a new carb, but I was wondering if there was any way to tell what carb the engine had originally. Also, were there 3 different intake manifolds for the 3 different brands of carb, or could I just go to a junkyard and pick any old intake?
Thanks
Tom

 

[theoldguy]

the 57 has a 364 engine and the manifold is only for that engine. the 322 and 401 have different spacing for the ports. The stock manifold was set up for a carter ,stromberg or Rochester that had equal size primaries and secondaries. The Carter WCFB and the Rochester 4 jet were the most common and usually would yield 15-17 MPG on the highway

 

[rcull]

Have you gone through your distributor lately? Most people who make the complaints you are makeing have a problem with their timing advances. Either their mechanical or vacuum is not working properly. Check it out before spending money on the carb.