Technical The Holley 4-Barrel

When I was a kid and we'd travel to the NSRA Nats every summer, like clockwork my dad would always point out the long line of people at the holley booth. I know that he bought several cars and chunked the holley in favor of an AFB and solved a lot of problems. I'm not bashing, it's just that I too find it interesting that bad castings might have been one of the issues all along.

 

The article is about a 4150 and he illustration for a 4500, a smartassed, just sayin

 

Tuned in to learn more....

 

This will likely sound dumb, but what did he use to flatten the surfaces?

 

A pane of glass and a couple of sheets of 320 wet or dry sandpaper will go a long way toward fixing Holleys. I've never seen a Holley acc. pump housing that was flat from the factory.

 

we have always referred to them as "holleak carbs", now i know why.

 

Had Holleys for years. I thought I understood them fairly well. I defended them pretty easy every time someone would try to talk me into an Edelbrock.

I was at a swap meet one day and there was a like new 600 Eddy and a calibration kit for 150 bucks. The guy said he couldn't figure it out. So, I bought it.

Went home and put it on just for kicks and instantly everything was better. NO leaks, NO drilling holes everywhere, NO pressure regulators, NO troubles with anything anywhere!

Sold all my Holley stuff and never looked back.

Traditional? Correct me if I'm wrong, I think 409's came with two of them.

 

Yeah, I'm curious about this too... In my personal experience (and after some pointers given me by a few 'gurus'), a lot of Holley problems are self-inflicted by the owners. One, they don't like open-plenum intakes; that's the leading cause of blown power valves IMO. A four-hole spacer under them will help with that a lot (even if you don't install a check valve). Two, you need genuine Holley parts; cheap 'off-brand' rebuild kits do more damage than help. Three, and probably the most important, overtightening the baseplate and bowl screws when assembling a Holley warps the castings (as well doing the same with the carb-to-intake nuts). Once I started using an inch-pound torque wrench to tighten everything to factory specs, my leaking issues went away. Now, if the carb has already suffered some ham-fisted work done to it, this thread may be helpful to repair the damage...

 

I never cared for Holley carbs in my street racing days.I preferred Carter/AFB and even the much loved/hated Rochester Quadrajet.In fact,I made a good income in high school rebuilding Q-Jets.

 

I had problems with the one on my Corvette. It turned out to be this same problem. I spent a few bucks on a "surface plate" (a 12 in scquare piece if granite 2" think intended for just this sort of thing). Every carb I do now is checked on it using wet-or-dry sandpaper. I have found a few with similar problems. I wouldn't build a carb without checking it anymore. It seems Bubba was everywhere.

 

There's a movie with Lee Marvin is always referring to the Holley on his car but I can't recall the name of that movie.

 

Never work much on Holley's, heart most of all the excuses. Install a few Edelbrock's in the places of an old, beaten and broken Holley.

But there should be a dedicated thread on these things.
Already this thread have some good info, and we are only on page 1

 

Pocket Money is the name, Thanks Mom. I've forgotten that Paul Newman was also in the movie, but the reason I remember the movie is because of Lee Marvins constant referral to his Holley.

 

I was the guy that would go to the junkyards and remove all the quadraflood metering rods and jets from the big station wagons etc etc. They had the super thin metering rods and were awesome for a hot street motor. I had them down to a science.

 

I think it is just a matter of preference. I like Holleys (BGs and QFs too) and don't much care for AFBs. I also like Q-jets. If one or the other was total junk they wouldn't still be in business. Kinda like the old Ford Chevy argument. Use what works well for you.

 

One thing to remember; by the late 60s if you looked under the hood of almost any Detroit performance car, you found one or more Holley carbs...

 

H. P. BOOKS...Holley Carburetors by Mike Urich and Bill Fisher...

 

The 4150-60's and many other Holleys always impressed me as showing a LOT of faith in gaskets...evrything separated vertically with all sealing TOTALLY dependent on gasketry...they totally reinvented the idea of a bowl, and as with most architects forgot that gravity is patient and will always win someday.
An interesting point is that this carb is to a considerable extent a re-arrangement of the Ford 94. Same jets, same type power enrichment valves, rearranged to fit the vertical metering blocks. Much more robust float system, less robust opposition to leaks.

 

Just like any other contraption. It's only as good as the man who built,assembled, or rebuilt it. FWIW, the Edelbrock carbs are not without problems. I used to work for Magneti Marelli in tool and die/mold repair. Made some extra money on weekends repairing faulty baseplates in the edelbrock carbs. Porosity issues. But they do seem to run well with few issues.

 

One of the best Holley carbs I have ever ran came off of a Ford 460. Yep, a smogger Ford Holley. It ran fine on a hot 302 I had. It never leaked, stayed in adjustment, just set it and leave it alone. Most people get to screwing with them and adding mismatched parts, and then wonder why it won't perform right. I don't know if Ford made Holley hold them to better tolerances or not, but I suspect they did, as well as the other OEM's that used them on stock engines.

My neighbor bought a brand new 750 DP a few years back, it leaked right out of the box! Both float bowls were warped, he sent it back, the replacement he got wasn't much better. We did the sanding trick with some 400 grit paper on a piece of glass, improved it a bunch.

 

Decades ago, in auto shop, all the cool kids ran Holleys. They were also always screwing with them. What they were doing was slapping 750 double pumpers on everything they could. Which were usually stock motors. I mean, how cool is it to say, "My engine has a 750 double pumper."? Even if your car runs like shit.

Now, with knowledge gained and technology, carb selection has gotten down to brand loyalty. I like Edelbrocks because the cool kids hate 'em.

 

I ran an oddball spread bore model on my '57 Chevy. I thought I would like it. Every Q-jet I ever had would howl like a banshee, whenever I stomped on it. This Holley had a stumble I was never able to cure.

 

What's wrong with howling? Some of my best friends howl. I remember one of the cool kids telling me he bought a Holley because you could do a lot to it. Could, or had to? I like Holleys but I love me some q-jet. Go figure.

 

The howl was a good thing.

 

Hands down my favorite carb of all time the 4150. I am extremely fortunate to have Bill Stroppe's nephew " a retired mechanic" as a friend. A quiet & humble fellow that's a walking time capsule of his late uncle's knowledge. Needless to say I'm beyond overly lucky to have him help & teach me over the years about Holley's. He once brought an old crumpled issue of a 1955 Hot Rod mag to show me in a caption pic with his youthful pals at the Drag's... Micky Thompson, Don Preudome, Tommy Ivo, Doug Nash & my pal "Bud" all in the caption. Well that was all it took for me. His friends presued the hobby & he married & moved to a tiny Missouri farm town with his wife. I even got to meet Bill in 1985. To me, Holleys are often misunderstood but Ryan's pal obviously has the know how to "blue print" them to perfection. Flux
Here's a couple of Pics about his uncle Bill.


Long live the Holley Carb!