➔HANDS ON
NEW CARB IN TOWN
Fuel System Technologies Introduces a New Line of
Fuel Mixers
A
popular Mark Twain misquote
has him offering, “The rumor of
my death has been greatly
exaggerated.” The reality is his quote
was greatly inflated, but we’ll use it for
our purposes to make the point that
the rumors of the demise of the carbu-
retor have also been subjected to sig-
nificant embellishment.
To reinforce that concept, we give
you Fuel Systems Technology (FST): a
brand-new carburetor company out of
the Detroit area that offers some very
nicely built, American-made fuel mix-
ers that offer some interesting fuel-
metering opportunities. This is not new
technology, but rather an enhancement
of off-the-shelf carburetion with an eye
toward making the mixing of air and
fuel a little easier.
Let’s start with some basics. The
FST line consists of eight different lev-
els of sophistication from the RT line ofcast main body carburetors and extend
through the RTX Viper line
that are enhanced with the Billet series
that offers billet main bodies, metering
blocks, and fuel bowls in multiple
configurations. The cfm lineup spans
from an entry-level, vacuum-second-
ary, 600-cfm unit all the way up to
FST’s Billet Excess Pro line that lives up
to its name by flowing as much as
1,450 cfm.
If appearances are worth anything,
even the entry-level pieces are very
nice, but our approach here is more
concerned with their functionality. That
said, even the smallest, single-inlet
carb offers screw-in, air-bleed adjust-
ments that are normally only found on
more upscale and expensive carbure-
tors. While basic metering on all these
carburetors should be very close right
out of the box, many enthusiasts think
there is no advantage to tuning. Buteven slight air-bleed adjustments can
offer noticeable driveability improve-
ments, so the ability to make these
changes easily with screw-in bleeds is
a nice feature.
As you can see from the images, this
entire lineup is based on the original
standard-flange Holley design and
offers many of the same advantages.
Among the more interesting aspects
that would appeal to the knowledge-
able carb tuner beyond the screw-in air
bleeds is the option beginning with the
Billet carburetors of an idle bypass fea-
ture. Again, this is not new technology,
but FST’s approach is slightly different.
With the billet main body carburetors,
the air-cleaner stud is surrounded by
four small screw-in fittings that come
from the factory blank (undrilled).
These plugs allow access to intake
manifold vacuum. By drilling small
holes in these fittings or removingBy Jeff Smith / Photos: Jeff Smith
26 CAR CRAFT OCTOBER 2019