Originally posted by gassersrule_196
we had a 11:1 301 with a holley 600 worked great. the only people who tell you that the holley is bad is because they dont know anything about them. they are the easiest carbs to work on. if you run a higher compression use a 750-780 carb unless you go with dual 4's. if you need helpw ith the 283 let me know..........scooter
Don't get me wrong, I didn't say there is anything bad about a 283. I had one in my '55 for quite a while and never had a problem with it that I didn't cause myself.

The main question is what do you want the motor to do for you? It's just easier to get lotso' horsepower and torque out of a pig block than it is a small block....period. Like I said....no replacement for displacement.

As for the Holley, I do understand how they work, and I have actually worked on more Holleys than 'brocks. But see thats just it, in my case, I don't want to have to work on em constantly. I want to set the calibration, and forget about them. With the Holley I had on my '55, I was constantly tweeking it, and I was using the truck as a daily driver. It's not a lot of fun to have to tweek the carb before going to work in the morning just to get it to run right.

Are Holley's easy enough to work on? Sure, but I think that you'll find that Edelbrock's are actually simpler (in design) and it has been my experience that they seem to hold a tune much better. Thats why I choose them over the Holley. It's not because of a lack of understanding in how Holley's work. It's an educated decision that is made based on the needs of my applications. Simply put, it's what works best for me. That's why I said in the first post that junking the Holley is what I would do, and I even said then that I realized it wasn't something everybody would (or even should) do.

Also, personally, I would say that 750 or 780 cfm would be way too much carb for a 283. You could probably get it to run; but, it would never run right. Using the formula CID*Max RPM/3456 = Carb CFM, a 283 turning at a max of 9000 rpms would only need 736.97 CFM. She better be well balanced....most motors (@283 cubic inches) would fly apart before you ever reached the need for 750 or 780 cfm. Even boring it out to 301 as you suggested, the motor would only require 740 cfm @ 8500 rpms. Now, if you throw a blower on there, it would change things a bit because blower boost would become part of the equation, but thats a different story.

Anyway, I know, it's all about suggestions.

Cheers,
Firechicken