[zac]

Now I see one advantage of living in Kentucky instead of Kalifornia.

On the quadrajet subject, I agree that they get a bad rap, but they can be a pain in the a$$ also. I have about 15 of them. Some work well, some don't, and sometimes it's not always obvious why. There are an almost infinite variety of little variations with them. Large and small bleed, idle bypass, APT or not, idle restrictions, and all kinds of other things. I have noticed that they will tend to have more trouble on large displacement and large-cammed engines. In short, if you want to use a junkyard one, do some research and choose wisely. There's still some controversy over whether throttle shaft wear is a big deal or not. Many times it comes when Cletus starts working on them and uses a barn-door spring for the return spring. If you can't make the q-jet work, be prepared to chuck it and start with a different one. So don't pay more than 40 bucks or so for a used one.

The problem with many rebuilt q-jets from parts houses is that they sometimes end up being a "generic" replacement for many different vehicles. The linkages may hook up right, but who knows about the internals. You may get lucky, you may not.

There's always the Edelbrock q-jet, but it is expensive and I think they are going to quit making it, if they haven't already. I can tell you that my old Competition Series AFB works great. They are simple and reliable, and Edelbrock makes a verison of them too. I'm using it while I build a late 70's Caddy q-jet to experiment with next spring. I doubt mine would pass any smog test, though.