Carb Edelbrock ,Holley, other?

[87sc302]

I have been running a 600cfm ( vac secondaries / electric choke)edlebrock on an edelbrock Rpm Performer intake for about 2 years and I do not like the performance. To me the carb acts like a big 2bbl plenty of low end but lacking in mid to WOT. I have rejetted and changed metering rods till I have tied about every possible combination. I would like to try something different. Everytime I ask this question a holley /edelbrock war soon starts about opinions, what I would like is real experience.


Thanks

[evensteven]

Never did like the Edelbrock, hated the Holley 4011 the one that came apart from the tops rather than the sides a think it was a new design that did not work out. I do like the #3310 a good vac sec 750 dual feed carb. I think a monkey could rebuild a Holley and adjust it by just reading alittle. If were going the carb route it would be a Holley. There are so many aftermarket parts like the external adjustable jets , adjustable seconaries, adjust accel pump, powervalves, nozzles/squirters, etc. I will admitt i owned a chevy once and cant forget the sound of the quadra bog opening, after the front came up and went down then it would take off again. gas was .50 a gallon and the 402 drank the gas. I got smart and went to a ford 300 six cylinder indestructable. after fuel injection I would never go back to carbs on a highway machine. dont miss flooding it or pumping the gass before i start it. I get in my ranger now and turn the key, the fuel pump cycles and comes alive. turn it alittle further and it starts on the first try. Starter last much linger now I think. Hope it helps

[cgrey8]

I agree, the older Holleys that came apart on the sides were the better ones. Back in the day, the double-pumper was probably everyones favorite just because it had a cool name, and the dual acceleration pumps would "help" prevent bogging quite as much. However you could get larger CC pump diaphrams that'd pump almost as much as the double-pumper would with the standard diaphrams. If memory serves, they were 30cc and 50cc diaphrams.

I've also worked with an Edlebrock carb a little. The one I worked with was the Carter style that has the two big mixture screws right up front. Their tuning kit included various size springs, jets, and metering rods. It was terribly complicated to get right, however if you really got into it, you could setup a nice cruising mix and an aggressive performance mix with the right combination of springs, jets, and rods. However most of the time, you'd just tinker and never really know if it was getting better or worse. Also the hole you put the jets, rods, and springs down into was right next to the throats. So one bad twitch, and you were fishing jets out of the throats and crossing your fingers the butterflies didn't open letting it go down into the intake and heads. To make it worse, the jets weren't magnetic, so you couldn't get them easily. I never fell victim to that, but I could see how it could happen VERY easily. From that standpoint alone, I preferred the Holleys.

I never liked the Rochester QuadraJets. BPS IMO...

As evensteven said, fuel injection is so much better. It's a bigger PITA to get the wiring setup for, but once its setup, it manages itself and does so intelligently. And if the factory intelligence isn't good enough, you've always got much more sophisticated ways of reprogramming the ECM. In the case of the TwEECer, you not only reprogram, but also monitor what the ECM is doing. You can also replace your factory O2s with narrow/wide band O2s. The narrow band tap wires to the ECM like normal. The wideband tap wires to the TwEECer. With that, you can trend actual fuel delivery when the mix is not 14.7:1, then tune to whatever mix you are aiming for.

[plowboy34]

I have ran both and have had excellent performance out of both. The edelbrock is a little harder to learn but once you do it is a good carb. The Holley is a easier carb to work on. That is why most people run them, as evensteven said a monkey can work on a Holley. Which in my opinion is a good thing, cause you will work on the Holley twice as much as the Edelbrock. I don't know why but I have never had a Holley stay good for long periods of time. They are very sensitive and change characteristics very easily. Both have there good and bad, I have seen both perform equally on the same engine. I really don't think one is better than the other, it's just a case of getting to know the one your running.

Your problem could be other things also. It could be the cam, intake manifold, exhaust system. Everything has to work together, and since you changed the carb all around and it didn't change anything I would believe your performance problem is elsewhere. Some intakes are designed for a 5,500 rpm max, so you would start to lose power at around 5,000. The cam can play a really big part, if your running a stock cam I doubt it's your problem. Usually most stock cams have decent pull throughout the entire rpm range. If your running a bigger cam I would check into what RPM range it is designed to run in. What I am trying to say is the carb may not be your problem. I would check into other things before I went and spent money on a new carb and you could have the same performance.

[evensteven]

True, I got a good deal on a gas hog. A 460 in a 72 short bed F100. It is the one that had the Holley 4011. It was over cammed. It took me a year just to figure out the shifter. It was a rachet shifter and had a manual Valbe body . If you put it D it tried to take off in D. But you could roll in 2nd and drop it into 1st and hammer it and it would boil the 50's on back and watch the gas gauge move. Does anyone remember the Holley Electric Dial a Jet Metering Block? My experience with a holley is they never idled the same way twice in a row. On the 72 I had to have two huge batteries wired just to get it turn start descently. Tuning carbs is a passion or skill I never had. The good ole 5.0 save me from a life of burnt powervalves.

[Warpig Racing]

i have a 600 edelbrock w/ electric choke on my F150. I rebuit the carb a couple of years ago and in the process, my secondary linkage got tweaked by accident. As a result, the secondaries open up much quicker and the truck is way more responsive through the entire rpm band. Granted after rbuilding the carb, the gas mileage dropped from 10 to 8, but it was well worth it until gas prices hit $3 / gal.

[87sc302]

My truck has a mild cam and has world windsor cast iron heads with 2.02 intake amd 1.6 exhaust. The truck runs rich and loads up very easy. When I try to lean it it always starts to rattle when loaded. I believe the carb problem may have come from the pressure regulator ( truck was originally fuel injected) being to high and blowing something out in the carb when I first finished the project a couple of years ago. The pressure regulator does have a return line and the pressure is set at about 5 psi. I wonder if the inital running at about 15 psi has screwed the carb.

[plowboy34]

The higher pressure could have messed the float level up, that may be why it loads up so easy. That's about the only thing it could have messed up. What year is your truck and what engine did it have before. I run the stock electric fuel pump on my son's carb but it was just a supply pump that only run's 5-8psi. It supplied the injection pump that was mounted on the frame. If your engine loads up more at idle and low speeds I would lean toward the float adjustment.

[87sc302]

plowboy34
My truck is a 87 (4cyc) with the two pumps the high pressure in tank and the low pressure in frame rail. Are you using just the low pressure pump? If so what did you do with the pump in the tank?
Thanks

[plowboy34]

You got it backwards, the one in the frame rail is the high pressure pump. The one in the tank only puts out 5-8 psi, they call it a supply pump. At least that's how it was on my son's 85. We run the factory pump in the tank right to the carb, it's also an edelbrock. It works great, we have not had any problems for 2 years now. If you go to a parts store they should be able to tell you what pressure it put's out. At least the guy's at the Napa store here did. Either that or if you have a pressure guage just check it. Maybe they changed pressure after 85, I don't know. If they did, you could possibly put a 85 pump in your tank. I believe it would swap, I know people who run injection and they have put a Mustang pump in there Ranger tanks with no problems.

[Warpig Racing]

i removed both pumps and installed a holly blue fuel pump. I took out the one in the tank and replaced it w. a piece of 3/8" stainless tubing. I didnt put a screen on it in the tank like the stock pump has. I just put a fuel filter before the pump that I mounted on the frame and another clear filter at the carb. I have found the clear filter at the carb most useful when you are troubleshooting problems. You can look and if there is gas in the filter, you can eliminate that right off the bat.

[evensteven]

My 86 F150 5.0l has dual tanks with low pressure pumps supplying a high presurre pump on the drivers side near the fuel filter. I know the 86 was a carb for the 300 and 351W and FI for the 5.0L the ecm was a pain to get to.

[87sc302]

plowboy34
Sorry your are right the tank pump is the low perssure and the frame mounted is the high pressure. Did you just remove the frame pump? What about the electric power to pump is it in line with the tank pump?

[plowboy34]

Yes, I just removed the pressure pump and ran fuel line from the filter mounted on the frame to carb.

As far as electric to the pump, I used the the stock wiring. I even ran it through the inertia switch so if he got in a wreck the pump would shut off. The only thing I had to do was run a power wire to the inertia switch since the ECM was no longer the power source. Other than that it is all the factory wiring.

[87sc302]

I have had an offer to swap my carb and intake to someone who wants to convert his Mustang , I do not know what year yet but what all will I have to get from the Mustang. I know the Intake with injectors and fuel rail, mass air , ecm, wiring harnes, and ox sensors