Truck Avenger Carb

[Shawn]

Thanks Holley for making a POS product. Avenger truck carb is such a piece of shit that Jay at the Carburetor Shop here in Denver won't even rebuild or touch them. Now have to switch to an Edelbrock....

Not sure if anyone else has issues with theirs but that's what I was told. He showed me the metering blocks and what happens. Can't even covert them to a normal Holley carb.

 

[Bent77]

Glad to hear Jay is still in business. We bought his white 69 Camaro from him quite a long time back. Wish dad had kept that one

 

[Shawn]

Glad to hear Jay is still in business. We bought his white 69 Camaro from him quite a long time back. Wish dad had kept that one

He is one of the best when it comes to carbs here in Denver. He's so good with the old school muscle and tweaking them to their max HP numbers with full drivability. Unfortunately he's selling his shop. He's been around since the mid 80s.

 

[shady]

I had nothing but good things to say about the truck avenger I had.
Worked perfect on both trucks I ran it on.

I have heard there's differences between the 670, and the bigger one. As in the 670 is ok, but the bigger one blows. Not sure why though.

 

[Chickntrk]

I have had zero issues with the two that I have owned, edlebrock on the other hand is the biggest pile I ever had off road, didn’t run for shit unless it was perfectly level.

Can you elaborate on what exactly he “showed” you? It’s pretty much a normal 4150 with different bowl vents, and metering blocks.

I have a 470 and a 670, I will say that they are jetted way rich out of the box and the 470 actually runs better on a stock V8 even though Holley tellls you too only run it on a 6 cyl.

 

[beags86]

What happens to them? I mean argumently: they designed to prevent spillover, they are designed for slopes and off road. So it would make 100% sense that they would be considered a pile by a guy that's tweaking carbs for max hp. Anyone looking for max hp shouldn't be using a vac secondary carb anyway.

I know they don't have the high speed air bleeds, but this guy sounds like he's talking about a different issue?

@shady
Did yours have the air bleeds?

 

[Chickntrk]

What happens to them? I mean argumently: they designed to prevent spillover, they are designed for slopes and off road. So it would make 100% sense that they would be considered a pile by a guy that's tweaking carbs for max hp. Anyone looking for max hp shouldn't be using a vac secondary carb anyway.

I know they don't have the high speed air bleeds, but this guy sounds like he's talking about a different issue?

@shady
Did yours have the air bleeds?

Agree, a high performance racer isn’t going to like them.

 

[Shawn]

I had nothing but good things to say about the truck avenger I had.
Worked perfect on both trucks I ran it on.

I have heard there's differences between the 670, and the bigger one. As in the 670 is ok, but the bigger one blows. Not sure why though.

I could have a defective one. I was reading if it has certain number in it, you send it in and Holley will send you another one thats revised. But you need a receipt and I don't have one.

I have had zero issues with the two that I have owned, edlebrock on the other hand is the biggest pile I ever had off road, didn’t run for shit unless it was perfectly level.

Can you elaborate on what exactly he “showed” you? It’s pretty much a normal 4150 with different bowl vents, and metering blocks.

I have a 470 and a 670, I will say that they are jetted way rich out of the box and the 470 actually runs better on a stock V8 even though Holley tellls you too only run it on a 6 cyl.

I agree Edelbrock is not ideal for off-road unless you modify it. I happen to have a Edelbrock carb for a core he can rebuild and put on. Its only to get it running good on the street, it won't be seeing much extreme angles for now.

He showed the metering blocks in these is what have issues and they are non serviceable. He has tried to modify a TA with standard metering blocks but it won't work. The TA has a metering plate exclusive to it. You cannot buy this metering plate without buying a TA. He's never been able to get one to run that great. Not saying others won't but thats his experience with them and he would rather not bill the client many hours if there's no fix. There's also been some reports of the needles being installed upside down in side. mine has been sitting for awhile so I think its gummed up. I might call up Holley to see if I can send this in for repair. I just wish I had some kind of receipt since it might be eligible for replacement if its a certain number. I think its shitty they make carb where you can't buy new TA metering blocks.

What happens to them? I mean argumently: they designed to prevent spillover, they are designed for slopes and off road. So it would make 100% sense that they would be considered a pile by a guy that's tweaking carbs for max hp. Anyone looking for max hp shouldn't be using a vac secondary carb anyway.

I know they don't have the high speed air bleeds, but this guy sounds like he's talking about a different issue?

@shady
Did yours have the air bleeds?

Metering block issue. See response above. I do agree they do well off-road when they are working right but sounds like some parts are not serviceable. Jay not only tunes for maximum HP on some muscle cars but also drivability in trucks and jeeps as well as cold start conditions. So if it needs new metering blocks, and Holley refuses to sell them, what would you do? Jay has been doing this since the mid 80s so I trust his advice. Maybe another carburetor guru has a fix for them but right now I refuse to invest countless hours into something that may not ever work correctly and would rather not buy a TA if have a decent Edelbrock core that just needs a rebuild kit. Again not looking for off-road ability right now. Just need to get it running good on the street. Just disappointed in Holley for not making this serviceable.

Agree, a high performance racer isn’t going to like them.

Totally disagree. He tunes for drivability too. Just depends what you want. No other shops want to work on carbs here in Denver. Its a dying market.

 

[Chickntrk]

Buy the kit and a book, learn how to do it yourself, holleys are easy.

 

[Shawn]

Buy the kit and a book, learn how to do it yourself, holleys are easy.

Honestly if I had the time, I would but I prefer to take it someone who can dial this thing in 1 hour and knows exactly what jets to use at 5800 feet elevation. I've worked on Quadrajets, Holleys and Carters (Edelbrocks). You can easily lose a day just fiddling with a carb to make it run right and take it apart again because you forgot something. I have to sell 4 K5's and 3 need work. This is one of them which I will post later. Built 383 with roller cam, roller rockers, alum heads, etc. I wish it still had efi but it is what it is. The other issue is I can't buy GOOD metering blocks for this carb. Holley refuses to sell them so that only leaves me with carb replacement to get this thing running correctly.

Not sure if this is with all avengers but interesting quote here:
I've had the Street Avenger carb on 4 different engines on the dyno and none of them were worth a damn. Tuning didn't help. Every engine had a HUGE sag in the torque curve from about 2000-4000 rpm. Replacing the carb with another Holley always brought the torque back to where it should be.

670 street avenger metering block. - Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

www.speed-talk.com

When its at normal warm temp, it does run somewhat but I feel like the engine really sucks for making power for what it is. I realize if the carb is faulty, that will always skew the butt dyno.

 

[Chickntrk]

The early truck avengers had a bog when you punched it that you couldn’t get rid of those were the recalled ones…..it’s pretty hard to get a carb that runs well at the angles they make the TA for and also run well in all the places a person expects a carb to run well…I love my TA but ill be the first to admit I wouldn’t run one on a street engine

 

[shady]

What happens to them? I mean argumently: they designed to prevent spillover, they are designed for slopes and off road. So it would make 100% sense that they would be considered a pile by a guy that's tweaking carbs for max hp. Anyone looking for max hp shouldn't be using a vac secondary carb anyway.

I know they don't have the high speed air bleeds, but this guy sounds like he's talking about a different issue?

@shady
Did yours have the air bleeds?

Not sure what you mean by air bleeds, but it had the hoop across the top of the vents (maybe what you mean) with little holes drilled in it.

 

[shady]

I have to admit that it rna amazing, started good, great response, etc.... On the road. But the entire time I had it it never did any heavy off roading

 

[beags86]

No air bleeds= not as tubeable
I actually think that's the biggest problem. It's harder to tune out fat or lean spots.

It doesn't make any sense that they would have them on a smaller or bigger carb. But sometimes companies do weird stuff so I thought maybe they had them or something. Who knows.

 

[6872xtc]

Buy the kit and a book, learn how to do it yourself, holleys are easy.

I tried a street avenger years ago. Spent a good amount of time digging for information and buying parts.
Swapped to an Edelbrock and got it working well. No power valve to mess with.
I learned from a buddy pretty quickly on them.
However, those can still have a bad one get sent out of the factory, too.