Anyone knowledgeable with carburetors that could point me...

[el corvino]

Short and sweet.... I'm into nothing but performance and my father is 100% the opposite. After a long search, I found him a very low mile, all original, 1986 El Camino with a 305 V8. The carb 100% needs to be rebuilt... but in the mean time he wanted me to find him a decent, fairly cheap / reasonably priced, and as simple as possible (the least moving parts) as a direct bolt on. He doesn't care if he loses HP or TQ, but wouldn't mind gaining even a slight increase in MPG.

I know he doesn't want EFI or anything electrical. Just a simple plug and play carb. My knowledge just goes as far as knowing the main name brands of Edelbrock and Holley. Milled choke VS Manual choke... double pumpers... I'm lost! Hopefully one of you know off hand a nice reliable carb that meets the simple goals of an easy bolt on, MPG increase if possible, not even remotely worried about high performance on a stock 305. haha

 

[Longroof79]

Mike,
If he intends to keep it stock, he might as well have the Q-jet rebuilt. It would be plug and play, no fussing with adapters, etc.

 

[el corvino]

That is the plan. I told him to have it rebuilt and store it with my other car parts. He was just thinking if he could pick up a $200 - $300 basic carb that's ready to go, he would just use that in the mean time.

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

Going with an aftermarket carb is opening a can of worms. The factory Qjet is built and calibrated to match the specs of your engine. Qjets are high performing carbs that also provide driveability, and good gas mileage. Aftermarket carbs are generic specs, a Jack of all trades design to fit different engines but provide poorer mpgs and will require hours of adjusting and will be much more temperamental. If your dad is interested in good mpgs, then the only route is having the stock carb rebuilt by a good rebuilder like Cliffs or Sean Murphy, a good rebuild isn't cheap these days. Aftermarket carbs are designed for racing and dump gas with no regard towards efficiency.

If you El is stock, then it has a special computer controlled carb that works with a computer controlled distributor, and computer controlled torque converter in the trans. In that case you can only use the stock carb unless you spend 100s of dollars to replace all the computer controlled systems with non computer. The most simple path is having your stock carb rebuilt and leave those Hollies and Eddies on the store shelves where they belong. For the love of god, don't ever exchange your original Qjet towards a remanufactured Qjet, always have the original factory carb rebuilt by a proper carb rebuilder. Even a correct, factory original spec carbs that was properly rebuilt will still need final tuning with a dwell meter. Going cheap or lazy here will bite you back hard.

 

[el corvino]

That's why my builds are LS based... easier to computer tune. haha Thank you though! I'll now have to research on "Cliffs or Sean Murphy". You even beat my idea before I said it, which is buy another identical carb already rebuilt for him to slap on. Like I said, I am in uncharted territories with carbs.

 

[MrSony]

As hard as it ma be for him, he should just wait it out and have that Qjet rebuilt by someone (like Cliff Ruggles, Sean Murphy, the folks at Everyday Performance, or the Carb Shop) who knows what they're doing. Qjets are completely different than edlebrocks or holleys.

 

[el corvino]

He's just a man child that wants me to get stuff done now. He has 3 other vehicles he can drive. I just try to keep him happy so he doesn't call me for answers all day after I've already told him I know NOTHING of carb'd motors

 

[MrSony]

Maybe it's time to learn 😛 They are INFINITELY easier to track down problems, set up, tear down, etc. than fuel injection and computer controlled engines. Think lawnmower.

 

[Clone TIE Pilot]

That's why my builds are LS based... easier to computer tune. haha Thank you though! I'll now have to research on "Cliffs or Sean Murphy". You even beat my idea before I said it, which is buy another identical carb already rebuilt for him to slap on. Like I said, I am in uncharted territories with carbs.

It is iffy buying another identical carb as it may not be identical on the inside. QJETS are application specific carbs, a Qjet setup for a Chevy SBC won't run well on a Olds and vice versa. Carb remanufactures, are just that, instead of rebuilding carbs to proper factory specs they put them together to generic specs, using cheap generic parts, incorrect parts, low quality parts, Frankenstein together miss matching Qjet casings, plug passageways, just butchering the carbs. It can be very difficult to restore a remanufactured carb back to correct specs, this is why you don't exchange a original untouched factory carb for a butchered reman carb. There is a guy named Lars on Corvette forums who posts about the horrors he finds in reman, carbs he restores. Cliff Ruggles also talks about the dangers of reman carbs. The reason carb remanufactures do this is because the carb rebuilding industry is dying and the supply of rebuild able cores are running low so many cut corners.

Thankfully there are still some honest rebuilders around along with plenty of Qjet rebuilding info on the net. Cliff can get you a rebuild kit with the correct parts so you can rebuild it yourself.

If your dad's car is stock, it should have the e4me electronic Qjet. This type of carburetor has a computer controlled fuel mixture solenoid and a throttle position sensor in it. After rebuild you have to set the fuel mixture solenoid with a dwell meter. Sorry for the long post but there was a lot of ground to cover.

 

[Bonnewagon]

^^^^^^^^^^ What he said. ^^^^^^^^ NEVER loose the original carb. If he is that impatient let him waste several hundred bucks on an off-the-shelf rebuilt just to get going again. DO NOT turn your original carb in as a core!!! Find a junker to turn in or just eat the core charge. Send out your original to a REAL rebuilder and get it fixed. I recommend Everyday Performance. http://www.everyday-performance.com/