Thread: edelbrock carb-worth rebuilding?

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I have a edelbrock 600cfm carb that I bought on ebay. The previous owner said that it only had about 100 hrs on it. It looks new but runs overly rich and poorly on my 283. I tried it on another engine and it also ran poorly on it. I was told that the edel 600 carbs have larger jets than it should from the factory. I have a 283 freshly rebuilt with new pistons, 9 to 1, .60 over, crane 266 cam-210/210/440/440, stealth dual plane. Someone told me to forget the rebuild of edelbrock carb and get a holley avenger 570 cfm. What do you all think? thanks for the help.

Edelbrock has an instrution book on their website for the Edelbrock Performer carb - a 600cfm straight from the box is too "big" for a 283 as they are nominally set up for ~350 CID engines. The IB takes some time to understand but will allow you with proper jetting and rod, springs, etc make it acceptable. Everything is available from Summit or Jeg's. Holleys - leave for competition use!!!!

Difference of opinion. Holleys work well on the street if set up properly and IMHO they are easier to fine tune than any Edlebrock/Carter ever produced. Holleys don't work too well on spreadbore manifolds without a square bore spacer.

thanks for the advise

"Someone told me to forget the rebuild of edelbrock carb and get a holley avenger 570 cfm."

Is this someone a particularly knowledgeable guy?

I see a lot of recommendations to toss Brand X and install Brand Z.
Poor advice to say the least.

You can make either one of the major manufacturer's carbs run well.
Just takes a little study and a willingness to learn.

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Right now, I'd pull the metering rod covers - one screw each - and see if you have a metering rod hung up.
With the metering rods out you may want to pull the carb top and check float level & drop - spec's are in the Edelbrock manual.

Some guys are reporting that some Edelbrocks are coming through with incorrect float levels.
I have four fairly new Carter/Edelbrocks (same carb) and only one had the floats off and they weren't that far off.

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Go to the Edelbrock website, note the small print and you'll see a place you can click on that will download a manual in PDF format.
PDF is an Adobe deal and you can get Adobe free.
If you don't have it, you'll be prompted to get it.
Very worthwhile in a lot of areas.

Opinions on which carb is better are very diverse. Some people love Edelbrocks and some love Holleys. Both are good carbs, and each has it's own pluses and minuses.

I like Edelbrocks on the street, and Holleys on the track. But that is just me. I find Edelbrocks a little more forgiving to day in day out things like dirt. I just drove my Jeep yesterday to haul a load of scrap to the junkyard, the first time it has been started in 6 months, and it fired right up and never missed a beat the whole trip. I am running a 500 cfm on a 302 in it. Bolted it on out of the box, and have never even turned an adjustment screw.

So, in my opinion, it is worth rebuilding or at least rejetting. I think C9x's suggestion is good about the metering rods. On my '27 I am running 2 Edelbrocks, and every so often I would have to remove them to clear out some rust from the water going down them. ( No hood, rains a lot in Florida)

Don

Originally Posted by C9x

"Someone told me to forget the rebuild of edelbrock carb and get a holley"

If it was me, I would have elaborated with "if you are using the car for most street driving with very little time on the track then rebuild the Edelbrock carb with the help of their tech line. HOWEVER, if you are looking for a performance carb where you have a more spirited driving style and you expect snap performance from the "go pedal", then a Holley carb is the way to go". Of course not all of us have access to $85,000 worth of computerize, weather compensating portable chassis dyno hardware as I have over the past 5 years (not mine, just a friend who allows me access to it when I need to tune one of my cars)....Edelbrock and the Avenger series of carb are great for the street driven "cruiser", but once again, if you are trying to wring out performance using those particular carbs, you are doing yourself and your engine a disservice."


Bill S.

Discussing Edelbrock Vs. Holley on carbs is like discussing Chebbie Vs. Mopar for cars.....

Eventually you guys will realize that a Fuel Injected Ford is the BEST and make the changeover to a good setup!!!!!!!

I'm like Bill, I really appreciate having a friend with a chassis dyno and all the computer gear and knowledge to make it work!!!!!

Edelbrock's are somewhat self-regulating if an oversized carb is used.
The engine doesn't pull the air controlled secondary valves open all the way if the carb's CFM rating is not reached.
By the same token an undersized carb will pass more air than it's CFM rating if the engine can pull the CFM.

Since the 600 carb is already installed, make the best of it, jet, rod & spring it to suit the purpose and run it for a while.
Since the carb will seldom be under full throttle I'm sure you'll find the car to have good manners in the driveability dept when on the primaries.
Speaking for myself, if I was running a 283 I wouldn't worry about replacing the 600 Edelbrock.

Years ago, a friend stuck an 850 Holley on a 283 powered El Camino.
I thought he was crazy, but it ran prety good.
He did go to a smaller Carter later on and the 850 Holley was a temporary expedient.
Interesting to see though.

Along those same lines, I oughta con my pal into sticking one of my jetted-for-the-altitude 750 Edelbrock carbs onto his 327 powered 29 roadster.
He's running an overly rich 600 Edelbrock right now and it runs quite well.
Pretty much a stock 327 with a bit of a cam, headers (inefficient block huggers) and a whiny gear drive.
I'm betting the 750 would run pretty good.


Fwiw - couple of years back, Car Craft ran some dyno tests on what were considered oversize carbs and had very good results.
Not sure if it was in the same article or not, but they also found not a whole lot was to be gained by port matching - as long as things were fairly close, good enough.

That article and personal experience makes the old carb size formula an ok place to start, but it ain't the end-all and be-all far as carbs go.


Quite a few years back, Holley ran a vendor/tech help tent at the WinterNats.
They found most problems were cured by returning the carb to factory baseline.

My opinion is that most carb problems with new carbs are simply an incorrect choice by the purchaser.


One last story and then I'll shut up.
About three years ago I went into my favorite speed shop.
A small one in Farmersville, California that carried a lot of genuine speed equipment and stuff for the hard-core drag race crowd.
No bling wheels here although there was a stack of gennie Halibrands on a big shelf high up on the wall.
Along with $30,000. worth of Earls fittings on the other wall.

The owner always had a few intakes, some with carbs, a couple boxes full of used stuff at good prices etc.

One bright and sunny day, I spotted a brand new looking 750 Edelbrock sitting on top of the stuff in one of the boxes.
It was about two weeks old and the speed shop owner thought the kid who bought it had mis-jetted/rodded it.
The kid brought it back cuz he wasn't happy with it and had gone to a Holley.
Which is ok, but since he couldn't make the Edel run, my bet was it wouldn't be long until he painted himself into a corner with the uber-adjustable Holley.
Said adjustments not being a bad thing, in fact a very good thing for some.

Anyway, I asked how much for the carb that the owner had bought from the kid and the price was $125.
Not bad considering the thing cost bout $287. at the time

I bought it, jetted it to the factory baseline level and it ran great.
It's the same carb mentioned above that was later jetted for 3400' altitude and it still runs great.

I don't know what happened to the kid, but I sure am enjoying his 'old' carb....

the only vehicle ive ridden in that has an edelbrock carb was a blown 350 in a 55 with 2 of them, for the street if you can make them work i suppose. but i still like the beloved holley for street/strip use. i have alot of problems with mine because i use that POS proform center section which is in the process of going by by! once you mess the air bleeds up theres no turning back. leave them alone lol. but anyway, that 570 street avenger would be an excellent carb for the street. even a good old fashioned 600 holley.

Guess I've never had much trouble dialing in either carb, though admittedly the Edelbrock does take some thorough studying of the Edelbrock calibration guide. The main thing I like about the Edelbrock's is that once they are properly calibrated, they seem to hold the tune much longer then the Holley's. If I'm going racing or any kind of performance driving then it's definitely time for a Holley. Then I go for a ride with a friend of mine who has a pair of Edelbrock's on his blown BBF. Guess it all depends on which you want to run and how much time you want to spend learning to calibrate, then properly calibrating it....