Shaving butterfly shaft

[eventhorizon66]

I've got this crazy idea that I want to pull my carb apart and shave the throttle shafts down to improve booster signal.  I've heard this is fairly commonly performed by the Carb shop, AED, and other professional carb blueprinters and can be worth a few horses on the top-end as well as some improved throttle response everywhere due to improved atomization consistency.  Who here has done this?  What is a safe limit as far as shaft thickness?  Show of hands, who thinks I'm wasting my time with this mod?

[VileZambonie]

You're splitting hairs. If you are racing and trying to squeeze every possible advantage over your oponents then of course but for what it's worth you'd be wasting your time.

[eventhorizon66]

My time is not as valuable as you might think, LOL.  Oh well, I may try it in the future just out of utter lunacy and boredome, and because it's free (as long as I don't go too far).  But thanks for lowering my expectations on the results, Vile.  What a pal!

[HAULIN IT]

Even, I agree with Vile on this one. I have done it & allot of other mods....What's it worth? I've seen & talked to guys bragging about 8-15 cfm, which means it's probibly really half that. Not really worth the bother for much less than a real competitive race car (like you, I was thinking,hey I got this in my hand...why not). Are you going to feel the difference - No way! For  future knowledge, I cut mine just less than half way, but radiused the ends 1/4" from the sides to try to keep some strength. Here's something else I did that may be in the same boat... The truck has gone faster since doing it, but I've never put an unmodified one on back to back to test it & it kinda goes hand in hand with the choke tower removed & I'm not really going to change the top back just to see. Have Fun, Lorne

[eventhorizon66]

Thanks for the response, Lorne.  Man, that air cleaner just went from cool to absolutely incredible!

Let's just say I'm not in a hurry to rip my carb apart.  I was mainly just curious to hear from someone who had done it.  I figured "what the hey, beyond holding a butterfly valve the shafts aren't doing anything but getting in the way, so why not minimize them."  I got ideas rattling around in my head like moths trapped under a lamp shade and sometimes they are about as useful as moths trapped under a lamp shade.