Hi, does anyone have experiences, words, or thoughts about trading the 4GC for a similar age Carter AFB on a '64 Olds 394 engine?

 

Carbs seem to be a true beauty is in the eye of the beholder thing. Almost any carb can be tuned to work. But on my mopars they were not very good and was one of the first things I upgraded to a Holley 4 bbl and worked well. But if I had taken the time could have made the carter work. But a rebuilt Rochester tuned right is just as good as any out there.

 

Unless your 64 Olds has a manual transmission I don't suggest changing the carb. The automatics in the early 60s used a mechanical TV linkage from the carburetor to the transmission. It would be next to impossible to setup this TV linkage correctly with an aftermarket carb.

 

Thanks for the replies so far. Adding a few more details: The 4GC currently on the car is performing badly and needs a partial/full rebuild, which I am capable of. However, I have a perfectly set up Carter sitting idle on my bench. The motivation is avoiding having to work on the 4GC.

I anticipate that I will have to fool with or fabricate some auxiliary adapter for the rod to the trans linkage, but am already well versed in setting up the Slim Jim and have no pending nightmares about those adjustments.

Having said all that, has anyone been down this road before, and what did you learn ?

 

I put an Edelbrock carburetor on my 64 98 with a Slim Jim transmission. I only had it on there for a short time before I removed it. As I said, the mechanical TV linkage didn't work well with an aftermarket carb.

The problem you will run into is that the full travel of the throttle on the aftermarket carb might be more or less than the full travel of the throttle on the 4GC. If it is less then you will never have maximum TV pressure in the transmission. If it is more then you will be forcing your TV to move more than it was designed to and this could eventually lead to a failure.

I don't suggest swapping it. If you put the Carter AFB on the car you would have to manufacture a TV linkage. This could be just as difficult as it would be to rebuild the 4GC. In fact, I would think it would be more difficult. Rebuilding a carburetor is easy. The hardest part is putting new bushings into the throttle plate.

Do whatever you want though, it is your car. Good luck.

 

After consideration, I decided you were right and started a rebuild on the 4GC. It's a 'trip' to set up the 4 floats compared to all the Q-jets I have done. But that is where this thread ends. I have run into a MAJOR shut-the-job down problem and will open a new thread to address it. Thanks for all the responses on this thread.

 

Think i am having issues with my eddelbrock so i started reading and come to find out a Carter is a pretty good carb. I just googled the article under Carburetors. I will probably put a Rochester on mine and junk the Eddelbrock.