Author Topic: Edelbrock carbs, your thoughts  (Read 2914 times)

Offline GoodysGotaCuda

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Re: Edelbrock carbs, your thoughts
« Reply #15 on: February 22, 2007 - 12:18:58 PM »
good point i think Chryco made. If you are buying a new carb. DO buy a AVS, it is WELL worth the extra money for the secondary tuning.
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Offline Jacksboys

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Re: Edelbrock carbs, your thoughts
« Reply #16 on: February 22, 2007 - 01:15:31 PM »
Jacksboy
Do you have your O2 sensor on a gauge in your car? I kinda curious, because that is a heck of an idea and would save tuning time.

I have a small gauge inside the car that I got from Summit fairly cheap.  It is mounted low, under the dash.

Jacksboy,
is it narrow or wide band? i want to get a wide band in mine but $$ is tight. I want the thunder AVS. hopefully this helps.

I am in the same boat as you with $ and got the cheap narrow band.  I may upgrade in the future, but the main reason I got the sensor was to make sure I was not running lean.
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Offline Jacksboys

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Re: Edelbrock carbs, your thoughts
« Reply #17 on: February 22, 2007 - 01:18:38 PM »
Also another thing about the O2 sensor gauge, I got the led version because I was told that it does not jump around as much.
1971 Dodge Challenger:  360/904/3.23
   
Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have. - Zig Ziglar

Offline FY1Cuda

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Re: Edelbrock carbs, your thoughts
« Reply #18 on: March 07, 2007 - 02:08:35 AM »
I got an O2 sensor and found the thing to be relatively useless... at least when i first installed it.  Maybe i need to try again now that its broken in a bit i guess.

Edelbrock carbs are essentially a copy of the Carter carbs, much in the same way the Demon carbs are copies of Holleys, but I guess without all the fancy "scientific" advancements that Barry Grant likes to promote.  Essentially Edelbrock started with a Carter carb and added some slight differences/modifications to them to make them better, I guess like Demon adding 4 corner idle adjustment essentially to Holleys 2 corner carbs.

The thing I've heard the most is essentially that Edelbrocks are easy to dial-in and that you can easily get the most out of the carb.  On the otherhand, a Holley is harder to dial-in, but the performance potential is greater... essentially if you can dial-in the carb perfectly you can expect more from it, but its harder to dial-in.

In hind sight, I kinda wish I had gone with an Edelbrock.  I went with a Street Avenger 675.  The Holleys are hard to dial in and most of the time i feel like im dealing with witch craft trying to guess at which tuning is the best for the carburetor.  I've read books about how to dial in carburetors and they say run the thing at full throttle and shut it down (with the throttle wide open) to check the plugs to see the mixture at full throttle.  Problem is, I cant do that in my neighborhood and I read on Edelbrock's website that plug reading is becoming obsolete because additives in gasoline get rid of the tell-tail colors we are accustomed to seeing on plugs... go figure.  Lastly, changing the aerration valves and springs (or whatever theyre called) on Edelbrocks has to be a lot easier than changing jets/power valves.

In closing, I would say people's luck by switching one carb for another and having the car run better is simply that... luck.  From all the reading/investigation I've done into carb tuning, a carb cant be tuned perfectly for every application, much less two similar applications.  Seems almost every engine needs a different tuning.  Multiple emails to Holley for tuning suggestions (and receiving several contradictory responses) seems to verify this.

Hope this is of some help

nivvy

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Re: Edelbrock carbs, your thoughts
« Reply #19 on: March 07, 2007 - 06:03:01 AM »
I personally dont like them.... cant go wrong with a holley! plus they flow better ...

Offline Jacksboys

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Re: Edelbrock carbs, your thoughts
« Reply #20 on: March 07, 2007 - 10:55:46 AM »
I got an O2 sensor and found the thing to be relatively useless... at least when i first installed it.  Maybe i need to try again now that its broken in a bit i guess.


Just remembrer that with the cheaper (narrow band) O2 sensor you will have to let the engine get fully hot for the sensor to work the best.  With the wide band sensor, they are usually self heating.
1971 Dodge Challenger:  360/904/3.23
   
Success is the maximum utilization of the ability that you have. - Zig Ziglar

Offline HP2

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Re: Edelbrock carbs, your thoughts
« Reply #21 on: March 07, 2007 - 11:19:39 AM »

In closing, I would say people's luck by switching one carb for another and having the car run better is simply that... luck. 

These days, that is probably an accurate statement. 25 years ago when carbs were still fairly prevelent, tuning them was kind of a voodoo act. These days, it is even more so. I'd like to say spending an hour on a chassis dyno doing tuning would be worth the money, but even a lot of these shops are so EFI oriented that it may not help a lot. The advantage would be sensors and load testing that would get you further in an hour than a whole afternoon on a back road.

Offline KellysCuda aircard

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Re: Edelbrock carbs, your thoughts
« Reply #22 on: March 07, 2007 - 11:28:49 AM »
You think tuning one carb is bad, try two of them...sheesh.     :bricks1:

Offline Chryco Psycho

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Re: Edelbrock carbs, your thoughts
« Reply #23 on: March 07, 2007 - 11:41:46 PM »
I still prefer being able to tune a carb over not even having an adjustment possible
if tuning is difficult [I am not convinced it is ] having an adjustment available sure beats not even having the option to adjust it when the factory design is not correct , I will always choose a Holley / Demon / Proform design over the edelbrick

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Offline 73Magnum

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Re: Edelbrock carbs, your thoughts
« Reply #24 on: March 08, 2007 - 06:27:59 AM »
        I replaced my factory thermoquad on my 340 with an Edelbrock 1406, and I think it was the best money I have ever spent.   :2thumbs: Right out of the box it seemed like it doubled my performance.  The motor only has like 2-3000 miles on it after a full rebuild, and it was a total dog with the thermoquad.  The only thing I wish I would have done is waited and bought the Thunder series.  From what I have seen this model has adjustable secondaries which would be nice.  Right now my foot is almost to the floor (70% throttle or more) before I can feel the 4 barrels kick in.  Is there a way on the 1406 to adjust the secondaries, or am I stuck with what I have?
 
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Offline Chryco Psycho

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Re: Edelbrock carbs, your thoughts
« Reply #25 on: March 08, 2007 - 09:27:37 AM »
you can remove the air door from the secondaries after removing the top of the carb & the boosters and drill a 1/4 hole in the counter weight on each side to lighten the door weight so it will open sooner , you can continue to drill more holes or increase the size of the hole if you want it to open even sooner , I recommend using smaller holes after you drill the 1/4 " hole so you can tap the hole & thread in a bolt to add more weight if you go too far , the only other option is to weld the holes to add the weight back in if you go to far
Fun way to make a simple & needed adjustment ................Not  :banghead:

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