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Sun Dec 07, 2008 10:11 am

I found an strange looking Holly VW carb. It has a slightly canted 2bbl base unit and has the float bowl on top on a sort of pedistal. The air pulls into the base around the float bowl. The guy claims it is an "old school bug spray" as they were in the 1960's. I'm not so sure. Anyone remember the Bugsprays like this? If so what aircleaner would be used. This guy has no clue. It is still in it's OG Holly box.
Sorry I have no photo of the carb.
All the Holly carbs I've ever fooled with on bugs were the Pinto/Veaga like progressives ,back in the 70's....

Sun Dec 07, 2008 6:30 pm

That may be a Holley Teapot, the infamous "Towering Inferno" used on 40's-50's Mercs and Lincolns. With the float bowl above the venturis, if you got a big enough backfire, the thing would go up in a tower of flame. A Bugspray is similar to the old Holley 94's, and has the float bowl off to the side like most carbs do.

Can you google it to see if you can find another like it? Any numbers on it or the box?

Sun Dec 07, 2008 9:21 pm

I don't know about owning anything for a VW with a nickname of "towering inferno"... :shock:
I shot a photo with my cell phone, but it is so small I can't read the box code on that small a screen.
I did Google "teapot" and this looks like one.
Thanks, it was just odd enough I had to ask. Have a good one.

Mon Dec 08, 2008 11:13 am

If I'm correct I think he's talking about one of these. I've seen them but never heard of them referred to as a "bugspray".

[img][/img]

Tue Dec 09, 2008 4:38 am

All,
This might help :
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=234435

Volkenstein

Tue Dec 09, 2008 11:07 am

dan-d wrote: If I'm correct I think he's talking about one of these. I've seen them but never heard of them referred to as a "bugspray".

[img][/img]

Yes thats the one, except the one pictured is much, much nicer...

I have been looking for a period correct after market carb set-up. I told the guy at the swap I was looking for something correct for 1967-ish. He was proud to produce one of these carbs and tell me stories about it's 1960's history. He did not have or know about the manafoild.
I was not impressed (i'm looking for a "period correct" duel carb set-up) but I was curious enough to ask here as I was sure someone would know.

So I'll ask anyone ever seen this carb on a bug and if so , when?
Have a good one.

Oh, Wait I just checked The linked post. Now I see...

Tue Dec 09, 2008 11:11 am

I posted this on another thread, hope it helps.

I'm almost 60 and have been hot rodding most of my life, bck in the 70's I was really big into VW rail buggies and used many Holley Bugspray's. A Bugspray is nothing more than an old style Ford (late 40's to mid 50's) two barrel carb modified with a 4 bolt base (as opposed to the original 3 bolt), fitted with linkage for a VW and rejetted for the small cubes.

The carb in the picture above that someone on eBay is selling as a Bugspray is also an old early Ford / Mercury carb. I remember at some point they were also modified very similar to the Bugspray and sold as a Holley performance carb for the VW. But I've never heard them referred to as a Bugspray.

We always referred to them as a Holly gravity bowl 2 barrel because the float bowl is above the main body and throat.

We actually did get these to work pretty well for off roading but found them to be quite dangerous and quit using them.

If the float bowl isn't sealed tighter than Dicks hat band and you have a backfire up through the carb you will also get a huge fireball, for this reason these carbs were also called a Holley Fireball. - Dan

Tue Dec 09, 2008 8:25 pm

Here's another thread on that carb in the photo--it was for sale on ebay a few weeks back and didn't sell. Some claimed it was referred to as a "Buggy Spray" (not a bugspray--I have a bugspray and it looks different).

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=327890&highlight=

~T

Fri Jan 16, 2009 9:41 pm

That is in fact a Buggyspray carb. I had one on a Baja about 25 yrs ago. It was a 1600cc. The claim was that the horse shoe shaped float helped maintain float levels with sidehill and vertical climbs. As a note the idle jets needed to be sized smaller to lean out the idle. I had the hardest time finding an air cleaner.
I finally found one through K&N.

Sat Jan 17, 2009 4:27 am

That carb u have in pic is not the "bugspray" carb sold for bugs. They came set up to just bolt on and hook up.Jets were sized for vw,throttle linkage had the arm assy on side to correct reverse direction of carb and to attach stock vw cable same as vw does. Small Ford v8/260 cid 0f early 60s used this carb without the mods. I ran one for a couple yrs in a 1650 bug, later switched to a 1650 i put into my 1st type 2 ,a 70. It ran really well and sure put the needed top end into the bus and also averaved 24-26 on road/60-65 mph. In COLD weather u have to add some carb heat,used stock elbow off rt head.Kits still available,cheap way to improve running as vws under carbed anyway. And u willrun into the bad-mouthers who probably didnt know/wouldnt get right to start. my 2cts

Fri Jun 05, 2020 6:03 pm

I lived in the Bronx in 1969 got married and with the wedding money bought my First New 1969 bug. Needed something reliable to go to work and that surely beat out my 1960 MGA Roadster Race car, with no door hands or roll up windows.

But I was still a car guy and even lived next to EMPI East Coast Hq. But there carbs were just to expensive.

Bought a Holley Bug Spray with a Raja plenum Manifold. What a mistake.

The Plenum was an area below the two barrels then went to one pipe on each side to the single port heads.

Ran really bad got horrible gas mileage. At that period in life I did not have the time to play with it. Went back to stock carb and manifold and put on an EMPI extractor. I came with a Main Jet for my bug.

Maybe for larger race engines the bug spray was Ok but not for a stock car.

Later when I had more bugs did like the Holley Progressive Carb especially to replace the FI on T-4 cars.