Technical Best choice of a 4bbl carb for a stock 350?

Looking for suggestions for (eventually) changing my stock 350 from its 2bbl. Plain 'ol vanilla street application. Thanks

 

Holley 4160 Aluminum Street Carburetors 0-80458SA. 600cfm in a pretty finish w/ electric choke.

 

1850 holley or 1406 edelbrock - millions of em out there....on an edelbrock performer manifold

 

bone stock 350 needs a bone stock Quadrajet 4 brl carb/intake to wake its ass up AND get better fuel mileage

 

Agreed.

 

I gotta agree with Larry. The only downside it's not as sexy as telling folks, "Yeah, it's a double pumper 750 4150 with a 'trick kit'".

 

I ran a standard Q-jet on a factory iron intake on my F100 (350 SBC)
Changed carb a year later, to a plastic Carter Thermoquad.
Superb mileage and performance from both!
Kick myself daily for 'upgrading' to the aluminum Edelbrock manifold and Holley Double Pumper!

 

You can damn near find a Qjet and intake for free. Folks don't even bring 'em to the swap meets anymore.

 

I got a Q-jet with a Iron 4- barrel manifold on my 355 sbc in my Essex gets 22 m p g your results may very. Good set up It aint no race car Buddy but it is FUN!!!!!! Merry Christmas God Bless us All Don

 

Nothing wrong with a Q jet, they are cheap and work good.

 

Which Q/Jet ??. CFM , model,number,orig. application,etc ...

 

find one from a 1970s 350, but pay attention to the year because the choke connection changed. Figure out what the manifold you want requires for the choke. Some use a rod, some use a tube.

There are lots of Q jets, a few of them work great, a bunch of others will just cause problems.

And sometimes it takes a couple tries to get a good one, even if it's the correct model.

 

Gotta agree. My T Bucket never ran better, than when I had the Quadrajet. But DAMN it was ugly.

 

Qjet all the way.....and they're tunable too. I still have a couple of small bags full of secondary hangers and rods......plus a few main jets. I run them on anything that uses a 4bbl (even had one on the FE in the panel, but I didn't like the adapter plate).

 

Tried and true quadra junk.

 

Larry is right. You can't beat a q jet for a stock motor. The thing to look for when hunting for one to rebuild is one with nice tight throttle shafts in the baseplate. Late 70's early 80s ones all have an electric choke on them which makes it easier. Years ago when I worked for a chevy dealer I went to a Rochester carb class at a GM training center and these things are just great for a every day driver.

 

Look for one of the older models. The part number on the drivers side starts with 704. Stay away from the later models that start with 17 and do not use an electronic version. Most racers prefer 7049207.

 

i am leaning towards the quadrajet, with stock q-jet manifold (try to get aluminum) myself, however i think the best carb to use is the one you're most comfortable with.

If going from 2bb to 4, you will need to change manifolds. Which manifold were you thinking about?

1) If you're into brand-new, the Holley 4175 is a direct bolt-in replacement to the q-jet. Although i hear the mpg is not as good. i would like to experiment with this carb a.s.a.p.

2) The thing about q-jets is you can't really find them new anymore. Although you might try ebay for some NOS's.

a) There are, i believe, at least two sources that have a "boatload" of NOS quadrajets,but i don't remember exactly where. Will do research and report back a.s.a.p.


3) Although shops like JET and/or SMI can probably custom build you one just as good if not better than new.

 

For the 42 Chevy I am building I would use a Qjet, but I am going to use a 97-98 350, and the intake won't bolt up holes are different, so I will use a aluminum manifold and edelbrock 1406 carb

 

I use a 600 cfm Edelbrock on my street driven cars. Works great if you don't care how it looks.

 

If you do care how it looks, you can pop off the Edelbrock name plate, take it apart and lightly bead blast the surface finish away, and replace the funky torx screws with slot heads.

 

Or a Super/Stock motor.
Many national records set over the years with Q-Jets.
Here is a good book on them.

 

I agree, a Q-jet is a good carb, once you ensure it is clean and set up correctly. The elec choke versions are a lot easier to use, just a wire for the choke heater vs a tube or bi-metal spring on the intake. The small primaries of the Q-jet are good for low-rpm street use.

 

Not trying to hijack the thread but any recommendations for a carburetor on a 283?

 

how about a Q jet. They have small primaries, and the secondary air valve works on demand, so they work just fine on smaller engines, too.

 

I don't always chime in with specific product knowledge... but when I do it's typically incorrect and highly biased. That said, here are 3 OT's in my garage currently, all are "day two" rodded so they wear aluminum manifolds, headers on 2, aluminum heads on 2, decent street cams, rollers on 2, normally aspirated, all do a little strip and a lot of street and this is what they are running for carbs and my review of each;

77 6.6 W-72 Poncho, 9:1, QuadraJet. Starts easy, warms up quick, holds an idle fast, good MPG, runs hard.
68 Olds 455, Mondello Olds, 11:1, pump gas. Barry Grant Street Demon. good warm up, drinks fuel, perfect carb.
69 396, L88, 10.5:1, Air gap intake, aluminum heads, roller rockers, solid lifters, Barry Grant Street Demon. Sucks (I don't mean great vacuum), gets great gas mileage (when the car is on the roll back), holds a nice 950 RPM idle (after about 10 minutes on 70 degree day), brings tear to people's eyes (if they drive behind me). This is the most money I have ever wasted on a carb and it still runs like crap, just waiting for a sucker to come along to unload it on and recoup a few of the dollars I wasted on it.

Oh, on a related subject I am selling a gently used Barry Grant Street Demon. Square bore, 750 CFM, 4 barrel (not to be confused with new butterfly 3 barrel), new air bleed mixture screws added, new idle circuits, no-blo power valve, 4 corner metering, sight glass on both bowls, included are several sets of jets, listing of several approved service shops in the area, a repairable/replaceable choke kit, extra gasket sets and a stack of receipts any bench racer would be proud to display. This would make a great Christmas gift. Act now and I'll throw in "How to Hot Rod a Street Demon Carburetor".

 

Q-jet Stock manifold Iron If you need manifold part number and carb number I will pull it off my Essex. Don in Indiana

 

Another item if switching from 2bbl to 4 bbl and running a Turbo 350, the bracket for the kickdown cable is different between the 2. Get the right one, different spacing.

 

Gman - The Holley #1850 always ran great on my 283 with a mild cam and headers. Seems like the little vacuum secondary was just right for it.
*edit* - The 1850 Holley is the ''base'' 600 CFM vacuum secondary carb with a manual choke. Called 'em the 1850 for so long I forgot not everyone would know a part #! Summit sells them for $300. May be a little small for a hot 350

 

there are several carbs you can get to work on many engines. Like c10 said, use what you like...but there are some things about each of them, that makes me lean towards that particular carb for a particular application.

Qjets have a small float bowl, so they sometimes have trouble feeding big, hungry engines. They are also a bit difficult to set up just right, since you can't find jets and metering rods as easily as for the others. But if you are working on a mostly stock engine, using a Qjet that was designed to run on that engine, they work great. They were designed to work under all conditions, so they have some refinements that the others lack.

AFB/Edelbrock carbs also are not quite as easy to tune, but this is also an advantage, they are simple, so there is not much that goes wrong with them. Unlike Holleys, they don't have gaskets that are exposed constantly to fuel, so they are not as likely to leak. They also have a secondary air valve inside, so they can work ok on smaller engines.

Holleys are a bit more finicky, and sometimes require more tuning effort to get them just right. But they are very tunable, so you can get them just right, which makes them a good choice for highly modified engines. They take more maintenance...but you like working on carbs, don't you?