----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, January 10, 2003 8:38
PM
Subject: RE: [Chevelle-List] RE:
carbs.
Parallel universe.
I
had virtually the same experience with my original '71 Malibu 350 4 speed. The
sound when the Qjet secondaries opened up was great, and the front
end also hopped up in the air (I flipped the air cleaner top as well
... WAAAAAAA!). I got 19 MPG on the highway with that carb. It started
spewing gas everywhere one day, and I replaced it with a Holley. I wouldn't
say it was a big mistake, but the mileage did go down with no perceptable
increase in performance. I also rebuilt the Qjet and put it back on
eventually. Worked fine.
Having said that, I'm considering an Edelbrock perfomer for my current
'71 Malibu 350 4 speed. The engine came with an Edelbrock intake manifold and
Holley 4160, 600 CFM. I hate the Holley; hesitates when its cold, uneven
acceleration, poor mileage (12 MPG). I though about rebuilding it and/or
converting it to a 4150, but a friend of mine had an Edelbrock carb and let me
try it. Very nice acceleration. Didn't have it long enough to test the gas
mileage. Reading the Edelbrock literature, the carbs are supposed to be
matched to the intake and cam, so tuning will be little or none.
I
also noticed that Edelbrock makes a Qjet clone. They suggest a 750 CFM Qjet
carb with their intake manifolds, whereas they suggest a 600 CFM Edelbrock
performance carb with the same manifold. Why the big difference? I don't
know.
Tom
Tomlinson
'71
Malibu 350
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Gents,
I am far
from a mechanic, but I am sold on Quadrajets. The guys that say when you get
a good one, it's great, are right. I must have got a good
one!
When I was a teen I had a GTO with a 389 and a 4 speed. It came
with a Quadrajet. This wasn't a low performance Quadrajet mind you. It was
what was known as a "spread-bore". Meaning it had tiny primaries that you
used for every day street driving (around the size of a quarter), but those
secondaries were about the size of a silver dollar (give or take a
bit).
When I pushed that peddle to the metal, those secondaries opened and
the front end jumped in the air, and the kick was such that it seemed like I
had downshifted when I hadn't. The sound that engine made when it went into
performance mode was like sweet music to my ears. Especially if you turned
the air breather upside down to expose the air filter. Anyone do
that?
I
rebuilt that carb myself later, not knowing what the heck I was doing. I
just bought a rebuild kit and followed the instructions in the kit. It
performed just as great afterwards as it ever had. I tried putting a Holley
on the car once just to see what all the hoopla was about. I put the
Quadrajet back on and never thought twice about going back to the
Holley.
I
have two spread-bore quadrajets I will be rebuilding to put on my big block.
That's what I'll be using gents. If anyone wants to throw their spread-bore
Quadrajets away, I'll take them!
Steve
