Thread: Holley or Quad???

Tweet

Boy, is this gonna stir things up.....recently bought a 1980 L82, 350, 4 speed Corvette for the wife. Ran pretty good, but thought it would be a good idea to have the Holley 650 Spreadbore rebuilt, just to know it was in top shape. Well, here is where the *hit hit the fan....have several friends, buddies, all who have at one time or another, have had, worked on, rebuilt, raced hotrods. When I told them about me having the carb rebuilt, and tell them it is a Holley, it is either, "great, can't go wrong with a Holley", or...."Holley, you need to take that piece of *hit off and get yourself a Quadrajet!"

Ok, I open the floor for discussion.....Holley or Quad???
Kelly

625 Road Demon

Originally posted by DennyW
That is a nice looking carb Viking.

Yeah and they got rid of all the holley inperfections (imo) I'll never go back to holley, the only reason that I have the carters on the bucket is that Grant had'nt come out with the 525cfm road demon jr when I built her, the cobra is running a 750cfm speed demon and runs MUCH better than the holleys ever did.

The QJet will get better milage than a Holley, and make roughly the same power. The QJet is more difficult to tune, therefore, it will never really have the same throttle response. Carter carbs, I have heard, are the way to go for street applications. They make good power, they run well on the street, the get ok milage, and they are extremely simple to tune.

Ok, here's another option. If the car still has the stock intake, you could replace the intake and carb with an Edelbrock intake and carb package. I like Holley's fine when I go racing, but for the street I prefer the Edelbrock carb.

Well, lets see, you got a '68 Pontiac Firebird

1980 L82, 350, 4 speed Corvette, with Edelbrock Performer intake

I would bolt an edelbrock on top of that motor. For the setup you have, assuming you havent torn into the motor (cam, heads, ect) it should match up pretty decently. And you know for sure it will fit your intake

Oh, and viking, that is one nice looking Demon

The info i have on the motor is, I'll start with mechanics- the previous owner had the original engine fully rebuilt 5,000 miles ago, the clutch was also freshened at this time+blow proof bellhousing added. Extras for engine performance were added, this includes bowtie angle plug heads, Edelbrock performer intake, Holley spreadbore 650, Mallory unilite ignition, rumbling, thumpy Comp Cam with Comp roller rockers. I am not a mech, so I will have to get yalls input as far as the setup. Thanx, Kelly

i have run a demons holleys and edelbrocks. edelbrocks every single one leaked and ran like shit. the demon works great on dads motor and the holley is king of course. holleys might warp after time but there is an easy fix to this.....scooter

this is not a lesson on carb, just JMO of them.
as far as im concern the holly is to America as a vw was to Germany, made for the masses. you get a good holly and it will do what you wont it to do, but if you get a bad one you might as well throw it away. if you think about it what can you really do to it. set the float. change the jets, pump and squatters, needle and seat, power valve, and play with the secondary a little. they are easy to work on. a holly carb. is like a chev. small block. cheap ? and available. but looks good

Q-JETS have more adj. if you know how. but most people don't know and don't take the time to find out. you can do the same thing to a Q-JET as you can with a holly plus you have more adj. with the power valve metering rods and power valve metering springs, front and rear. but is fugly and the fuel bowl ant big enough.

now you get to the edelbrock, there is no end to what you can do to a edelbrock carb. you can do the same thing to a edelbrock that you can to a holly or Q-JET plus a lot more, but there again most people don't know all of the fine turning you can do to it. you can take that tune up kit that they sell and change the character of the carb from a dead stand still, all the way through the 1/4 mi. you have a whole assortment of jets, metering rods front and rear, meter rods springs front and rear, to work with and its a good looking carb to.

then when everything else fails you can always get a predator, bolt it on and go fast. or spend the big bucks at GRANTS

Originally posted by DennyW
Mike, you forgot that you can also change the teflon wrap on the throttle shaft, where you have to drill and rebush on others, and add the quick change vac secondary on the Holleys also for fine tunning.
I don't see much difference from carb to carb. The trick is to know about them. You can do an awful lot to make any of them better. Just like the different cars. jmo

i just wonted to give you somthing to talk about denny. where have you beem all day? ive run them all. had good and bad luck with all of them. you can do a lot more with that AFB though.

Originally posted by DennyW
You sure can. I ran one on my old 61 Chevy. It started acting up on me one day. I tore it apart, and there was deposits blocking the ports, hahaha. Cleaned it out, and back in bus, hahaha. Believe it or not, I made slosh plates for my 850 Holley. No more dump problem, or float problem on hard take offs, hahaha.

had to use the slosh plates on my round track.

I'll second that Q-jet comment..... these carbs can really be adjusted if you know how....I haven't done it but I have seen these converted to manual secondaries with squirters.... The exceleration is unreal when set right.....

I have ran a 795cfm Q-jet reworked to a 825cfm.... this sits on top of my 283ci which ran best of 12.90@111mph in an 83 camaro...works for me....

edelbrock as the q-jet in their hands now. I personally have the 850 with stock jets stock hanger and rods. the only thing i adjusted was the four barrel tension. I think i get better throttle reponse from the smaller primaries on low end and when u kick
down them secondaries are quick to open. I have tried a holley it
worked but i like my q-jet

aw but streets thats to easy ........scooter p.s predators are bad ass