Quadrajet vs Edelbrock

[hawleykt]

question.....

doin a new carb with electric choke and intake setup

have the option of goin with the quadrajet or edelbrock...which do u prefer/recommend?

i can get the quad intake for 30 bucks with the EGR....or a nearly brand new Edelbrock intake w/o it for free....thing is like 130 new. so im kinda on the fence.

i value your opinions.

[jchav62]

Nothing beats a good running quadrajet. Run one on the Edelbrock intake. Is that free intake a spread bore or a square bore?

[tucsonjwt]

Quadrajet. Professional rebuild for me, since I am not competent to rebuild a carburetor. I have had 1 Carter, 2 Edlebrocks, 1 store bought rebuilt Quadrajet, 1 professional rebuilt Quadrajet. Ditch the electric (or hot air) choke. Get a good manual conversion and hook it up. Improve cold starts and save gas - shut off the choke when you want to, not when some inaccurate thermo coil wants to.

[Restrorob]

Originally Posted by jchav62

Nothing beats a good running quadrajet.

Originally Posted by tucsonjwt

Quadrajet

Another Quadrajet fan here, I've had better luck and gotten better mileage/performance out of my home brew QJ's than any of the others.....

[gchemist]

Edelbrocks are easy to tune for novice mechanics. It's really down to preference.

[asphaltburner]

Yo! FRANKENTRUCK runs a 600 Holley dbl pumper and a matching 2" spacer. I like going from larger, same-size primaries to opening smaller, same-size secondaries. With the Q-jet, ya run on smaller primaries, and open larger secondaries. More punch on acceleration, and better mpg due to the smaller primaries, but is your goal mpg or performance? I can perform with the larger primaries more and require the secondaries less with the "square bore",...who knows if that's better overall?
However, most carbs have always been the "square bore" design.
My Holley is a PITA to tune,...mixture is backwards compared to most, and limited to a very fine tune. My Camaro's Carter AFB is magnificent,...easily fine tuned from full rich to full lean, if necessary. Mixture is tighten = lean, loosen = rich, properly.
Both Q-jet and "square bore" are fun carbs, just different theories of operation.
Have fun and good luck!
Todd.

[82swampthing]

holley all the way, edelbrocks are paper weights

[James McClure]

Gentelmen, most off you know I spent 33 years as a Chevy mechanic. I've seen it all I think. My vote goes with the QJ for a street vehicle. My vote also goes with Holley for race applications. The QJ can be a bear to set up propeerly, especially if eng size\power change. (EG swap from 305\165HP to a 350 or 400 at 300HP) But just running a stock one on the right eng they can't be beat for keeping a good balance between economy and power. They are factory calibrated to a certain application. After market is calibrated for a wider range of applications and as a result run to rich at one end and to lean at the other. I ran Holley carbs with great success drag racing. Real PITA to rejet but once set they did quite well on everything from 305 to 454. I would stay with the QJ.

[355bullet]

Quadrajet all the way! i had crap luck with my Edelbrock carb, i sold it. But for some it works..

[glock35ipsc]

For the street, I'll take a properly tuned Q-Jet over....... well, anything!

But on the track I'll still use a Holley DP.

[GmtGmt]

For Street use Qjet
but for pure race i would get a Predator

[glock35ipsc]

Hmmm, a Predator. I had forgotten all about those things!

[jchav62]

I have Edelbrocks on the '62 and the '65. They both run great, but they seem to run a little on the rich side. My biggest complaint about them..and it's discussed a lot on here, are hot starts. After the engine is run and them parked for a few minutes, they are a b!tch to start up. They seem to get flooded in the heat and you have to hold it to the floor to firing it back up. I have a quadrajet on my '73 on a performer intake...runs excellent and fires on a dime everytime...hot or cold.

As I said in my earlier post...nothing beats a good running q-jet.

[82chevy350]

hmm i have that same problem jchav62 could this be fixed with a spacer?

[jchav62]

On my '62, I have a 2" spacer and an insulated gasket. It's not as bad, but it still floods when hot.

[GMC Guy]

i'm running an edelbrock 1406 with a 2 inch phenolic spacer and 5 inch K&N filter, and it runs pretty dang good. always starts, hot or cold. and the electric choke works flawlessly. i do have the stock Q-jet sitting in a box and i'm wanting to put it back on. but i need an electric or a manual choke kit, and also the adapter for the square bore manifold. the only reason i went to the edelbrock was "bolt on and go" and the electric choke feature, which was really nice in the winter.

All in all, my vote goes to the Q-jet. i remember after i rebuilt mine, the thing ran like a clock!

[hawleykt]

im just fed up with searching classifieds for a decent used quadrajet....

[hawleykt]

how lame would i be if i went against all that we just talked about and threw on an edelbrock because it would be easy for me to do with the whole bolt and go ...lol

i would prefer the quad...but seems it might be a bit more complicated for me....as I am a novice.

[Damien]

You would have to modify the carb linkage and fuel line too if you go with the edelbrock. Ask around at local engine shops and parts stores. There were only millions made and there are a lot of people that believe they are worthless.

[1974ChevyC10]

it looks like im in the minority here but i say screw the qjet go with the edelbrock.personally ive only had bad luck with qjet's and i hate them with an absolute passion.i was even given(well offered)both a free qjet and a free carter afb(same thing as an edelbrock basically)and i ran far and wide from the qjet.not sure why ive had such bad luck with them but after having 3 of them take a complete **** on me if im lucky and have it my way ill never deal with a qjunk again.ive only had this one carter but its never gave me one bit of trouble and hot or cold truck fired with relatively no issues.so im happy with it and will stick with it.even if you dont use an edelbrock go with a holley or anything besides a qjunk

[hawleykt]

Originally Posted by Damien

You would have to modify the carb linkage and fuel line too if you go with the edelbrock. Ask around at local engine shops and parts stores. There were only millions made and there are a lot of people that believe they are worthless.

how so?

[manimal]

You can look into Jet Performance Carbs, they do awesome Q-Jet rebuilds, or get a Q-Jet from Edelbrock. I do NOT like the AFB style carbs from Edelbrock at all. I run Q-Jets on everything that is not F.I. Even my '77 F250 w/ 460 has a GM Q-Jet runs SWEET!

[355bullet]

Originally Posted by jchav62

I have Edelbrocks on the '62 and the '65. They both run great, but they seem to run a little on the rich side. My biggest complaint about them..and it's discussed a lot on here, are hot starts. After the engine is run and them parked for a few minutes, they are a b!tch to start up. They seem to get flooded in the heat and you have to hold it to the floor to firing it back up. I have a quadrajet on my '73 on a performer intake...runs excellent and fires on a dime everytime...hot or cold.

As I said in my earlier post...nothing beats a good running q-jet.

a friend of mine that works on streets rods that have that problem with edelbrock carbs told me he installs a fuel regulator and it corrects it.

[Slofarmtruck]

I am a +1 for the Edelbrock only for the fact that I know nothing about the Qjets. I just threw an Electric Choke Edelbrock 600 on my 305 that sat for 10 years, changed the oil, primed the carb and the motor ran like it sat for a day only. A few minor and simple tweeks later and she performs great every day. Please note that my Qjet had more leaks and loose bushings than I cared to attempt to repair compared to the ease of bolting on the Edelbrock. I had to use a longer peice of rubber fuel line for the Edelbrock and retained the stock accelerator cable and TV bracket.

[Damien]

Originally Posted by hawleykt

how so?

You will need to get the correct stud or ball for the throttle and kick down cables to connect to. The fuel inlet on a Edelbrock is on the side at the rear versus front for the Qjet.