Holley VS. Edelbrock debacle

[fleming442]

I've had multiple qjets, a 600 Holley on my t bird and now an edelbrock on my f250. All work. Most of the time if not all the time the installer does it wrong or unknowingly puts a carb on that is in bad need of a rebuild. Not new gaskets. Not jets. A full on balls deep rebuild. Not to mention properly setting it up and tuning.

What does said "full on rebuild" get you? I'm impressed by your q-jet tuning, so far. Have you been inside an Edel-junk yet? You'll change your mind. Counterweighted throttle blades? WTF is that?

 

[lilbowtie]

Wideband tuning - no guessing.

 

[olds307 and 403]

The original Edelbrock is an ancient design. Maybe the AVS2 is an improvement. Maybe Edelbrock improved the castings, supposedly not as good as the original Carter castings. I like the Street Demon's design, basically a Thermoquad as a 3 barrel with a bunch of improvements. I plan on trying the 750 cfm version. The only issue I have heard other than minor fit and finish and running lean on the top end with hotter motors. A new carb, Quickfuel were good, more like a 750 and a wideband is a good idea.

 

[MrSony]

What does said "full on rebuild" get you? I'm impressed by your q-jet tuning, so far. Have you been inside an Edel-junk yet? You'll change your mind. Counterweighted throttle blades? WTF is that?

by full on rebuild, i mean tearing it 100% apart, blasting air or cleaner through every passage, a real deep clean, as well as inspecting for damage, factory ****ups, etc. most people plop a carb on that they got off fb marketplace thats been sitting since rosie o'donnell could see her toes and wonder why it sucks and wont run right. other times its as simple as its just the wrong carb for the application be it size, type (no jimmy your 305 doesnt need a dominator), or they refuse to tune it properly. i've known people that go through carbs like a fat kid goes through fudgesicles because they refuse to learn how to properly tune a carb, and an afr gauge just sounds like witchcraft.

 

[UC645]

by full on rebuild, i mean tearing it 100% apart, blasting air or cleaner through every passage, a real deep clean, as well as inspecting for damage, factory ****ups, etc. most people plop a carb on that they got off fb marketplace thats been sitting since rosie o'donnell could see her toes and wonder why it sucks and wont run right. other times its as simple as its just the wrong carb for the application be it size, type (no jimmy your 305 doesnt need a dominator), or they refuse to tune it properly. i've known people that go through carbs like a fat kid goes through fudgesicles because they refuse to learn how to properly tune a carb, and an afr gauge just sounds like witchcraft.

That’s exactly what I did to the carb, torn apart, soaked in carb cleaner, sprayed every passage with cleaner after I fished it all out. Everything was put back together according to Holley’s diagrams and a couple of manuals online.
It’s likely I still do not have it set up correctly, that’ll be fixed today and over the weekend.

 

[fleming442]

TRANSFER SLOTS!!!

Really, they should set okay by just backing the idle speed screws off, but the carb should be removed to confirm. It depends on if anyone messed with any of the throttle blades.

 

[84dragcutlass]

On a completely different note, what mods did you do to the vortec heads to get them to accept the total .512 lift? I know the seal clearance wont allow that normally

 

[UC645]

TRANSFER SLOTS!!!

Really, they should set okay by just backing the idle speed screws off, but the carb should be removed to confirm. It depends on if anyone messed with any of the throttle blades.

I had to crack the secondaries open a bit to get the engine to run, the transfer slots are most likely out of wack. That and I think I’m using too high of a power valve, at 6.5hg. I never took a reading of vacuum while it was in gear cause I’m dumb.

On a completely different note, what mods did you do to the vortec heads to get them to accept the total .512 lift? I know the seal clearance wont allow that normally

I had bought the heads, intake, rockers and the hardware as a package deal. I have no idea how far they were machined, but with stock valves and the Howard’s spring kit I bought gave me .610 inches of travel before the retainer hit the seat.

 

[fleming442]

I had to crack the secondaries open a bit to get the engine to run, the transfer slots are most likely out of wack.

That shouldn't be necessary with an 850 on a 350. I would start with the idle mixture screws almost all the way in (1/2-3/4 out). If the idle mixture is too fat, you're trying to compensate with more air, then it snowballs straight to the hell you're sitting in now.
Read this: https://documents.holley.com/lit705rev.pdf
Power valves are for part throttle, and shouldn't have an effect on idle, unless it has a hole in it....

 

[Neill]

I’ll start by saying this is not a “which one is better?” thread (because it’s the Holley), and more of a “Why does one do things the other doesn’t?” thread.

I recently switched from a 1406 Edelbrock to a 4150 Holley (list # 4776-2) and have had a few issues/quirks with the Holley.
For starters, the Edelbrock would idle down to around 600 rpm and would happily allow the engine to sit in gear without dying, at nearly 500 rpm, the Holley does not come close to these numbers. Even at 1000 rpm idle, with the Holley on the car and it sitting in gear it seems to stall out far easier. When the engine is up to operating temp this gets even worse, with me needing to get on the gas within a second to prevent the car stalling. Does anyone have any ideas on why this is the case? I have rebuilt both carbs, the reason for the switch is I think the Edelbrock is damaged, it leaks fuel out of the bowls when it’s sitting. That carb has already cost me quite a chunk of change in oil from the gas seeping into the pan overnight.

Another quirk with the Holley is that it doesn’t like full choke, but runs quite rough without it when I go to start it. I’m using a manual choke setup, and can not find any tips or tricks to adjusting this so I can use it. Currently I have to hold the choke open about this much in order to get the engine to start or run with it on:
View attachment 157896
Fully closed and the engine dies either due to lack of air or over fueling, I can see fuel pouring out the venturis with the choke on fully. Any tips on fixing this? Or should I stop worrying, leave the choke off, and stick my foot in it a bit while it warms up?

As it stands I know the Holley needs a few things:
A bigger primary squirter
A more aggressive primary accelerator pump cam
A 50cc accelerator pump conversion, or a combination of all 3. I will be taking it back to the bench for by the book adjustments when colder weather hits.
Any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated, I have been looking for around a week and haven’t turned up any solutions.