Anyone ever use a Fish Carburetor?

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Interesting story, and perhaps a little more to it than the legendary 100 MPG carburetor.


"The Fish Carburetor was originally invented by John Robert Fish in America in the early Thirties. The carb works on pressure differential – not air speed, which means that it is almost instantly self adjusting & self compensating so any change in weather or altitude requires no adjustments or modifications as with conventional carbs. Hence all round suitability for cars, boats, aircraft, mountain or pressure charging use.

Instead of the usual one main fuel discharge point within the carburetor, the “Fish” has from SIX to TEN leading to vastly superior atomization and therefore much improved vaporization and since wet fuel DOES NOT burn (only the vapor), better and more complete combustion is ensured enabling more power to be extracted from the same amount of fuel.

The “Fish” was seen as a very serious threat to the “Original Equipment” establishment and could not be tolerated. J.R. suffered years of dirty tricks and persecution in an attempt to put him and his carburetor out of business. He even had his mail stopped on trumped up charges which were entirely UNTRUE and the case never went to court. It was simply a deliberate time wasting exercise to stop his cash flow and ruin him. He was not to be beaten and moved to Florida where he kept going by selling carbs to individuals including some wealthy big game fishermen.

At about that same time an up-and-coming local Stock Car driver got involved. The famous and almost legendary “Fireball Roberts” who drove the original M-1 car and Fish carburetor in place of the big 4 barrel “Works” carbs. that everyone else was using. He literally left them standing with his otherwise out-of-date car.

The “Works” organizations did not like it one bit and again the “dirty tricks” started. “Fireball Roberts” frequently made Pole Position and gained the trophy. Repeatedly, however, his race tires developed “mysterious problems” when leading the race convincingly. These “faults” suspiciously did not seem to occur in the “Works” cars.

After this, they were only sold by a company in Canada which sold them in Canada and Europe. "



I remember seeing Ads in the U.K. motoring press for the 'Reece Fish Carburetor' in the early 70's
Nearly bought one, and I wish I had, they are worth some $$ today.
 
Originally Posted By: expat
. The carb works on pressure differential – not air speed, which means that it is almost instantly self adjusting & self compensating so any change in weather or altitude requires no adjustments or modifications as with conventional carbs. Hence all round suitability for cars, boats, aircraft, mountain or pressure charging use.


Sounds like a CD or CV carb, like an SU or CD Stromberg...or any Japanese motorcycle carb. America didn't use CV carbs, maybe he just marketed in the wrong country.
 
Supposibly they mail ordered Fish carbs,and they got involved with the mail system for failing to deliver on orders.The enterprise was shut down shortly after.

Remember the Pogue Carb? It was installed on the guys own 1930s Chrysler,and years later was found to have many engine cracks due to the very lean mixture.He didnt run his own carb for long,returning to the factory setup.Until the mans death,he never would talk about the carb again.Probably humiliated that he made a fool of himself over something that didnt work.
 
Originally Posted By: Silk
Originally Posted By: expat
. The carb works on pressure differential – not air speed, which means that it is almost instantly self adjusting & self compensating so any change in weather or altitude requires no adjustments or modifications as with conventional carbs. Hence all round suitability for cars, boats, aircraft, mountain or pressure charging use.


Sounds like a CD or CV carb, like an SU or CD Stromberg...or any Japanese motorcycle carb. America didn't use CV carbs, maybe he just marketed in the wrong country.


No, the Fish was a Weir type of Carburetor, it has very few moving parts.

The feature was, rather than a venturi in the carb body, the shape of the Butterfly (including the fuel jets) introduced Petrol to the air stream.
A unique acceleration pump was also added to mask Flat Spots during acceleration.
I theory it should work, I just never met anyone (I could trust not to be biased*) that had any personal experience.

*David Vizard was a strong promoter of the Reece Fish carburetor.
 
Is the Predator carburetor a design that is similar to the Fish and other unique carbs? It sounds like it from what I have read in racing magazines.
 
I think the Fish and other alternative carbs like the 100mpg types worked much better on the more "aromatic"/vapor rich gasoline mixes of the old days.

I think the new formulations of gas have kind of robbed these carbs of much of their "special" character.
 
Originally Posted By: artificialist
Is the Predator carburetor a design that is similar to the Fish and other unique carbs? It sounds like it from what I have read in racing magazines.


No , Or at least I don't think so.
I don't know the Predator but it looks like a conventional two barrel carb, with progressive secondaries,
I'm sure there is a venturi in the carb body.

The Fish was quite different
http://i96.photobucket.com/albums/l169/beetlecharles/Fish Carb/PAGE23.jpg
 
Originally Posted By: expat
*David Vizard was a strong promoter of the Reece Fish carburetor.


I remember reading some articles by David Vizard in British hot rodding magazines in the '70s, some of which concerned Reece-Fish carburettors.
It seemed they worked well with BMC "A" series engines (mostly the original Mini), but were perhaps not the best choice in other applications.

I think if the Fish design was clearly superior to others by a large margin one of the automakers would have bought the rights to it. Another Urban Myth I think, like the 100 mpg cars the oil companies supressed, or the totally impervious to rust cars the steelmakers kept hidden.

Roger.
 
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