Edlebrock Easy to work on, great idle, performs well. Why use anything else? I love these carbs. Everyone I have ever bought has functioned flawlessly. Take them out of the box, bolt them on, quick adjust and away ya go. I build mostly mild street performance motors so maybe on high perf motors, Holleys, Q-Jets, Demons, etc work better, but for my use Edelbrock fills the bill the best :TU:
I run a modified Stock Qjet and stage 1 fuel pump, i run the stock GS hood with a SP1 intake and 1'' spacer, i shold be able to run a 11.9 when i can get outside air to the carb, so far i have been sucking hot air, im sure i would run maybe a tenth beter with a different carb and an another 2 tenths with a skylark hood and a scoop, but for me i like to keep my car as close to stock as possible, and at the strip, i am the only car i even seen even run in the 14's, with a Qjet, almost all the cars in my bracket are trailerd BBC with open headers and big hollys,i dont know how many times i have been asked if i run NOS? Or, YOU DROVE THAT HEAR?? run what ever carb you like, just have fun with your car, thats what there for.
Recently we had a couple guys sitting around BSing with the carb shop guy at his shop when this subject came up. He said generally for a track only car use a Holley. For a street car use a Q-jet. For a street strip car its your choice. If you have no preference, I'll ask the you how much street and how much strip? If its really a strip car that you occationally take down to the local cruise in you might be happier with a Holley. If its a power tour car or street strip car that you plan to actually put some miles on as in drive in traffic and on the highway. Especially if you drive it in the changing spring & fall weather and you don't want to have to mess with re-tuneing it. Then you will be happiest with a Q-jet that has been well set up and tuned for your car. Anything that has a radical cam & a big stall etc its eazier to set up a Holley for. When asked about how much power a person could expect to gain with a Holley he said their is no cut & dried answer as their is too many variables. He thought generally on a 500HP or less motor that their should only be 5 or 10 HP on equally tuned and set up carbs and sometimes no difference. In general he seemed to kind of favor the Q-jet as he said he knew that once set up right for the car it was trouble free. Where as the Holley owner either had to learn how to become "user friendly" or that it would be coming back for adjustments and owner education. He said in general he kind of favored Holley's for lighter cars especially if they have a big cam small block with a high stall. He liked the Q-jet for big heavy cars as they can drop a lot of fuel when needed without drowning the motor when you don't need it. Again at least to a point as when serious fuel for 600+HP race motor was needed its easier to set up a Holley for that. That was when one of the guys said they still prefered a small Holley for mileage and throttle response. He said even a little 600cfm Holley would flow like 450cfm on the primarys where as the Q-jet primarys were only 390cfm. Set up right the Q-jet should be more responsive or crisp off idle or off cruise and use the same or less fuel around town or at cruise. Like someone posted before mileage would not be my first priority when setting up a strong big block even for street use. But if I can use cubes instead of a crazy cam to get the power I want in conjunction with the carb gearing tranny & converter and get 15 mpg instead of 10 it is a big difference. At least if you are putting 8,000 miles on a summer instead of 200 miles. That's 30% better mileage from ever gallon of fuel bought. Naturally if you need an economy car for your daily driver then you get an ecomomy car for your daily driver.
Quadrajet Quadrajet, is a great choice for street or street/strip use. But strip use only I would use Holley, AL.
I agree with Rick, My new QF 950 Pro carb has 12 adjustable jets in each metering block as well :eek2: This thing is as tunable as EFI, and the price is way good as compaired to Holley's HP Ultra carb! It's really hard to go wrong with one.
i put a holley on my 430, does not like cold mornings,those electric chokes suck!! i will trade it for a good working competition series thermoquad!!!
Q-JET BABY!!!! Easy to take apart, easy to tune, easy everything. The choke and fast idle work flawlessly, starts right up hot or stone cold. Good mileage, and lots of airflow when you need it. Kevin
Holley DP on any decent motor is like a 30HP kick in the pants and a major drain on the wallet.On the same motor HP will pick up 10% and fuel mileage will drop 25%.
Hi guys my brother has and edelbrock replacement Qjet on his 72 cutlass with the 350 in it. This is by far the best carb setup I have ever driven. The throttle responce is super crisp no matter were you at idle, 1500, 3000. It starts on the coldest of days with out a problem and it gets ok gas milage if you keep your foot out of it. The only draw back is the price. This carb was in the car when we bought it but its like a 400 dollar carb in summits catelog. a friend of mine has a 66 SS 396 chevelle with a holley on it and it runs great to great throttle responce but it dosn't really want to start when the weather turns a little cold. Once it warms up though its OK
I like 'em too, but there comes a time when 750-800 cfm just doesn't cut it! Oh yeah...dual 50cc accelerator pumps come in handy, too! I run the older Barry Grant Silver Claw 1000 with great results, on the street & otherwise. Devon
I feel the next best carb to the dommie is the 1000 Race Demon. Just my .02 cents. I'm running this one on a 464. :3gears:
I really like my Q-jet. I like the fact that all the fuel is metered, not dumped in in bulk by a power valve. Tuned well the Q-jet doesn't give up much of anything to a Holley. There is no way my motor would pick up 30hp by bolting on a Holley, no way. It might pick up 30 hp if I go from a performer to an sp-1 with a 1" spacer and a 950hp Holley but there goes to hood and any fuel economy it had. I am well over 500 hp on a Q-jet and a dual plane. If I was trying to build a serious race car I would probably look hard at the Demon. Besides I love the look on peoples faces at the track when they see it is "just" a Q-jet :laugh:
I love quadrajets. They aren't hard to work on IF you have a good, no make that great book like Doug Roe's Rochester book. He even says you could get your Grandma to rebuild the Q-Jet if she followed the book. It has every step, every one! I see articles in mags and they leave out 80% of the steps. No wonder people get mad and buy a Holley! Try taking the pin out of the Accelerator pump rod by what the magazine (don't)tell you to do! My Mom's 69 Electra with over 225,000 miles on it would get 16 MPH. And the 430 Motor was pretty much worn out at the time. Oh, and the leaky primary and secondary wells? Simple solution is to epoxy them. A quadrajet with a badly leaking wells will make you think your motor is shot.
Well last week at the Texas buick Bash we tried a John Osborne Qjet on the BBB regal. We lost 4 tenths and several MPH. We were surprised because it felt really good, but the tell of the tape says different. The old carb was a David A. special modified 750DP with a modified proform body and 4 corner idle circuit added. With the 37 squirters the holley/proform is .1 quicker in the 60ft and runs alittle better on the big end. So, I'd have to say the newer carbs like quick fuel or Mighty demons are very hard to beat for the money. They can always be tweek'd right in. On the stage2 the Demon was very close just needed to go bigger on the bleeds 2 sizes and down two jets. Usually people who have problems with demons did not open them up and blow out every passage way before running. They are machined from billet. Holley's aren't billet so it's alittle give and take. I think most buick guys having issues with 4150 style carbs have the wrong booster types or completely mis tuned. I've got buddies who only know how to go up in jets sizes. Going down is just something they can't make themselfs do. It's kind of funny. Annular booster on a single carb 4150 application is a no no for most any motor execpt those which are way overcarb'd. Just call up holley and tell them you have a big block buick single four and you want a annular 850 carb and see what they say. You will get an almost uncontrolable fuel curve with a very fat hook on top. With the new billet base plates and killer bowls the newer 4150 style carbs are really nice. They don't leak fuel or air. They are easy to tune and look great. I have to say at $499 a mighty demon 825 or 850 is hard to beat. The 850 is the exact same carb as the race demon 1000 while the 825 is a 950 flowing carb. Check out the specs for yourself. I just received my custom Quick Fuel Technologies tunnel ram carbs for my stage2. They look KILLER! The flow Engineer who created the HP carb for holley co-founded QFT and they are the real pros.
Chris, cheap Quadrajets can always be found. Just go to ebay and get one for $25 (I did). Rebuild kits are cheap too and with the Roe book or a knowledgable friend the rebuild is easy (Holley's are very easy). For a "built" 455 gas milage is not important, I got 9.5 mpg with mine on my last drag strip visit to Fayetteville (one full tank round trip and 9 runs). I've had one Holley, an 1850 on a small block Mopar. It always ran great.
QJ all the way I loved this carb when it first came out in the late 60s and I have just come back to it in my 72/455--great ALL round carb---IF I had a track ONLY car I would use the Holley Pete
