Thread: Coolant in cylinders; fresh 400 sbc build

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Originally Posted by Bigbzc

By the way, my carb is a Quadra-junk. I know they make carbs for this such as the Quickflow but was wondering if this setup will work if I can find a rebuild kit to allow E85 to work in the "junk"

In my experience, the only people who call a Quadrajet a Quadrajunk are those who don't understand them and won't take the time to learn. My opinion is that aside from Webers and Dellortos, the Quadrajet is probably the finest fuel mixing apparatus ever conceived. Contact Cliff Ruggles to see if there are alcohol-compatible parts for it....
Cliffs High Performance Quadrajets :: Qjet Carburetor Rebuild Kits, Parts, Quadrajet Rebuilding, Quadrajet Parts, Bushing Kits, Carb Tuning

Originally Posted by techinspector1

In my experience, the only people who call a Quadrajet a Quadrajunk are those who don't understand them and won't take the time to learn. My opinion is that aside from Webers and Dellortos, the Quadrajet is probably the finest fuel mixing apparatus ever conceived. Contact Cliff Ruggles to see if there are alcohol-compatible parts for it....
Cliffs High Performance Quadrajets :: Qjet Carburetor Rebuild Kits, Parts, Quadrajet Rebuilding, Quadrajet Parts, Bushing Kits, Carb Tuning

So do you think I can achieve this if I build the carb and use the 305 heads? I haven't read your link on the Quadrajet E85 yet but I will when I get a chance to really take it in. On a side note, the Quad is about the only carb I have ever had experience with and HAVE been pretty fond of it. I only used the "Quadrajunk" reference because I figured you were like the other Holley fans who have called it that. Yes it is a good carb and once you get it tuned, you really never have to adjust it much as you do a Holley. A guy I worked with a long time ago had one on him Monty and had to adjust it once a week to keep it running good on pump gas. It was also pretty high compression.

Ok, I sent Cliff an inquiry about E85 rebuild kit for the Quad. I also read in his forum that a few people are run it with his rebuild kits and are not having any problems. Thank Tech for that link. So I guess the question left is do you think this might work? The only thing that bothers me about the idea is that I would be using 30% more fuel and that I would only get 5 mpg when towing my 4x4. It probably weighs between 5 and 6K lbs on the trailer. I think it might be cheaper to just try to find some 350 heads that haven't been machined for a couple hundred (or find someone who wants mine. They would be killer on a 350 with flat top pistons)

I think you're gonna have more money involved trying to go to alcohol than you might think. If it were my motor, I'd disassemble it and start over with a solid plan to run it on junk pump gas (9.0:1 with a 0.040" squish and a short hydraulic roller cam. RPM intake, 600 carb and 1 3/4" long-tube headers).
Howards, Camshaft & Lifter Kit, Chev SB, Hydraulic Roller,-Competition Products
After reading some of your responses, I doubt that you'll have any interest in this approach, but there are others who are reading this thread and I just wanted to publish my thoughts on the way I'd do it based on what you say you want the motor to do.