carburetors - 350 cid engine

I have a question for you all,
Our car hasn't run right since we bought it. It's got a recently rebuilt 350 in it and from what a friend of the family who's a mechanic told us...a rebuilt carb. He said he won't touch rebuilt carbs and suggested buying a Edelbrock quadrajet for $455. That seems like an aweful lot of money.
What carbs do you all run? I have known guys that have ran Holley, Carter.....and others without any problems.

Any suggestions would be great. I have alot of mechanical experience but none at all with carbs.


Thanks,

Seth.

I am running an Edelbrock Performer 1406. I bought a factory rebuilt one from Summit for less than $200. I have 3,000 miles on the engine and it runs fine. I had to do a litttle jet work but that is not unusual on a modified engine. A guy at Edelbrock told me most of the carbs that are returned have a faulty owner. Even so, they all go back to the Weber factory for a complete rebuild.

Thanks for the input!
What type of manifold are you running?

I'm also running an Edelbrock 1406, on their Performer manifiold. They are very easy to tune. I'm happy with mine.

Pat

Kind of a bonehead question but i'm not familiar with carbs at all. When would you run an electronic choke and when would you run a manual. I think I would need a manual but i'm not sure.

Also, did you guys need a calibration kit or did you just bolt the carb on and adjust the idle?

thanks,

Seth.

Do you have a manual or elecric choke on the car right now? If you have a pull knob for manual choke then just get a manual choke carb and hook up the choke linkage, if not, get a electric choke carb. You should apt for a calibration kit. I'm not shure car would have a manual or electric choke. If you wanted to you could get a chokeless carb, just dont expect it to start easy, I wouldent recomend a chokeless carb for a street application anyway.

I am running an Edelbrock Performer intake. The 1406 has an electric choke. The instructions that comw with the carb tell you how to adjust it for cold weather and hot weather. You may need that in Alaska but here in Arkansas I get good starting year round without tinkering. Manual choke is just one more thing to remember.

The Edelbrock (Carter AFB) is a superb carburetor right out of the box. I run a Holley, but it's not exacly what you would call a streetable setup. All of my past cars had Carter AFB's on them, and I never had any troubles with them. One of those kits that give you extra meetering rods and springs is a very good idea, but you shouldn't have a problem just the way it is. And, for street use, I would get the electric choke version.

Thanks again for all the advice.
I can't honestly tell you what type of choke it has now. There isn't a knob so i'm guessing it's either an electric choke....or choke-less. If it doesn't have a choke, or is a manual choke and i'm just that blind not to notice is there a way to hook up the electric choke on a car that didn't come with one?

I run a Demon very tunable but I like the carters too.

Hey bibs I just noticed you were scary groin. I was in A1/7 back in the late 80s Fort Hood. Spent most of my 10.5 in the CAV.
19d my self.

Yes, electric choke is very easy to hook up. Just have to run one wire to a 12v source that comes on with the ignition switch.

Pat

Oh, perfect! that's easy. I"m going to try one thing a friend suggested and that's checking the accelerator pump on the carb I have now to see if it's bad. If that's not it i'll be ordering the edelbrock card....with electronic choke.

if money is a issue just get the carter AFB , it's the same one and cheaper ?

Well, fi your really strapped for cash, you can always get a used Q-jet. Or a rebuilt, or whatever. their good street carbs for under 300HP, but after that you should get and Edelbrock.

65 , is it a stock 350 ?if not what rpm range do you expect to run with it ?

We recently bought it and from what the previous owner told me it's mostly stock but has an RV cam in it? I assume that's a slightly torque-ier cam but not 100% sure.
I think I mentioned before that I am looking for medium performance and highly reliable......so not super high RPM's

if its mostly stock Ill say its safe to say youll never rev it past 5500 RPMs. If thats the case 600 CFM is plenty.
Or like a couple of others have said, a Qjet would be wonderful, Qjets are hard to beat if tuned properly, hard part is finding someone who knows how to work em. Q jets are basically 800 CFM, but cause of there spread bore design, they act like a small carb at part thorratle, wich helps it be more responsive.

makes sense, thanks for the info. Learning more every day!
I believe it's a q-jet on there now....a rebuilt rochester I think the previous owner said. What are your thoughts on those? I have heard they aren't the greatest.

Like I said, when propely tuned there hard to beat. Alot of people dont like em cause they are a bit complicated, & when they screw up, they really take a crap. The Edelbrock Qjet IS a Rochester Qjet,They got the rights to it a few years back. Its personal preferance. Im no good with Tuning a Qjet,but I had one done by val hedworth (famed stock eliminator racer) for my 402 in my Camaro after playing with differant carter, Edelbrock, & Holleys, & the Qjet outperformed & out MPGed all of em.

now all I have to do is either learn how to tune it, or find someone really good at tuning them.:D

Chances are the stock carb you have has a automatic choke, but not an electical one. It is probably the old thermo spring type, that relases the choke after the engine warms. It was a step up over the manual, in terms of automtive advancements, but didn't come without their problems.;)

Streets, that carb looks like it has the remains of a fire extinguisher on it. Or was that sitting beside the drum set in the sub basement with the dragons.:D

Quote:

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Originally posted by Streets
Messed up my non-adjustable Johnson rods too that way... Hehehehe

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Ouch, I hope it didn't leave a mark! You must remember to remove the Johnson rods immediately after use. Particularly the non-adjustable ones.:LOL:

It does have the thermo spring type automatic choke.
I found a guy that will put the car on a scope for free and help figure out what's going on with it. Hopefully that will shed some light on the problem.