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Is there anyway to tune an edelbrock carb to run better in off camber situations (wheeling)?

76k5blazerr

76k5blazerr

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So my 76 k5 with a 350 has an edelbrock 1406 on it, it runs fine on the street and fine when wheeling until I get to a really steep uphill, or downhill and it will stall out. It seems like it may be running a little rich because the truck gets like 7 mpg around town. Im wondering if there is any way to tune the carb to run better (or run at all) in off camber situations while wheeling, like really steep uphills. The problem right now is when I get to a real steep hill, I can't crawl up it, if I try to take it slow like I want to, the truck will die. I have to hammer the gas up the hill to keep it running and I'm afraid I'll break something before to long. So, can I make this carb work or am I better off buying a different carb?
 
Save your cash. If you have to stay carb, get a Q-jet on there. The 1406 and it's cousins all suck donkey dick at angles no matter what you do to them.

Better yet, go FI and forget it.
 
I tried to convert my edelbrock, couldn't get it set right. So I just went with a Holley Off-Road truck avenger. Been working good so far.
 
stump_puller said:
I tried to convert my edelbrock, couldn't get it set right. So I just went with a Holley Off-Road truck avenger. Been working good so far.
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How are those Holley truck avengers on the street? Also, if you have a stock sbc like me, what cfm did you get? I've kinda been thinking about a truck avenger for awhile, and was wondering about how they are just driving around town?
 
I also had a holley on mine before EFI. The holley was great on/off road. Edel to Holley was as big of an upgrade as Holley to EFI. But for the money, I would have skipped the Holley and gone straight to EFI.
 
What do you guys think on cfm? Would I want a 470 or 670 for a stock 350? I've read that the 670 is too much carb for a stock 350 and it will have little low end power, and get horrible gas mileage.
 
I had the 670 on my Goodwrench with performer intake and cam. Ran great. Gas mileage.......I have no idea as I do not have a speedo :D
 
76k5blazerr said:
What do you guys think on cfm? Would I want a 470 or 670 for a stock 350? I've read that the 670 is too much carb for a stock 350 and it will have little low end power, and get horrible gas mileage.
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Tuned and with a carb that is built right its actually near impossible to go "too big" on carb CFM. But that is taking into account a LOT of variables. I know that runs counter to the understanding of many, but you can go to summitracing and check out their CFM calculator and they even list two different numbers based on usage now. One size fits all doesn't work.

I don't want to take this TOO far off topic, but since you were considering a 470, it seems to indicate you are thinking that you might overcarb it. FWIW GM used the 800CFM Quadrajets on the 307 Olds motors, and the 305's in many of the trucks, while the 350's got 750CFM units for the most part.

I suspect much of that difference has to do with the smaller engines expecting to turn faster, so maybe the larger primaries helped in that regard when they were at part throttle.

That said, 670 is going to be fine. Not going to go wrong with a commonly used size. If economy is an issue, smaller is not going to equal better, you can't run lean (a generalization, you can, but you need to know what you are doing) no matter what, so you can either strangle the engine via airflow with a smaller carb, or tune a larger carb to give proper air/fuel ratio under part throttle cruise.
 
Mine is a 670. Has great street manners for what street time it sees. I finally bought the holley throttle cable bracket http://www.summitracing.com/parts/hly-20-95 Made a big difference in how the pedal feels. Way easier to push than the crappy cheap bracket I had before. Old one was stiff so it was like nothing or everything kinda hard when out in the woods or climbing hills. Makes it feel like a new car's gas pedal.
 
tRustyK5 said:
Save your cash. If you have to stay carb, get a Q-jet on there. The 1406 and it's cousins all suck donkey dick at angles no matter what you do to them....
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:sign17:

I just replaced my 1406 on my '76 K10 350 with a SMI Qjet. Best decision! Cheaper than EFI and less headache; (since your rig is already setup for a carb). The guys at SMI were great to work with. I highly recommend them. I bought my Qjet from them right before going to Moab this past August. I tuned it the best I could in my driveway (ignition timing and mixture screws) and then I hit the road! It ran flawlessly the entire trip. Even when I busted my transfer case on Golden Spike trail and had to wheel haphazardously into the night AND then also finish Gold Bar Rim the next day, all in 2WD... The SMI Qjet never gave me ANY trouble whatsoever, even though my rig had a major handicap.

I cannot say enough good things about SMI's product and their customer support.

You open the box and the carb looks brand spanking new too. Like you bought it from GM. Keep in mind that ANY carb will require some tuning by the end user. NO carb will be setup optimally out of the box. Its up to you to get the correct jet size and mixture tuned on your engine. I sent SMI's tech guys a readout of my engine's vacuum measured at progressive rpms (since I don't know my cam specs). They used that to determine a jet size for me.

I hadn't started my truck for 3 weeks here. I went out yesterday, and while standing outside of the cab, I pumped the gas pedal 3 times by hand, turned the key for "1-thousand-1-1-thousand..." and it fired right up and immediately into the fast idle circuit. I didn't touch it for 5 minutes while it warmed up. I blipped the gas pedal by hand again and it settled down into its idle circuit. I'm sure the electric choke was still sorta opening too, but I drove it easy anyway and it never sputtered or stalled.
 
Snoozer said:
:sign17:

I just replaced my 1406 on my '76 K10 350 with a SMI Qjet. Best decision! Cheaper than EFI and less headache; (since your rig is already setup for a carb). The guys at SMI were great to work with. I highly recommend them. I bought my Qjet from them right before going to Moab this past August. I tuned it the best I could in my driveway (ignition timing and mixture screws) and then I hit the road! It ran flawlessly the entire trip. Even when I busted my transfer case on Golden Spike trail and had to wheel haphazardously into the night AND then also finish Gold Bar Rim the next day, all in 2WD... The SMI Qjet never gave me ANY trouble whatsoever, even though my rig had a major handicap.

I cannot say enough good things about SMI's product and their customer support.

You open the box and the carb looks brand spanking new too. Like you bought it from GM. Keep in mind that ANY carb will require some tuning by the end user. NO carb will be setup optimally out of the box. Its up to you to get the correct jet size and mixture tuned on your engine. I sent SMI's tech guys a readout of my engine's vacuum measured at progressive rpms (since I don't know my cam specs). They used that to determine a jet size for me.

I hadn't started my truck for 3 weeks here. I went out yesterday, and while standing outside of the cab, I pumped the gas pedal 3 times by hand, turned the key for "1-thousand-1-1-thousand..." and it fired right up and immediately into the fast idle circuit. I didn't touch it for 5 minutes while it warmed up. I blipped the gas pedal by hand again and it settled down into its idle circuit. I'm sure the electric choke was still sorta opening too, but I drove it easy anyway and it never sputtered or stalled.
Click to expand...
How much did that run you?
 
Thats steep, though I don't doubt it's a phenomenal product. I think I am going with a Holley Truck Avenger that a CK5 member offered me. Hopefully tuned properly it will perform just as well as a Q-jet.
 
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