Edelbrock vs Holley?

Generally I think standard wisdom will indicate Edelbrock's are good for street use and Holley's are good for performance.

With that being said, my solution to tuning my 600 Edelbrock has been to buy a sh&*$load of rods and jets and just keep massaging it until it gets right. That can be very subjective. In the case of my pickup, it is never right, but that's not the fault of the carb - the 360 engine is a damn road dog and I hate it.

But that's a whole other discussion!

holley or quick fuel.  QFT makes a real bad ass carb right out of the box.

The motor is very mild. 460 .030 over, mild cam, Performer intake, Recurved Duraspark. I traded Psquare the 600 (worked perfectly fine) that was on the previous 460 for the Thunder 800. Bought the rebuild kit for it, put back the correct rods/jets for that carb if it were NIB. I have a Wideband hooked up, and with the original rods/jets in, it goes way lean (17+) on GENTLE acceleration, and 14-16 during cruise. Basically, haven't been able to comfortably drive the car. I have 2 rod/jet kits, and have tried 4-5 different combinations. It's a bit better, but is tuning a carb normally this much of a PITA, or because I'm new to this whole thing.

Holleys are ok, but earlier ones have a tendency to warp the baseplate.

Motorcraft carbs are just junk. Sorry, guys.

I have a Demon carb on my 4 speed. My first, and not too impressed at the response and adjustability. Could just be a bad one.

Carter Thermoquad. Love the sound and response, hate the mileage and adjustability.

Had decent luck with Edelbrock, but not great luck.

Unfortunately, I have had the best luck out of a Quadra Jet. Have run them for years, and the CFM rating can go up to 800 depending on application. Great adjustability, plentiful, relatively inexpensive, and sounds like it can suck a pigeon out of the sky when you stomp the pedal. Run them on Fords, GM's and Mopars - all with good luck.

unlovedford wrote: Holleys are ok, but earlier ones have a tendency to warp the baseplate. Motorcraft carbs are just junk. Sorry, guys. I have a Demon carb on my 4 speed. My first, and not too impressed at the response and adjustability. Could just be a bad one. Carter Thermoquad. Love the sound and response, hate the mileage and adjustability. Had decent luck with Edelbrock, but not great luck. Unfortunately, I have had the best luck out of a Quadra Jet. Have run them for years, and the CFM rating can go up to 800 depending on application. Great adjustability, plentiful, relatively inexpensive, and sounds like it can suck a pigeon out of the sky when you stomp the pedal. Run them on Fords, GM's and Mopars - all with good luck.

X2. Joe you are exactly right. I had my grandfather's old 79 DeVille, and I had to rebuild the carb on it one time. I was rather apathetic about it, but proceeded to buy a book about Quadrajets and read the whole thing. I was a big Q-Jet fan after that.

I'd put one on the Torino if it were something I could do reasonably quickly. I had always envisioned massive linkage mods and baseplate mods...

Maybe I am wrong on that. I would like to see other's experiences with Q-Jets.

Only Quadrajet I had was on my jetboat great carb. At one point I put a  650 Holley on the boat thinking I could get more out of it. Ran good with the holley but performance was exactly the same as the Quad, But it used almost twice as much fuel. Put the Quad back on that one.( 403 Olds Motor ).

Sorry you had poor luck with your Barry Grant carb Joe. All aftermarket carbs though do need some setting up for your application. Main thing is run a good Carb simulation software program first. You would be surprised how many carbs are overkill. My 434M stroker Needs to be at 5700 rpm to use 625cfm Of carb. Also had to change the secondary opening point, In my case Vacuum sec so a lighter spring was in order. Prior secondaries would not open until over 5500rpm.
Quadrajet secondaries do not need much to open up other than some foot in the pedal...

I am running a carter AFB 650 on my 74 ranchero 460. It was good to go right out of the box. Set the idle mix screws and the idle and done! Have not touched it in years. On the 79's 460 I am running the holley 600 CFM factory replacment carb and that too has been pretty trouble free. Set the floats/idle mix/idle and choke done. Both engines are not anything real radical. the 74's engine has a .494 lift with a 272 duration and headers with 9 to 1 compression. the 79's is basicly stock with a 429 CJ cam and 9 to 1 compression (stock exhaust manifolds). Both cars display great drivablity.  

I have a 55 gallon drum full of original ford 4bbl holleys. To me they are worth crush weight. Around 10 bucks each. I saved them over the years from my friends junkyard. Aslo have 5 55 gallon barrels of quadrajets.  1 barrel of 4100-4300 motorcraft 4bbl carbs. Each barrel has around 40-50 carbs in it. I would consider these all junk rebuild carbs but good cores. Anyone here though wants a few pay shipping and 10 bucks each you can have em. I would suggest buying about 4 at a time save on shipping  and I am not looking at tags ones on the top get sent.

Robbdtme wrote: I have a 55 gallon drum full of original ford 4bbl holleys. To me they are worth crush weight. Around 10 bucks each. I saved them over the years from my friends junkyard. Aslo have 5 55 gallon barrels of quadrajets.  1 barrel of 4100-4300 motorcraft 4bbl carbs. Each barrel has around 40-50 carbs in it. I would consider these all junk rebuild carbs but good cores. Anyone here though wants a few pay shipping and 10 bucks each you can have em. I would suggest buying about 4 at a time save on shipping  and I am not looking at tags ones on the top get sent.

the 4100's seem to go for at least $25 ea or more and thats for ones needing rebuilt.

the q-jets that ford used had the same pattern as the gm QJ's