So I finally tracked down a 7028209 q-jet for my 68 390hp 4 speed car but the base plate and the choke arm have been changed out. Couple of questions. First, the choke arm has been changed out for the small block style, if I ever decide to get the car NCRS judged will I get dinged for this, should I track down the duck bill style choke arm? Secondly, the date code on the base plate is now just reads 19(incomplete) and I was planning to restamp the rest of the numbers. My options are 1997, 2197 and 3197, which is the most correct for a Jan 15 build car? Thanks in advance.

 

where did you find that and how much was it. I'm sure it was pricey. Those are very rare

 

Send it to Lars and have him correct any improper configurations and rebuild it to new specs. Small price to pay for a properly operating and 'correct' carb for your car.

Send him and e-mail to request info and costs.

V8FastCars@msn.com

 

First thing to do is join up and start learning how the judging works.

 

http://www.ncrs.org/

 

Finding the correct duckbill choke arm will be very difficult. I looked for nearly 10 years before finding the one for my carb, and it was not mint. There are quite a few of the 67 style big block choke arms around, but finding a 68 arm is really tough. I sent dimensions of mine to a gentleman in Texas who made one for his 68 390HP car that looks very nice. In addition to the choke, the throttle lever is unique to the 68 corvette quadrajet. There is a lever for the manual trans cars and a different one for the auto trans cars. So, if the base plate has been changed, it is likely that the throttle lever is not correct. Finding a throttle lever may be a bit easier, since all corvettes regardless of engine used the same two levers. Finding a 68 baseplate with a reasonable date should not be too hard. OEM Carbs in Texas, Mark Smith, probably has the baseplate that you need. Putting together a reasonably correct 7028209 carb has been a real learning experience for me. I don't know how the NCRS judges would look at your carb, but I suspect that unless the judge had some detailed 68 209 carb knowledge, they would look for the correct number and date code and move on. The pictures show my carb with the RP 35853 choke arm, a 7028209 carb with a 67 style duckbill arm, and my carb showing the 68 throttle lever configuration. Good luck in your search.

John

 

I haven't actually received it yet but after getting quotes between $1500 and$ 2000 I jumped on this one because it was priced so well. $325 restored and shipped including core. Ill post pics of it if/when it shows up but if I do indeed get the one in the pics I was sent it looks like a nice resto. Until then,thanks again for all the help.

 

Well...It finally showed up. Because of a mix-up with USPS it traveled around the US for nearly 2 weeks but it finally here. Got it from Monzon carbs.

First the good. It indeed had the right numbers on it 7028209 FG, I'm not convinced that its not a re-stamp but appears to be in the right font so if it is they did a decent job. All the linkage has been re-plated and the body itself has the correct green color. According to my info the main body is the correct casting number.

The bad. Had a early 70s style choke set up. Had the wrong throttle lever and base plate was date coded 9 days after my car was built.Had all the wrong jets and rods as well as the wrong power piston spring and float. Primary shaft was twisted(one butterfly had correct amount of transfer slot exposed while the other had nearly the entire slot exposed). The set up was terrible, for claiming they are the "rochester specialists" you'd think they'd at least try to set it up right. I think a blind 4 year old w/ no instructions could do a better job. Out of the box it would never run, it leaked like a sieve from the inlet adapter, the idle tubes were totally clogged in the lower orifices and all the adjustments werent even in the ball park.

Took it all apart, got the correct rods, jets, power piston spring and float, took choke parts from a worn out 68 300hp carb I had laying around and thanks to my burroughs rochester adjustment kit and the GM carb service I saved from the dumpster at work got it all back together and it runs like a top! Smoother idle much cleaner off idle than the edelbrock 1901, no more WOT pinging and a ***load more power. Will now do a rolling burnout in 2nd when you get in to the secondaries. Still experimenting with the secondary air valve wind-up but much better than before.

So all in all not a bad deal, got the carb for less than half I was getting prices for a questionable core and even after buying all the parts I needed still into it less than $400. Its a shame that they would send out a a carb that looks so good but is so far from being assembled correctly but I guess you get what you pay for.

Anyhow, heres the pics.