meddac Posted November 5, 2011 Share Posted November 5, 2011 I have a guy getting my 71 SS up to speed rebuilding carb, valve gaskets, new points, dist (laughingly said it still had the original distributor on it)and he said if I put a Holley 4 barrel on it it would run like a squalded dog as the Rochester is vacuum controlled and doesn't really act like a true 4 barrel. I have no clue so I thought I would throw it out on the board. I'm keeping the original anyway as the whole car remains original but could always swap carbs if it's that big a difference. Thanks all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leghome Posted November 5, 2011 Share Posted November 5, 2011 I took the Holley off my 72 and put on a Eldebrock 1406 with electric choke, 600cfm. The Holley was to temperamental plus being bent did not help. It runs a lot better with the 1406. It will bark the tires when it hits 2nd if I am on it, of course the 700R4 has some thing to do with that too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monte70car Posted November 5, 2011 Share Posted November 5, 2011 I would keep the q-jet on it, if it was mine and it was all original. The q-jet is a great carb for gas mileage unlike the Holley. Personal I will be putting my EFI unit back on my car hopefully this month and work my bugs out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stangeba Posted November 5, 2011 Share Posted November 5, 2011 I am lucky to still have (and use) the Quadrajet that came on my car from the factory. I have seen the terrible products that come out of the standard re-builders and will always recommend keeping what you have and getting it rebuild by a reputable shop. That being said, I would also stick with the Quadrajet. If you want to try something else, go ahead, it's your car but KEEP ALL THE OLD PARTS! Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike 57 Posted November 5, 2011 Share Posted November 5, 2011 If you have a stock intake the Holley is not going on without an adapter. I really dislike adapters. Depending what you goals are I probably would stay with the Qjet. If you are going for all out performance the Holley would be the way to go. For the street you just can't knock a Qjet they flow lots of air and are more economical cruising. I run a big Holley (flows 986 cfm) but my goals are a little different from most Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jared Richey Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 Q-Jet all the way for Gas Mileage and a street car, but for HP or Racing, Holley all day long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blake350 Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 Bruce is right about that-especially with carbs-if what you have has worked well and only needs a 'softparts' or 'wearout' items rebuild,probably better to go the reputable shop/your part route. I only paused to comment cause it reminded me of the auto parts store I worked in 30 years ago- Cardo carbs were the worst-the way they were thrown around in shopping carts as cores before even leaving our place was pretty scary. Starters and alternators were just about as big a crapshoot-rumor was our "rebuilder" threw on a coat of paint- set of brushes if you were lucky-and not much else!! Brian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stangeba Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 Where I work, we sell rebuilt progressive two BBL carbs like the ones that came on the old Pinto. (It's a nice replacement for a old worn out 1 BBL on a small six cylinder) Every one is taken apart, checked and repaired before it leaves. Friday we had one with about a 1/8 t-spoon of rust and dirt in the bowl and the accelerator pump, check ball, was missing. As far back as 1974, I was told to NOT get a rebuilt water pump for my Monte Carlo so the rebuild industry has been spotty at best for some time now. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rah72(Rick) Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 My car has the edelbrock on it and it will be gone in the spring. I am going back to a q-jet as soon as I order the Cliff Ruggles rebuild kit. I have been reading his book on rebuilding it and it will be going on in the spring. I have always like q-jets and the more i drive with the edelbrock on it the more i dont like it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue502 Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 The QJ is a great carb when set up properly.A lot of Stock Eliminator and Super Stock cars are well into the nines with a reworked QJ.Reworking one of these carbs to this level is expensive and most jobber rebuilders are not capable of getting them to perform this well.If you choose the right size and type of Holley it will run very well,right out of the box and they are cheap.The QJ gets great mileage and with a few mods can perform very well on a street/strip car.Like Mike57 I'm not big on adapters.You may consider another mechanic, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
680HPStroker Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 It's really all about personal preference these days. IMHO gone are the days when it was difficult to tune a Holley for economy and performance. With all the custom Holley carb builders out there who have exceeded Holley's original design reliability is not an issue either. I have a six year old 1050 Dominator built by AED and it has never missed a beat once it was properly tuned and yes it's a street car. Tuning is key no matter what carb design you go with. In performance applications rarely is an out of the box carb going to be one you can just bolt on and go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeramy Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 holley does make a spread bore carb electric choke, vacuum secondaries manual choke mechanical secondaries Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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