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A brief History of PMO...
(The followed is condensed from an article by Stephan Szantai.)
In the mid 90s, Richard Parr decided he should manufacture his own carburetors! It wasn’t a small endeavour by any stretch for such a small, specialized company; but the $450,000 invested in molds, machines, machining fixtures, and programming etc. allowed him to launch a line of products highly regarded to this day. The PMO machine shop opened in Santa Monica in 1994 and it took three years to produce the first batch of carburetors. Two Aerospace qualified machining specialists, Chris and Ralph Harmon, joined the team. Chris remained with PMO until at the end of 2018 after 24 years. Her son, Mike is the man in charge of CNC machining and assembly. John Krawiec also handles assembly plus deburring and conventional machining.
The crew toils in a shop that covers only 1,200 square-feet/110m², though the shipping is done via another location, also in Santa Monica. Equipment includes two Haas CNC vertical mills with rotary tables, which handle the bulk of the operation on the throttle bodies and their tops. Machining of the carbs’ throttle bodies alone involves no less than nine programs and about 100 tools! Let’s not forget two Bridgeport mills, a smaller vertical mill, a saw, a vibratory stress relief machine, a deburring machine, and Hardinge turret lathe.
Richard also became involved with the manufacture of EFI (Electronic Fuel Injection) and MFI (Manual Fuel Injection) kits, designed with help from Richard Clewett of Clewett Engineering. Their dimensions allow customers to install them on PMO’s existing manifolds using the same linkage and air cleaners. While carbs still represent 80% of the production, EFI and MFI respectively share the remaining 20%
The construction process starts with raw throttle body castings, made from high-quality 356T6 material, the ingot form of 6061 aircraft aluminium. This material is night and day superior to the ‘pot metal’ normally used in carburetors. Each kit (Carburetor, EFI or MFI) is built based on specs supplied by the customer. Pre-jetted carbs come in three models, 40, 46 or 50mm, along with a variety of extra components: manifolds, linkage, K&N air cleaners, pressure control unit, heat insulator kit, oil tank breather, fuel line and filters, etc. The EFI and MFI throttle body kits offer the same three sizes.
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Some of the PMO improvements over the Weber design include ball bearings and Bellville springs to maintain radial and axial alignment of the throttle shafts, center fuel pick-up and slosh baffling in the float bowls, larger air entry with the air horn taper carried through the top cover, improved injection nozzle design giving better atomization, adjustable idle air jets and windows to check and balance float bowl fuel levels.
Testing on various customers’ dynos have shown excellent performance improvements by using PMO products, with the carb kits often leading to more horsepower than the most trick – and expensive – fuel injection kits. JB Racing, in Florida, has built PMO carbureted, flat six, air cooled Porsche engines producing upward of 440 HP. Richard also mentioned to us a spec 911 series catering to 3-litre powered 911s that are not extensively modified… This class welcomes mostly fuel-injected entries, though a PMO carbureted car, typically wins.
When asked how many throttle bodies have been produced over the years, Richard estimates the tally at over 6,000 – he currently has two runs of 200 pieces per year. Between 30 and 40% of the complete kits are currently being shipped to foreign countries, with the UK receiving the largest share of that pie. Please note that the company constantly battles with keeping up with the increasing demand; but PMO normally ships within a week. Many of the purchases from PMO are by Porsche repair/race shops or through dealers such as Pelican Parts, EBS, Sierra Madre, and Patrick Motorsports. Tuthill Porsche and Design 911 are a couple of larger PMO dealers in the UK. Information on ordering is also available on PMO’s website: www.pmocarb.com.
Ultimately, it is a blessing to have folks such as Richard and his crew involved in our enthusiastic niche market. PMO’s specialized products allow a bunch of old Porsches to reliably remain on the road for years to come and also offering, reliable high performance induction for racing enthusiasts all over the world. Words & photos (edited text of Classic Porsche Article)
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