Whats your favorite brand?
How would you rank others?

I have a holley, edelbrock, and a q-jet.
The holley has a leak, and the q-jet needs to be redone.

The edelbrock is just about brand new. Havent used it yet but Im hoping it was a good purchase as I plan on using it once the motor is done.

 

You'll get lots of opinions on this issue. I prefer the Holly avenger series and have a 770 cfm on my built 455. I have been a Holly fan since I started playing with cars in the early 60's.

 

Q-jet
Weber
Solex
Holley

 

You can't beat a good working Q-Jet.
For the after market Holley street avenger.

 

Edelbrocks are slower, but pretty easy to work on.

Qjets are good, but a pain to work on. The throttle shafts always wear out and leak.

Holleys are the easiest to work on and tune, but will ruin any chance of decent fuel economy.

Happy medium is a thermoquad. Carter components for tuning, Qjet style baseplate bores, and 800+cfm.

 

Edelbrocks are faster on my car than anything I've ever used, and are very easy to work on (which is never necessary). Tried Holley...no thanks pain in the butt. Q-Jet works alright when and if it's working..so have been using Edelbrock for many years, for best performance and reliability.

 

When tuned properly........ All the major brands perform well. Q-Jet, Edelbrock, and Holley. I rebuilt the 4bbl Q-Jet on my '73 Cutlass Supreme and it runs like a sewing machine. I have an Edelbrock on my '78 Z-28 w/ a 502 and after some tuning it performs flawlessly!. I had a 2bbl, manual choke, Holley on my Jeep 304 CJ-5 I used to have and it ran very, very well. Any brand will be fine if it's tuned properly for your application. Carbs are fickle things. Much like a woman (Sorry ladies!). Rub them right and they will do good things!

 

It has been posted so many times but I will post it again...carbs are NOT created equally. How many "My Edelbrock is all screwed up " posts appear on forums, VS, "Q-Jet just won't work right, thinking of switching to Edelbrock or other brand." Obviously it is the latter. Properly tuned doesn't mean much when the carb simply will not stay tuned or work with a darn. I've been down this road waaaaay too many times for the simple explanation of "If it's tuned right it's all great."
Having said this, if anyone has a great working Holley or Q-Jet and have been problem free for years with those, more power to you...after all if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

I love when people hook the fuel line into the front of the edelbrocks and fill the intake manifold full of gas.

 

I agree with this. I had a car with a engine built very similar to yours with a Edelbrock performer on it. It worked well with that setup.

The only reason I went to Holley is I bought one used that worked great. The price I paid for it was the best part about it. I got hooked on them.

To be honest I would rather have fuel injection anymore. On a Olds that can be pricey. So my Olds will be carbed.

 

wait what. lol

 

Vacuum port for the pcv valve.

 

I prefer q-jets mostly because they are very easy to adjust and set up. I have rebuilt many over the years for myself and other people with good results.

 

I don't have enough experience to cast a realistic vote.
HOWEVER......I'm only 36 and I tried rebuilding my first Holley 1850 this winter ......cuz the idle circuit sucked.
It ran even worse AFTER my rebuild , with all the correct parts,......and I just gave up on it.

I've had a Carter before on my Chevy 350, and I got an Edelbrock 1407 now in place of the Holley on my Rocket 350.
I can honestly say after playing with the Holley, I think I'd have to vote Edelbrock / Carter.
So much simpler to tune and deal with. I put it on, engine fired right up......didn't have to touch anything.

I've seen ALOT of great reviews on MPG for the Q-jets. PITA to work with for newbs tho.
I've heard they are just good for stock older engines not modified too much. Could be wrong, but that's the impression I got.

Phenolic/Plastic bodies ?? No thanks.

Used on MOSTLY Chrysler products too......no thanks.

HAH!!!! That's HILARIOUS!!!! Never seen that happen, but don't doubt it could.

 

I'll take a good Qjet on a lightly modified engine every time. Thats if the throttle shaft bushings are good.

 

For Hot Rods and my Present Olds it's a Holley. I don't care what anyone say about them. Start with a new one or newly rebuilt one and you will be happy. Except my 750 double pumper eats gas like a starving dinosaur!

 

I had a 650 double on a 389 gto and it ran great and got 18 to 20 mpg (2:56 gears)
I have had a edelbrock 750 on my 400 right now and a q jet from smi the edelbrock is a very easy carb to work on and I got it to run well with my set up with a jet kit from edelbrock. Very easy to work on reminds me of a mikuni vm snowmobile carb. q jet
is a electric choke and smi set up runs ok seams smoother and more mello than the edelbrock .

 

with any brand, there are good ones and bad ones.

but for every day, getting from point A to point B, dependably, I vote for the the Rochester 2GC. my first car had three of them, in a row

 

I've been running a Q-Jet on My GTO for 15 years and never one single problem, never touch it either. It was modified to match the engine by my engine guy. He designed the Poncho Warrior aluminum heads and his main family business has been carb rebuilding and modifying going way back. He highly recommends staying with the Q-Jet, says they got a bad rap and are way better than all those other carbs when they're done right.

 

Does your engine guy happen to be Tin Indian Performance? I was looking for someone to re-bush my throttle shaft and that site came up. Looks like they only do Pontiac engines.

 

I have experience with Q-jets, Edelbrocks, and Holleys. A Q-jet can run great if it's set right. The Holley I'm familiar with was a POS, but maybe that is due to the fact that it was used. The Edelbrock I used for a short time was a great carburetor.

I wonder if the new Summit carburetors are any good? They use Holley rebuild parts.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-M08600VS/

 

I have one, and its been great so far. Good throttle response, easy start up (choke is spot on) and decent fuel economy.

The only gripe I have is the supplied fuel line was a PITA to get the fuel to not leak. Now that's it all hooked up, I am happy.

sb

 

At the moment it would be the Edelbrock. For some reason my engine never liked the Q-jet no matter what I did. It would fall on it's face if given full throttle. I put the Edelbrock on and it worked right away. But this isn't stopping me from going full EFI.

 

That is good to hear.

 

#1) Proform series - super easy to work on - super easy to adjust - (Holleys but with better parts)

#2) Rochester - not the easiest to work on but once set correctly - you almost never have to work on them ( Set and Forget) - Also almost everyone has replacement parts for them

#3) Holley - You gotta love a double pumper - not hard to work on -

#4) Weber - Who doesn't love a triple deuce - seriously if you have to go two barrel they are the best

#5) Edelbrock - I have really tried to like them even with the new series they have out - I have friends who swear by them but I also have friends that swear at them - easy to work on - easy to rebuild