To further muddle this, can I ask if vacuum or mechanical secondaries are the way to go? I have a mechanical 800 cfm double-pumper on my 440. The Holley website tells me vacuum secondaries are the way to go on my car, giving it is an auto, and more than 3100 pounds. My car seems fine, but if there is a better way to go, I'm all ears. I have 10:1 compression and a big cam, 3:23 gears though.
Mike
I like the mechanical secondary/double pumpres the best, but that's just my preference. The DP carb will outperform the vacuum carb when it is set up and tuned to the application. It's all about getting air/fuel into and out of your engine. The set-up that gets the most through the engine in the shortest amount of time is the best performer, although fuel mileage suffers. The vacuum carb only opens the secondaries as the engine will take it. If they open too soon, the car will bog off the line until the flow velocity of the engine "catches up" with the open secondaries.. So, you would be running on the 2 front barrels and the slowly opening secondaries. If the vacuum secondaries open too soon, there isn't enough fuel to keep the mixture rich enough to match the huge amount of air that goes through the open secondaries. Thus, the lean bog off the line.
However, the DP carbs can be tuned to overcome that bog. By increasing the accelerator pump fuel delivery amount and the duration/timing of the fuel squirt, you can keep the mixture rich enough to burn all that huge amount of air off idle. No off idle bog, just acceleration. This in turn increases the amount of air/fuel going through the engine and increases performance.
Vacuum secondaries are great for street applications, but if you're gonna street race and make a few 1/4 mile passes, the DP is the way to go.... Just my "Old" 0.02......