bp71k5
3/4 ton status
The snipers do have enough odd feedback on them (mostly around reliability) that I’d second guess using them, at least if there are other options in similar price range.
CK5
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71 Chevelle SS clone - 8.1L Swap
- Thread starter Russell
- Start date
I still don't understand why you are spending $500 on a serpentine setup when you already have one on your bad 8.1... 
8.1L is a tall deck engine. The brackets won't fit on a short deck 454.I still don't understand why you are spending $500 on a serpentine setup when you already have one on your bad 8.1...
Also, all the accessories on the 8.1L are in bad shape. The alternator is seized up (and wouldn't work without a PCM operating the voltage regulator anyways), the water pump feels rough when it spins and the power steering pump is in bad shape too. Everything is rusted up as well. I'd spend more than $500 fixing it all up even if it would fit.
Also, keep in mind that 500 cad = $380 usd.
Throw that edelbrock in the garb and bolt on a qjet or Holley and run it
I am not sure why people hate the Edelbrock carbs so much. I have run those things on most of my hot rods since the day they where Carter AFB's. The only problem those carbs have is that they do not meter fuel well. They flow fuel well, but not meter it well, which is why they need fuel pressure regulators. Holley's are good for racing because they are so adjustable, but are sensitive as hell to weather changes. Edelbrock's will start up and run no matter what the weather conditions are.
I agree, I have Edelbrock's on probably 5 or 6 of my cars and while I agree they are not a racing carb for all around street use they work great for me.
The only issues I had with Carter AFB's and Edelbrock's was carb icing on cool damp drizzly/rainy days,one engine I had one on ,I had to put manifold vacuum to the EFE heat riser flap in the exhaust pipe so the intake would stay hot enough to de-ice the carb in the winter..
I blamed the 1" spacer I had to use to adapt it to the Q-jet manifold for insulating it too much from the engine heat it needed to vaporize the fuel properly..
One other issue on one of my plow trucks was the AFB style carbs tend to want to flood or stall the engine if you got the truck's nose pointed way up climbing a snowbank,or go down a very steep short grade..
I never bothered to try using their off road needle & seat kit,it didn't happen often enough to bother..
Only Holley carbs I had that worked well were spread bore Q-jet replacements with vacuum secondaries--and a few "Economaster" carbs ,those worked very well...one 4 barrel 4360 Economaster ran sweet and I got better gas mileage to boot,had it on a 454 in a '74 C-10,it could get 14 mpg on a good day,and it seemed to have more torque at low end than the Q-jet that was original..it was only 450 cfm..
I still have a 2 barrel Economaster on my van's 307,its a Holley,but a copy of a Carter 2 bbl-- big improvement over the Rochester 2GC ,and was a direct bolt on fit,despite it being made for a 318 Mopar of the same vintage as the 307...Carter & Rochester carbs were interchangeable in '71 and a few other years,when the companies went on strike,and GM & Mopar bought carbs from whatever factory was still operating..
The old school 4150/4160 type Holley's were always a nightmare to me,I had one off a BBC '69 Camaro on a 454 in a truck I bought--second day one the road it backfired,and started the carb on fire,burnt off all the plug wires and distributor cap!--was lucky the whole truck didn't burn up...
I tried several versions of those carbs,they were very fussy,one day you'd dial them in good,then the temperature changed,and they were all effed up again..always had flooding issues no matter how I adjusted the floats too,and one backfire and there goes the power valve..
I took a 20 lb sledge to one of them it pissed me off so many times,after wasting $30 to rebuild it and about as much to buy it at a swap meet..put a Carter AFB 625 cfm carb on the 350 I bought with an aluminum intake for $30 at a swap meet instead and it ran great...
I've had quite a few Q-jets too,and only one or two ever gave me any grief ,mostly due to the foam float failing,and leaky well plugs..the one on my '69 GTO had a weird issue after a cold start,the engine would start and run normally cold,then as it warmed up it would stumble and want to stall at idle,I had to keep my foot on the accelerator to keep it at fast idle..
Once it reached about 160 degrees,it would suddenly smooth right out and run fine the rest of the time..it may have been carb icing,it only did it in temps under 50 degrees..
Otherwise that Q-jet was probably the best one out of all of them I had..
I blamed the 1" spacer I had to use to adapt it to the Q-jet manifold for insulating it too much from the engine heat it needed to vaporize the fuel properly..
One other issue on one of my plow trucks was the AFB style carbs tend to want to flood or stall the engine if you got the truck's nose pointed way up climbing a snowbank,or go down a very steep short grade..
I never bothered to try using their off road needle & seat kit,it didn't happen often enough to bother..
Only Holley carbs I had that worked well were spread bore Q-jet replacements with vacuum secondaries--and a few "Economaster" carbs ,those worked very well...one 4 barrel 4360 Economaster ran sweet and I got better gas mileage to boot,had it on a 454 in a '74 C-10,it could get 14 mpg on a good day,and it seemed to have more torque at low end than the Q-jet that was original..it was only 450 cfm..
I still have a 2 barrel Economaster on my van's 307,its a Holley,but a copy of a Carter 2 bbl-- big improvement over the Rochester 2GC ,and was a direct bolt on fit,despite it being made for a 318 Mopar of the same vintage as the 307...Carter & Rochester carbs were interchangeable in '71 and a few other years,when the companies went on strike,and GM & Mopar bought carbs from whatever factory was still operating..
The old school 4150/4160 type Holley's were always a nightmare to me,I had one off a BBC '69 Camaro on a 454 in a truck I bought--second day one the road it backfired,and started the carb on fire,burnt off all the plug wires and distributor cap!--was lucky the whole truck didn't burn up...
I tried several versions of those carbs,they were very fussy,one day you'd dial them in good,then the temperature changed,and they were all effed up again..always had flooding issues no matter how I adjusted the floats too,and one backfire and there goes the power valve..
I took a 20 lb sledge to one of them it pissed me off so many times,after wasting $30 to rebuild it and about as much to buy it at a swap meet..put a Carter AFB 625 cfm carb on the 350 I bought with an aluminum intake for $30 at a swap meet instead and it ran great...
I've had quite a few Q-jets too,and only one or two ever gave me any grief ,mostly due to the foam float failing,and leaky well plugs..the one on my '69 GTO had a weird issue after a cold start,the engine would start and run normally cold,then as it warmed up it would stumble and want to stall at idle,I had to keep my foot on the accelerator to keep it at fast idle..
Once it reached about 160 degrees,it would suddenly smooth right out and run fine the rest of the time..it may have been carb icing,it only did it in temps under 50 degrees..
Otherwise that Q-jet was probably the best one out of all of them I had..
I've only ever had one carb out of the dozens of vehicles I drove with them that actually worked properly year round - that was the q jet on the 350 in my first truck (80 gmc c25). That thing flat out worked, all the time. -30 to +30 it started on the first crank after one pump of the pedal to set the choke. No bogging, spitting, sputtering or backfiring.
Every other carb I've ever owned has always been trouble in some form or another. EFI is expensive, but it eliminates so many potential issues and is easy to troubleshoot / repair when something goes wrong. No messing around with needles, jets, floats, plugged orifices or passages, leaky bowl plugs, failed accelerator pumps, leaky throttle shaft bushings or any other of the host of things to go wrong with a carb. Get it set up to idle with the best vaccum signal and change the jets to get it at a good AFR and the very next day it is out to lunch again because of a swing in temperature, humidity, elevation or atmospheric pressure. Absolutely hated dealing with carbs from day one. That's a lot of the reason why I was so attracted to diesel engines and changed so many of my rigs over to fuel injection.
Every other carb I've ever owned has always been trouble in some form or another. EFI is expensive, but it eliminates so many potential issues and is easy to troubleshoot / repair when something goes wrong. No messing around with needles, jets, floats, plugged orifices or passages, leaky bowl plugs, failed accelerator pumps, leaky throttle shaft bushings or any other of the host of things to go wrong with a carb. Get it set up to idle with the best vaccum signal and change the jets to get it at a good AFR and the very next day it is out to lunch again because of a swing in temperature, humidity, elevation or atmospheric pressure. Absolutely hated dealing with carbs from day one. That's a lot of the reason why I was so attracted to diesel engines and changed so many of my rigs over to fuel injection.
There is a lot of sniper hate on this site , but from Personel experience I can tell you the Sniper is a pretty awesome system . You won’t be disappointed.
The reason the Q-Jet functions so well is because it has four operating circuits, and performance carbs like the Edelebrock AFB and Holly only have three operating circuits. The Q-Jet has...Idle, Off Idle, Main, and 4-barrel. Performance carbs only have...Idle, Main, and 4-barrel. It is this "Off Idle" circuit that allows the Q-Jet to meter fuel without any fancy fuel pumps or fuel pressure regulators like performance carbs need to operate correctly.
If you got the money EFI is definitely the way to go. Back in the days when EFI was not around yet I had a 1970 Buick GS Skylark with a 455 running a Carter AFB. One day I did a donut in the middle of the street in my GS, and when I let off the throttle the tires kept spinning for a second longer because carbs are so inefficient that even with the throttle off fuel was still being fed to the engine for a second longer. My GS Skylark went spinning into a parking lot from the street. Luckily is was a Sunday morning, and there where not many other people or cars around.
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I probably wouldn't like having a carbed engine if I lived close to the North Pole either Russel,most all of a carb's drawbacks are amplified by cold weather operation..
If I do go back to a carbed engine I'll probably hate it,after having the diesel for 16 years--the injection on the 6.2 lets it run like it is fully warmed up even after a cold start in frigid weather (IF it starts! )..
If I do go back to a carbed engine I'll probably hate it,after having the diesel for 16 years--the injection on the 6.2 lets it run like it is fully warmed up even after a cold start in frigid weather (IF it starts! )..
Cant say the North Pole has cocked over my carbonators from dialing to life eh.
But how many guys daily drive their toilet bowl injected big blocks all winter
But how many guys daily drive their toilet bowl injected big blocks all winter
Cant say the North Pole has cocked over my carbonators from dialing to life eh.
But how many guys daily drive their toilet bowl injected big blocks all winter
As long as they don’t spin a rod or main bearing at start up......
Or eat a cam...
Go roller cam Russ! IMO that is going to be one the best places to put a bit of your budget towards. Flat tappet cams are time bombs anymore.
Go roller cam Russ! IMO that is going to be one the best places to put a bit of your budget towards. Flat tappet cams are time bombs anymore.
I would have to agree with that. Due to cheap materials and manufacturing practices these days a flat tappet cam and lifter combo can be sketchy.
Yeah, and combine that with the new oils having almost no zinc in em anymore...it's a big problem. Cam break in is always tense too. Gotta light off right away with timing close to spot on, then up to 2000-2500 for 20 minutes praying for no leaks, carb issues, overheating etc. Guh...
I'm guessing it's a budget thing for why you aren't doing a Dmax or other diesel swap on this.
Everyone I know keeps telling me to drop a dmax into this car hahaha!
I want to keep it a BBC. I don't have a lot of gas pots in my life - And they are kinda fun when they run properly!
I want to keep it a BBC. I don't have a lot of gas pots in my life - And they are kinda fun when they run properly!
Got things cleaned up. The engine is a 78. The suffix code was at the top of the water pump like Bob mentioned. It's mostly illegible, but the T combined with the 78 date code confirms this is a truck block with older heads on it.
Sorry had to ask. I do love driving my bone stock BBC 2wd truck. Maintenance is cheaper and easier and it's just plain simple. Sure it gets crappy fuel economy but whatever.
