1977 Buick Quadrajet (or Edelbrock, Holley, etc) Vacuum Line help.

[MrSony]

Ok, so here I am sitting up at 1:30am. And I can't figure out for the life of me how I'd go about routing the carb vacuum lines, along with any others i.e. vacuum advance for the HEI dist, turbo 350 shift mechanism, etc. Anybody have a diagram of any of this, or just know it? The engine is 1977 Buick 350 without carb (not for long) that is going into my '85 Regal. Any help is appreciated.

 

[MrSony]

Ok, so here I am sitting up at 1:30am. And I can't figure out for the life of me how I'd go about routing the carb vacuum lines, along with any others i.e. vacuum advance for the HEI dist, turbo 350 shift mechanism, etc. Anybody have a diagram of any of this, or just know it? The engine is 1977 Buick 350 without carb (not for long) that is going into my '85 Regal. Any help is appreciated.

What I mean is, where would I route them? From what ports on the intake and what not?

 

[truracer20]

Route the vacuum advance to a port on the carb that is above the throttle blade, PCV to the carb base, brake booster to carb base or intake, vacuum modulator to carb base or intake. Other items depend on what you use as far as emissions. Most emissions items need a temperature switch. Also if you have AC you will need to connect the vacuum controls for that as well. I always ran them to the intake on Olds engines.

 

[Bonnewagon]

You found a Q-jet for the 350 from that other topic? Good, '77 is perfect. "Most" low compression motors like ported vacuum for the distributor. I would do that first, as Truracer suggested. If you end up with a crappy idle, you may need full manifold vacuum like I did on my '68 350 w/'74 heads. Ported vacuum nipple is "usually" the lower driver side of float bowl, but sometimes it's on pass side. A vacuum gauge will verify this. Everything else needs full manifold vacuum to work, EFE, THERMAC air cleaner, dash board controls, and EGR gets ported vacuum if you are going to use it. Power brake booster hose should have a threaded fitting on the rear of the throttle body, PCV goes to the big nipple on the front of throttle body. The big nipple on the float bowl goes to the charcoal canister, and the canister may use ported vacuum as a purge depending on your year.

 

[MrSony]

Thanks guys. And Bonnewagon, no. Unfortunately I haven't been able to score a Q-Jet yet. I can't find one that's Buick Specific. Does it even matter? I think the only differences are the fuel inlets are different (buick is straight out, Chevy is pointed to pass. side). Would it even matter what I got, or does it HAVE to be buick?

 

[MrSony]

No junkyards near me have anything older than 1990, and if they do, god forbid if it's anything other than Chevy. I'd prefer to order off internet if possible. I've heard that summit and jegs have some remans, but I've also heard they suck... so right now I'm kind of stuck.

 

[truracer20]

I think the Summit and Jegs Quadrajet options are Chevy style only. You can purchase reman Quadrajets from a parts store but these days they can be iffy. I would try to find an unmolested original and rebuild it if I really wanted a good Quadrajet. Holley carbs get a bad rap for various reasons but it's usually from guys who make changes right out of the box just because someone told them it'll make it faster, or they buy used heavilly modified carbs, or they are trying to tune away an issue not related to the carb. Edelbrocks I never cared for but lots of people like them.
I have a Holley on my car and love it. I fire it up daily in this cold and it starts right away and idles perfect with out of the box choke settings. Any properly tuned carb would do the same though.
What choke setup did the Buick use? I thought they had a manifold heated choke like Olds?

 

[MrSony]

I think the Summit and Jegs Quadrajet options are Chevy style only. You can purchase reman Quadrajets from a parts store but these days they can be iffy. I would try to find an unmolested original and rebuild it if I really wanted a good Quadrajet. Holley carbs get a bad rap for various reasons but it's usually from guys who make changes right out of the box just because someone told them it'll make it faster, or they buy used heavilly modified carbs, or they are trying to tune away an issue not related to the carb. Edelbrocks I never cared for but lots of people like them.
I have a Holley on my car and love it. I fire it up daily in this cold and it starts right away and idles perfect with out of the box choke settings. Any properly tuned carb would do the same though.
What choke setup did the Buick use? I thought they had a manifold heated choke like Olds?

Yeah I think it was that "divorced" choke thing. I plan on converting to electric, for obvious reasons.

 

[MrSony]

http://www.jegs.com/i/JET-Performance/561/32002/10002/-1?parentProductId= So, I found this. This seem like a good deal? I really don't want to go junkyard/ebay hunting and get something half *ss rebuilt or trash.

 

[techg8]

For a Buick 350, get a Buick Quadrajet to start with. The internal calibrations - tubes, channel, air bleeds - are very different from what you find on other Quadrajets, and any engine does best with a carb calibrated correctly for the application. Others "work", yes, but not the best.

1975 and newer Buick Quadrajets had carb mounted hot air chokes that easily convert to electric choke function. 1974 and older Buick Qjets were the intake mounted divorced choke style. There is no easy electric choke conversion for these.

ALSO, Buick Qjets from 1976 and Older did NOT have the lower throttle arm necessary for use with a detent cable (TH350) or TV cable (200-4r). If you need a lower cable arm on the throttle arm, choose a 1977 or newer Buick Quadrajet and look for the lower arm. Some numbers that come to mind are 17057241, 17058248 etc. I see them frequently on ebay.