Hey.. what can I say..I'm not a religious man but when it comes to cars...who would deny there aren't super natural powers at work.
why quadrajets and edlebrocks??? because I have had and seen too many Holleys backfire and catch on fire on start-up. Plus the quads and edle perform fine without a lot of messing around with. Holleys always seem to need adjustments!!
In my experience that's exactly what happens. Then the carb sucks. It's not the carb. Because those guys that run them aren't in the pits with the hood up. There are plenty that I've seen with them. But then I pay attention to them as well. And you lumping the Quadrajets with the Carter/Edelbrocks is akin to lumping all fuel metering devices together, just because they don't have the fuel bowl configuration of a Holley doesn't make them the same.
Gotta admit...I've had more than one holley over the years that was just magic...thrown together and it worked absolutely perfect...never a hiccup, perfect idle, perfect response. Sometimes lucky is good! Other times...worked by tail off on one that just would not cooperate.
And the point of this thread is, what exactly? It's like a bad Jerry Sienfeld bit, "What's the deal with Edlebrock carbs, anyway? What's up with that?"
Entertainment takes many forms, and it usually ends with the statement how old are you. Edelbrock carbs good.
i have had good luck with mine. after seven years of abuse, it started acting funny, it was quick and easy to rebuild and its working great again..although the rebuild kits seem way overpriced.
Nonsense. It's just a car man. A simple machine, especially by today's standards. Reminds me of that sketch on SNL, when Jimmy Fallon was "Nick-your company's computer guy"(or something like that) and one guy says, " I can't get this stupid computer to give me my email." Fallon's response was "yea-it's the computer that's stupid".
I've run Holleys for the past 35 years and can usually get them to work pretty decent. I had better than normal luck with stock qjets on stock engines when no one had tinkered with them. I have no experience with the Edelbrock units but friends who pull them out of the box and stick them on fairly stock engines seem to love them. I think basically it is like anything else. If you really like it and believe that it will work great you can get any of them to work great if they weren't screwed up by someone else. And I believe 100% that way too many carb issues start out as other problems with the engine or one of it's systems. There is a tendency among a high percentage of car freaks to install carburetors, ignition systems, cams and headers more for the "cool parts dude" effect rather than thinking out a complete system that is ballanced top to bottom and all works together. Big carbs, big cams, too trick of ignitions, headers with too big of tubes. Often on street rigs the car looses performance rather than gains it. I see two things locally, Edelbrock carbs for sale because the owner says they were too small for what they wanted to do and Holley 750's for sale for probably the opposite reason.
When I ask "Why do you have that piece of shit Edelbrock on there?" The reply I get is usually "Well I had a Holley but couldn't get it to run right so I bought this, bolted it on, and it runs great". This makes me chuckle. Then I say "Well if you got off your lazy ass and learned how to properly TUNE a carb, then you woulda saved yourself some dough and had a good running Holley, now you just have an ugly ass Edelbrock" I just dont like them. I've had alot of good luck with Holley's. Sure, the Holley might be tweaked & tuned for days on end before it does what I need it to do, but that's all part of HOT RODDING, and not being a lazy shit bolting parts on without adjusting the settings. I'll bet 99% of those "Bolted on and it ran fine" cars put on a Dyno Tune would see the carb being severely adjusted to get more power and driveability. I guess some people are just scared to turn screws and swap tiny parts on something that is mechanically complicated, when in fact, it's not really complicated at all.
Bought a turn key 350 zz4 with A 700 holly, spent two months trying to get it to run, gave up and put a Eledbrock on it and it came to life, better milage and it burns the tires now couldn't even break loose with the holly. Started in the 50's with 97,s so have a little of experience. Also we go to 7000 ft in the summer and I just change the metering rods,don't have to tear it apart
Over the years, I've built engines with Carter AFBs and Holleys, and frankly, once you sort out how to handle the metering rods, I've found the AFBs very much a set-&-forget item, while the Holley's usually needed something adjusted on 'em. I certainly could get plenty of power out of those old Carters, and the original pair of AFBs still grace my '64s Nailhead. There's a lot of good things to be said about both brands (except those horrible Holley Q-Jet replacements (9625/6210) from the early 1970s - when the ran, they were marvelous but more often then not, they didn't!). Carters/Edelbrocks AFB-style carbs were OEM on a lot of top performance engines back in the 1960s, so they're hard to knock. There must have been a reason so many were the standard fitment on Detroit Iron back then.
I've always had great luck with Carter/Edelbrock carbs, and crappy luck with every Holley I've ever owned. The AFB/AVS are very easily tunable with metering rods, whereas the Holleys are simply a PITA to get set right. Plus, the vacuum Holleys have that wonderful power valve that needs replaced if there is even a hint of a backfire through the carb. Quadrajets suck, too. My son's O/T Chevy 350 pickup ran like shit with the Q-Jet POS. Could never get that thing to run right, and it took forever to start cold. Got 10 mpg on a good day. Good days didn't happen often. Replaced that doorstop with an Edelbrock Performer intake and carb, and it runs flawlessly, and starts first time, every time. Gets 16 mpg now, too. I'll take a Carter/Edelbrock over a Holley or a Q-jet any day of the week.
I run dual AFB's on my Falcon and have had great luck with them, like it was said by someone else, once you find the combination you just set it and let it go. I have ran Holleys and even Predator carbs and the AFB has been the best carbs yet for mine. Jon
i love the afb carters never had a prob, dads has an edelbrock it sucks but it sat on a motor for a few years.nothing wrong with quadraslob's really good carb also the late 60's early 70's cad had a little bigger jet in em. never had luck with holley, rebiult the ford style 2 barrel 3 times and it still would work right, but then i rebiult an autolite carb and it was fine. but it just depends on wut works for you i guess
Informative book as well. There are some issues with worn/mis-adjusted q-jets and it covers alot of the problems with them. Despite the q-jet with the mixture control solenoid on the cover(aahhh the '80's), there's good info on rebuilding and modifying all of them, from the 2GC to the quadrabog for max HP.
Here's Cliff's book: http://www.amazon.com/Rebuild-Modify-Rochester-Quadrajet-Carburetors/dp/1932494189 Here's Cliff's shop: http://www.cliffshighperformance.com/ FYI. ~Jason
Holley built one of those for awhile (80s and 90s?). They called it the "show series" or something like that. It was the biggest piece of shit ever, and deserves to be forgotten... In terms of design (hold those grenades a minute, boys...) the Quadrajet is hands down the best carburetor ever made. In terms of function...uhhh, not so much. In general, metering rod carbs (AFB, AVS, Qjet, etc.) tend to be better for street driving. Open jet carbs like the Holley tend to be better for all out performance. I've used them all over the years (including that plastic abortion Mopar fell in love with...'scuse me while I throw up in my mouth), and if it was understood, rebuilt and set up correctly, it was fine. If not, it wasn't. PS, NOTHING will match the midrange response of a Predator, but talk about something you gotta fiddle with all the time!!! "Sometimes finding the true source of a problem requires the use of a mirror." Man, that is PRICELESS.
Man. This is like an argument over the best beer. Q-jets are good for a street car. I like the small primaries/large secondaries design.
I've had way more trouble with sticking floats out of holleys than I have edelbrocks. Other than that, they are pretty equal in reliability.
The ONLY complaint I have with the Edelbrock "AFB", other than them being too "shiney", is they tend to evaporate the fuel more. Let them sit for a few days, and the float bowls dry up. When Carter and Webber held the patents, no problem with that. The other thing is, they should put a gasket of some sort on the top of the accelerator pump rod. I've had to deal with accelerator pump wells getting worn, due to trash getting by the rod. As far as tunability, they're great. Simple to rebuild , tune, and work on. BUT, if the carb's on a drag car, it's gotta be a Holley, or the Demon copy. NEVER had to mess with a Rochester Quadrajet, but I've only really had one on a car, my 72 Nova SS that I bought new. Maybe there should have been a survey with the original posting of this thread. Butch/56sedandelivery.
I run edelbrock's on everything, I have 15 in my garage, buy them cheap off craigslist and clean them up and adjust (correctly). I only have 3 Holley's, not probs with them either but they are mostly WOT. It's chocolate or vanilla choose the one you like.
I've got two on my lump that runs 11s tuned by me... and I drive it 50mi round trip to cruise night no magic here just learn the function of the carbs and be realistic with adjustment
I like both Holleys and AFBs (I'd prefer AFBs for an early 60s look) but Edelbrock is really blowin' it not offering a rough finish carb. The marine version looks a little better though. I've never been fond of Quadrajets, more looks than function.
I've got an old 4779 doublepumper that was set up by Fuel Curve Engineering back when. Just for grins and chuckles, I took it with me when I took my old 'Binder pickup to the track (been several years ago). Made a couple of passes with the 750 Edelbrock for a base line, bolted on the the Holley and made a couple more passes. All 4 timeslips were within a tenth of each other, around 7.25s in the eighth. I don't remember the MPH, but they were real close too. Larry T
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