Carburetor Choices

[Spraynlog]

I'm needing to replace a 17 year old Rochester Q-Jet on my 85 Ramcharger, which has a mild 360 in it with a 4 speed NP435 and 3.23 gears. I'm looking at the Edelbrock 600 cfm and the Holley street avenger for a couple choices. It needs to pass emissions test. Opinions on which carb is best?

[black86glhs]

The Edelbrock Q-jet carbs are pretty hard to beat. They are much more reliable than the Q-jet. Can I have your old one?

[Force Fed Mopar]

The Holley Truck Avengers are pretty good.

[shackwrrr]

If you want tunability and power get a holley, if you want simple and reliable then a edelbrock is good. The holleys have lots of things that you can tune (depending on model) like main jets, power valves, idle mixture, secondary opening rate, pump shot amount, air bleeds, float height, and a few other things that are completely useless on a daily driver. If any of those little passages get clogged then you have a driveability issue. On the edelbrock, all you really have is main jet, metering rod, metering rod springs, and idle mixture. Once you select a main jet size, everything else you can change right from the top of the carb.

I love holleys if you need one but I ran an Eddy on my jeep and it ran great, no weird crap for it run on inclines and metering rods do a great job of making a smooth power band. On the dyno my torque "curve" was literally a strait line from off idle to 5K where I let off.

---------- Post added at 12:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:51 AM ----------

If you do go for a holley go for a truck avenger, they have annular boosters that atomize the fuel better for better mixture/mileage.

[contraption22]

I've heard nothing but great things about Edelbrock carbs. As others have said, Holley for tunability, Edelbrock for reliability and drivability with little tuning if any.

[roachjuice]

The Edelbrock Q-jet carbs are pretty hard to beat. They are much more reliable than the Q-jet. Can I have your old one?

+1! Great carb.

[Force Fed Mopar]

Edelbrocks work great and are simple, but need the springs changed for large cams. Stock to mild came, they are usually fine out of the box.

[turbovanman²]

I've played with and tuned them all, by far the best running carb with the best MPG, cold running is the Qjet, followed by the AFB then the Holley. The best thing about the AFB is tuning, its easy to access the metering rods and springs but if you get then if you get the Qjet rebuilt, jetting isn't needed. I have found every AFB out of the box is pig rich, even my warmed over 360 needed the 1406 leaned out at least one to two jet size's. Find someone local for the Qjet or send it to me,

[DevoBuzz]

I am wrestling with what to do with my QJet right now. It needs a rebuild for my soon to be built 461 CI Pontiac motor. Was gonna send it to Cliff ruggles (one of the big names in the Pontiac world) but he is like 12 months backed up with carb rebuilds. He literally wrote the book on how to rebuild/modify the QJet. So I am debating if I should tackle it myself or send it out to a local shop or buy one...

[turbovanman²]

I am wrestling with what to do with my QJet right now. It needs a rebuild for my soon to be built 461 CI Pontiac motor. Was gonna send it to Cliff ruggles (one of the big names in the Pontiac world) but he is like 12 months backed up with carb rebuilds. He literally wrote the book on how to rebuild/modify the QJet. So I am debating if I should tackle it myself or send it out to a local shop or by one...

It honestly took me 2-3 rebuilds to get them right, then after that, you don't forget. If you are good at taking things apart and putting them back together, then tackle it but if it needs tuning, then it can be a royal pain. Getting one done IE Edelbrock or maybe get the Pontiac guy to sell you the rods, jets etc.

[DevoBuzz]

I would think the Edelbrock ones would need tuning as well. Don't think they are setup for big cubes/cam. I already have the book on how to rebuild it. Would need a place to start for jets and rods for my setup.

[Spraynlog]

The Edelbrock Q-jet carbs are pretty hard to beat. They are much more reliable than the Q-jet. Can I have your old one?

I looked for one of those, but Edelbrock quit making them in 2002.

[4 l-bodies]

I am wrestling with what to do with my QJet right now. It needs a rebuild for my soon to be built 461 CI Pontiac motor. Was gonna send it to Cliff ruggles (one of the big names in the Pontiac world) but he is like 12 months backed up with carb rebuilds. He literally wrote the book on how to rebuild/modify the QJet. So I am debating if I should tackle it myself or send it out to a local shop or buy one...

Pick up the book on Rochester carbs by Doug Roe and Bill Fisher if you don't already have it. It is worth every penny. These guys modified them alot too. I used to race a .060 over 428 with round port heads (Ram IV) in my 70 GTO. I was one of the few at the dragstrip that stuck with the Q-jet. I actually ended up using the slightly bigger Buick Q-jet and modifying it quite a bit. If your committed to staying with the Q-jet, rebuild it yourself and learn how it works. No one, no matter who rebuilds it, is going to make it perfect the first time for your particular car if it's modified at all, so IMO just learn to do it yourself because you will be taking it apart anyways.
Just make sure your starting with a good core. One that the airhorn isn't all warped (up front) and one that throttle shafts aren't all worn out, and screws aren't all stripped out on. These things are ancient and finding a good core is half the battle. I also suggest buying a wide band and weld in a o2 bung so tuning will be greatly simplified.

Todd

[ShadowFromHell]

If your going to be going off-road at all, I would be looking at the q-jet out of all your choices. With a couple simple mod's its a great off-road carb. Most aftermarket "car" carbs will not work worth a crap once you are on anything other then flat ground. My dad had a AFB on his Jeep at one time and 100% not joking or exaggerating that thing almost killed us more then once. He put alot of off-road miles on his q-jet before switching to the truck avenger he currently runs.

[DevoBuzz]

Yeah - you can reman ones from Summit and Jegs. Edlebrock versions are no longer available. I have "How To Rebuild and Modify Rochester Quadrajet Carbs" by Cliff Ruggles. Never rebuilt one before but may give it a shot. Cliff sells the rebuild kits with all the neede parts. http://www.cliffshighperformance.com/

[turbovanman²]

Pick up the book on Rochester carbs by Doug Roe and Bill Fisher if you don't already have it. It is worth every penny. These guys modified them alot too. I used to race a .060 over 428 with round port heads (Ram IV) in my 70 GTO. I was one of the few at the dragstrip that stuck with the Q-jet. I actually ended up using the slightly bigger Buick Q-jet and modifying it quite a bit. If your committed to staying with the Q-jet, rebuild it yourself and learn how it works. No one, no matter who rebuilds it, is going to make it perfect the first time for your particular car if it's modified at all, so IMO just learn to do it yourself because you will be taking it apart anyways.
Just make sure your starting with a good core. One that the airhorn isn't all warped (up front) and one that throttle shafts aren't all worn out, and screws aren't all stripped out on. These things are ancient and finding a good core is half the battle. I also suggest buying a wide band and weld in a o2 bung so tuning will be greatly simplified.

Todd

I've learned that if the car runs ok with the carb, its a good candidate for a rebuild, if you have weird issues, find another one. I have at least a dozen of them here to use for parts and cores.

Also when you put it back together, leave the plug off in the air horn so you can access the mixture adjustment, I made a tool using brake line.

Worn shaft bushings are easy, I have the tool to sleeve them, You will most likely not find a core with no shaft play unless its been rebuilt already. STAY away from store rebuilds, they are pure junk, 1 in 10 actually works,

Yeah - you can reman ones from Summit and Jegs. Edlebrock versions are no longer available. I have "How To Rebuild and Modify Rochester Quadrajet Carbs" by Cliff Ruggles. Never rebuilt one before but may give it a shot. Cliff sells the rebuild kits with all the neede parts. http://www.cliffshighperformance.com/

I would get a hold of them, and get him to send what he thinks are the right primary and secondary metering rods and main jets. It will give you a baseline.

[zin]

Send your Q-Jet to the Carb Shop or someone similarly knowledgeable and can replace the shaft bushings and you'll be in good shape. The Q-Jet gets a bad rap, but they are really a pretty good carb if you know how to tune them, which is a little more complicated than a Holley, but then that's also one of the reasons why they run better, they have finer adjustments.

That said, if you want a new carb, the Truck Avenger is a great choice, though I doubt you'd get it through a smog test...

Mike

PS If you want to do the work yourself, or just want to know more about them, this is a great book: http://www.amazon.com/Rochester-Carb.../dp/0895863014

[135sohc]

I'm putting an edelbrock thunder AVS (500 cfm version) on my 318 B-van to replace the pos BBD. I heard the same things in this thread about the holley vs edelbrock and for me the simplicity and support edelbrock offered sold me. Edelbrocks two main carbs are actually updated versions of the carter AFB and AVS carbs from back in the day.

[Force Fed Mopar]

The Eddy are a piece of cake to tune, downside is you have to buy a $50 tuning kit, the pieces aren't available separately.

[turbovanman²]

The Eddy are a piece of cake to tune, downside is you have to buy a $50 tuning kit, the pieces aren't available separately.

Yes they are, you can buy metering rods and jets, springs by themselves.