oldsman7

Hi guys. Just bolted on an Edelbrock Performer intake on my 67 Cutlass 330 running HEI. The entire car is stock and as original as can be. The intake does not accept the old 2 barrel very well so I need some carb recommendations. I was looking at some after market stuff. The 4 barrel rochester of 67 has the divorced choke set-up so that goes out the window and I am kind of in a bind what to get. Any advice is very welcome.

oldcutlass

I believe your manifold will accept a spreadbore or a sqarebore carb. I've had good luck with any of the available carbs, Edelbrock, Rochestor, or Holley. I had an Edelbrock/ electric choke on my 330 with a stock manifold and it did really nice!

oddball

Depends on what you want to do. And all of this is my opinion.
The QJets are the best all-around carb, but there is a steep learning curve and most parts have to be special ordered. You can adapt a hot-pipe choke onto the Performer if you can find the parts, or use an electric choke.
The Edelbrock carbs are actually the old Carter design. Very easy to tune, but not terribly precise.
The Holley carbs are available just about everywhere, and sit between the ebrock and qjet in complexity.

Of course, the ebrock and holley can be had new, while you'll be searching for a core and doing a rebuild of a qjet. I will only run qjets, but I'm also knee-deep in 'em.

bigD

it is hard to beat a good q-jet... are you perhaps more familiar with one brand?

Stevec

A lot of the qjets have nice big secondaries so they sound great at wide open throttle the edelbrocks however are so easy to tune it all depends on what you are trying to achieve.

Aceshigh

I think he pretty much summed it up very nicely.

Me personally , I don't like screwing around with things much so I bought an Edelbrock.
I wanted it working out of the box, and Edelbrocks are not finicky like the others tend to be.

Plus I wanted something new, and the seals are all above the fuel.
For me, the Q-jets are a pain in the *** with getting them running right and too much aggravation for a newbie.

Experienced guys like them, but like he said the learning curve is steep.

jag1886

Get an 80457 Holley bolts right on, jet it down one size in the primary and it's ready to run. It worked perfect on my 65 330.

71 Cutlass

I have an Edelbrock on mine and it has never given me a problem. Great carb and tuning is always right on, not sure why someone posted that the tuning isn't accurate. Edelbrock carbs are hassle free and provide great performance.

bigD

experiences vary... i too like the AFB design and have gotten great service from the particular ones that i've used. in fact i've said it before and i'll say it again, for me anyway the AFB gives the best balance of power and drivability/fuel economy of any that i've messed with... granted i'm not an expert by any means but i've fooled around with enough stuff to know what works and what doesn't. i love the holleys for power but it seems that too often that power comes at the expense of economy, tho the 3310 i had was pretty good... when you look at the variety of build combo's and all the variables that the vehicle brings into the equation it's a pretty complex formula, it varies enough that i think that "blanket" statements don't really hold true most of the time...
if it's an appropriate size and design for your outfit it will work fine and should give decent economy & performance regardless of the name brand...

coppercutlass

I love edelbrocks the are easy and hassle free., mine out the box worked perfect. I do like holley's as well i just went over to a holley 650 double pumper. Holleys can be a bit tempermental toward weather changes as the edbrocks work the same in most any climate. For example i tuned my dads car a while ago. The weather in the shop was 35 degrees. Today it was roughly 55 in the shop and it ran the same. My old holley didnt like big changes like that im now back to the holley but have since learned alot on tuning them and i now have a converter loose enough to run a double pumper. What i like about the edelbrock is it is a great all around carb it holds a tune and does not change . I ran a 13.36 in mid 80's weather and in the fal i ran 13.32 and it was mid 60's with the edelbrock. I never had to make any jet changes or nothing.

MDchanic

Don't want to sound like the wise guy I am, but what are you hoping to gain by putting a performance manifold on a stock 330 with a likely 9:1 compression ratio? Adding a 4bbl is not going to help you much here.

- Eric

coppercutlass

Imo the performer is better than stock. It's lighter probably flows better despite what people say. Adding a nice 4 barrel carb will work good and will work in the future if upgrades are needed. Not to mention new parts are always nice and usually much easier to work with. Im sure it will make a diffrence. A friend of mine went from a 1 barrel carb to 3 single barrles and an offenhouser intake on his inline six on his 54 ford then he added split headers for it . It went from bearly running to smoking the tires .

Destructor

I went from a stock two barrel to a 4 barrel Edle with the performer intake. Immediately off the line you may not notice much of a difference, the two barrel is actually quite good, but if you really stomp on it or just continue depressing the accelerator until the secondary’s kick in you will certainly notice a difference but it won’t be a huge tire burning tear up the pavement difference.

cutlassefi

You're going have to explain that to me. How can 1 carb not be effected by weather changes and the other is? I'd like to hear your explanation.

Jharken

Carburetors are like ice cream pick you're flavor.

All three brands will work well.

citcapp

I'm a holley guy and I find them easy to tune and have great throttle response with no flat spots. The 780 avenger on my 57 is trouble free. I have purchased a tuned 850 quick fuel for the 455 in the 48 we'll see how that turns out.

coppercutlass

Cutlassefi the edelbrock and holleys have diffrent metering systems. The holley is affected more by temp than the ebrock. Since the ebrock uses metering rods that work off vacuum and not air pressure like the holleys. The ebrock might run a little lean when its cold but it it runs the same performance wide. When I was using a the profomr dp 650 it went fro 60 to 80 here in chicago fast and it ran like crap. I can drive my edelbrock here in the fall mornings about 35 degrees and drive home when its 65 and it will run perfect.

oddball

I don't know who did the work on those or what the lineage is, but that kind of problem is the sign of a damaged or poorly assembled/tuned carb. There shouldn't be any problems unless you're talking about a 100 degree swing.

As to the other comment about accuracy of tuning, the qjets tend to have a better balance between economy and power and have better circuits for accurate idle metering than the others. Remember that the Edelbrock design is from the early 60's, and Rochester made massive improvements to the QJet through the late 60's. The QJet remained in basically the same jet/circuit configuration until it was retired in the 80's except for the addition of the part-throttle electric tuning and the three-step primary rods.

The Performer manifold will not give any noticeable performance improvement over the stock manifold. Moving from a 2bbl to a 4bbl will give a huge change. The Performer is really just for the weight savings, looks, and it's new.

coppercutlass

I'm sure most racers notice a diffrence in 20 degrees . I know with the proform same as quick fuel. 20 degrees was noticeable off the line.

380 Racer

My Holley has the same tune spring/summer/fall. Never change anything. The barometer and humidity affect it the most.

coppercutlass

Which I'm guessing you just go off your log book and dial in what you ran based on those readings from previous experiences instead of changing jets air bleeds etc.. What you said about the humidity and barometer supports what I said about temp changes climate etc. To some extent

cutlassefi

So you don't think if the air is thinner or heavier that it won't have any effect on the metering rods in an Edelbrock carb? I don't believe that for a minute. If you have more or less vacuum/air density that will effect the way the springs overide that.
And the Holley should keep the fuel cooler than the E carb as the bowels are seperated from the carb buy a couple of gaskets.
I think the tune on your Holley was more on the edge than your Edelbrock, that's why one responded differently than the other. My Olds/ Pontiac buddy here in Fl had a helluva time keeping the tune consistent on his Edelbrock carbed 455. He replaced with a Street Avenger 870, a jet and power valve change and he hasn't touched it since, so that blows your theory all to hell. Sorry.

coppercutlass

Yes but the holley depends on thoese air bleeds. The Edelbrocks use the metering rods with the springs and the springs are set to 4hg" etc etc etc. Thats what controls the metering rods so you might pull more vacuum but it will open at 4hg" because that is what it is set at. The edelborcks have main well bleeds and the vacuum passages to control metering so it's more precise so to speak. Yes i agree with you the old carb might have been on the edge of things. From my experience my edelbrock carb ran the same pretty much any weather . I ran it when it was hot and cool and it always ran the same numbers usually pretty close within a tenth. I got the slips to prove it. throttle response was better when it was cooler but the e.t. numbers mph did not change.

71 Cutlass

(QUOTE):From Oddball: "As to the other comment about accuracy of tuning, the qjets tend to have a better balance between economy and power and have better circuits for accurate idle metering than the others. Remember that the Edelbrock design is from the early 60's, and Rochester made massive improvements to the QJet through the late 60's."


And Edelbrock is still offering the same old technology from the early 1960s with no modifications while all other carbs have more modern designs? NOT. Amazing how opinion is offered as fact..welcome to the internet.

coppercutlass

Edelbrock has made improvements to the old design it's not 100% 60's. Just like the holley 4150 and 3310 are really old designs they have had improvements over the years.