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wheeling with a carb. pros? cons? tips and tricks?

rcfatcat

rcfatcat

Cool Meadows Motorsports
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hey all. i have been running a holley 650 on my blazer for sometime now and like always on any decently steep inclines while crawling it starts starving for fuel. as of right now i really dont have the money to go efi. im just looking to see what everyones opinions are? should i switch to a different carb? if so which one? and if i stick with the holley i have now any tips or tricks or kits to make it better? ive heard of adding a screw somewheres to mechanically open the vacuum secondarys? like i said just looking for help and opinions on this. i am somewhat familiar with carbs and know the basics so i should understand what ur talking about. any help would be great!:bow:
 
i ran a holley 670 truck avenger for the last two years with great results, when tuned it performed flawlessly ( i could crawl up devils den at Rausch ), im only going to tbi now because i got sick of vapor lock during the summer, but the truck was unstoppable in the fall and spring in cooler weather. Because of the vapor lock issue I installed a 4-5 psi electric fuel pump at the tank which helped a ton with the vapor lock issues, i had it switched in the cab and would flip on the power when i hit an obstacle or hill climb or if i was crawling and could hear the truck sputter. Since i had a parts truck with the tbi stuff laying around i just jumped right in with the swap. what holley carb are you running now?
 
I've been running the Edelbrock Thunder off road carb for about 6 years now. It does good up hill but not so great on a steep decent.

I learned to keep one foot on the gas holding the idle high and the other foot on the break controlling the speed.

I'm just about over it. My next move will be a Q-Jet.
 
ryoken said:
poorman's EFI, Quadrajet....
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78SWB said:
This.

Once I had my Qjet rebuilt, it was so much better and I hardly have a problem when wheeling now. Still, I will eventually switch to EFI someday.
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Ok so out of curiosity what bought the qjet makes it better and if I pick one up anything I should do to it to make it better?
 
rcfatcat said:
Ok so out of curiosity what bought the qjet makes it better and if I pick one up anything I should do to it to make it better?
Click to expand...

Im honestly no help on explaining that cause I did not rebuild it myself. All I know is it works great :haha:. I know there were a few places that had to be drilled out cause of my engine having an aftermarket cam. I would say its almost as good as fuel injection now.
 
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so you guys think that if a found a stock quadrajet rebuilt for a decent price that would be the way to go for now?
 
The quadrajet is certainly the best carb out there for off road.

But that said research the stock TBI a bit more.

I have seen complete setups for 150 bucks.

It really is pretty easy to setup.

Another option is a used Holly pro jection, I hate the amount of time those take to tune but you can pick em up pretty cheap.

If your stuck on a carb then the quadrajet is the way to go
 
blazinzuk said:
The quadrajet is certainly the best carb out there for off road.

But that said research the stock TBI a bit more.

I have seen complete setups for 150 bucks.

It really is pretty easy to setup.

Another option is a used Holly pro jection, I hate the amount of time those take to tune but you can pick em up pretty cheap.

If your stuck on a carb then the quadrajet is the way to go
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Just for lack of knowing what all would u need with a tbi setup besides a throttle body unit and the ECM? Harness? o2 sensors?
 
q-jet. Keep the float high since the idle jet is at the front of the float bowl. It'll blow some smoke on down hills and purr on up hills.
 
rcfatcat said:
Just for lack of knowing what all would u need with a tbi setup besides a throttle body unit and the ECM? Harness? o2 sensors?
Click to expand...

I stole everything, the stamped steel bracket to mount the MAP sensor, the correct manifold studs to mount the tbi stuff to your block, the throttle bracket, the fuel lines running to the frame rail (no longer produced), the fuel lines off the frame, etc, if at all possible strip the entire manifold and adapt as much of it as you need. i even took the serpentine setup, it had a psc pump on it and looked easier to just bolt on and was set up for the reservoir already on a custom bracket so it made sense for me! If you do go the serpentine route, don’t forget the thermostat housing off the tbi truck the original wont work with it ( the hose wont clear the alternator). I will show you my setup at Rausch in march!
 
Everybody dogs on the edelbrocks but my 1406 that i put the off road needles in does flawlessly at the dunes, both up and down. Ive parked it on test hill and just let it idle, doesnt even phase it. Its what came on my motor and it didnt cost jack to turn into a perfectly fine offroad carb. If you got money to blow buy a qjet, but id look into the spring loaded needles for your holly.
 
Stock Q-jet for stock or mild engine. If you have a decent cam you might have to modify the idle circuit if it wont idle properly due to lower vacuum. Q-jets are also tuned to each application. Once you get them set up your good.
 
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