PURPLEMONKEY

I can't seem to get the Holley right, its a 4165 that I spent $200 on parts rebuilding to solve a stalling problem when turning right. It now has started to almost stall went stopping so I played with the float levels and its now the stalling when turning right again. So that's it goodbye to the Holley hello quadrajet
My question is I have a cast iron intake with a heat riser, I know I need a special gasket and heat shield but do I need the right carb
for that manifold I don't care about the matching numbers bit?
Second has any used a re-manufactured quadrajet stage II from Summit ?
Thanks
Pete

chevymans 77

You need to look up Lars for those questions,

Do a search here on the forum for Lars and send him an email with your questions.

If your lucky he'll have a core he can rebuild for you,

Neal

CaseyJones

Lars Grimsrud - v8fastcars@msn.com.

I HIGHLY recommend him and his services. He did a great job rebuilding and tuning the QJ for my rodded 80.

C3Hawk

Believe me, I don't want to start another Holley vs. Qjet war but since my Corvette came with a Holley already on it I figured I would give it a shot. I have found the Holley to be reliable and really easy to work on. All I'm saying is when you talk to Lars or whoever, at least ask them first about the carb you have before tossing it in the trash.

bluedawg

I agree with C3Hawk, there simple to work on. I love both carburetors, both have advantages and disadvantages. I switched to a Holley because my Quadra jet was varnished up real bad and could never get it to work right, I rebuilt my Quadra jet on my cutlass a few times in high school and the carb dip we used would get the varnish out completely. At the time I'd never heard of lars or I would have sent it to him.

oops!

gerry72

Unless the cast iron intake is a '67 or '68, you do not have an open heat riser trough under the carburetor and don't need the steel gas shield gasket assembly.

As to the Holley stalling problem, that shouldn't be too hard to fix. It's going to be the float level, the floats themselves (sinking or sticking), missing vent baffle, or brake fluid from the booster running into the vacuum hose. I have no preference when it comes to carburetors so go with what you feel is best.

BLUE1972

Just a thought ... have you checked the power valve?

I've replaced mine twice.

Canadian78

I'm running a 78 I've owned for 30 years. I have NEVER touched the Q-jet except with my right foot... (honest). I believe you will need to use the intake gaskets with both center sections open for the choke to work properly. No experience w/Summit Q-jets yet, but I also haven't had good luck with Holleys.

jb78L-82

Holley's are super easy to work on so you should be able to solve the problem. I have had a Holley 4175 650 CFM vacuum secondary Q-Jet replacement on my L-82 since 1985 and rebuilt it once recently in 2010. I am using it with bigger primary jets on my rebuilt L-82 355 with AFR heads and roller cam and it runs great. The Qjet is fine IF you can get them to run right but the Holley 4175 I have used for almost 30 years gets my vote for reliability, drivability, power, and the fuel mileage is roughly the same as the Qjet-maybe 1 MPG less-no biggie….

LB66383

I experienced just the opposite. The Q-jet I had would cause a stumble when turning right, so I went to a Holley to get rid of the problem.

Rkreigh

if you don't care about the numbers your carb is worth a bunch if it's a correct part!!

you can buy a summit reconditioned holley and put it on out of the box

that's what I did with my vette, I'll jack with rebuilding the leaking holley that came with the car later!! 200 gets you most of the way there

I think I paid 260

Super6

I agree. I've had Holleys for 30 years, so that's all I know. But you don't have to be on this forum long to see that there are fans of both carb brands. Both can be made to work. If you had a Q-Jet now and were having the same problem, would you switch to a Holley? If it was me I would fix the carb that's on the car and save the cost of a new carb for something else.

Clean the needle and seats. Check the float height by setting the fuel level at the bottom of the fuel bowl brass plug hole. A 1/16" or 1/8" lower on the secondary side.

A blown power valve won't cause this problem, because you are on the idle circuit when stopping. A blown power valve would just richen up the mixture when you're on the throttle, not at idle. Stalling when stopping sounds like the secondary float level is too high and/or no baffles as was mentioned. The fuel level in the secondary moves forward during stopping, artificially raising the fuel level temporarily, such that fuel pours out the venture and stalls the engine.

If you're set on a rebuilt Q-Jet, it seems like there are a lot of bad rebuilds out there from postings by Lars and others. As suggested, I would contact Lars for a rebuilt Q-Jet.

PURPLEMONKEY

I will have to do a search on Lars but I in Australia so freight maybe a problem.
This Holley is the first carb that's got me stumped, I've rebuild over ten different types over the years and always were successful but the is my first holley so I blamed the carburettor fair or unfair??
How it stared is when I bought the car the last owner tried to fix a fuel leak caused by a stripped float bowl screw with silicon and it did the stall thing when turning right.
So I bought a kit repaired the thread and found the needle baffle, vent baffle and vent tubes were missing. The also found a blown power valve on the primary so I put in a check valve kit. I set the float levels to the holley instructions (fix brass side hung floats) 3/16 inch primary and 1/4 inch secondary. After that it seemed to run well for the last 6 months till the other day went it started the almost stall thing on braking and I don't have power brakes. I thought it maybe fuel starvation in the primary bowl so I increased the float level which caused the stalling when turning right thing again. One other abnormally it wants the mixture screws wound almost all the way in when before I rebuilt it was 2 turns out but I put that down to the blown power valve. I've checked for vacuum leak and found nothing.
Pete

JimT

I finally junked my Holly. Purchased it new and had nothing but trouble. It appears the carb had issues during manufacturing - upon rebuilding only after less than a years use I found silicone in the timing vacuum port and jets.
Tossed it and purchased a rebuilt Qjet from Summit and it works great.

Super6

I'm not sure, but I think the measurements you gave for the float height adjustment are for the initial set-up. I'm looking at a internal picture of a side-hung float bowl in a Holley book and there is a sight plug present, that the caption says is for "fuel level checking". I would run the engine and shut it off and then pull the sight plugs front and back, just to see where they are. Be careful not to spill fuel on anything hot. I think you should fine tune the fuel level using the site plugs with the engine running.

The idle mixture screws normally are about 2 turns out. You have done something to richen up the idle mixture, if you now have to turn the screws almost all the way in (leaner as you turn the screws in) to maintain a good idle. That could be explained by the fact that the floats are too high now.

The side-hung floats have some susceptibility to mixture changes in cornering in road racing and the center-hung bowls were developed to combat that unwanted characteristic. Is it enough to cause a problem on a street car going around a corner at normal speed, I don't know. If the floats are out of whack, maybe.

Have you pulled a couple plugs to see what they look like?

PURPLEMONKEY

The carb I have doesn't have site plugs hence my problem and I thought mixture screw in richer.

Super6

Well, I can see the problem of checking the float level then. The vast majority of Holley carbs lean out the idle as you turn the screw in. But just to make things confusing there were some emissions versions of the 4165 that have "backwards" idle systems, but you should see a big plastic limiter cap on the mixture screw and a label showing that lean is counter-clockwise.

jb78L-82

Correct the Holley Spreadbore 650 CFM Carbs- 4165 (mechanical Secondaries)-4175 (Vacuum Secondaries) have reverse idle primary screws-Tight In for rich and out for lean.

jb78L-82

Sounds like a defective carb….from new.

zigvs

check fuel filter