You have holley carbs, carter carbs, edelbrock carbs, demon carbs. What is the difference between them and what makes them better over the others or worse, or really all that different

 

DEMON :reddevil sorry... :leaving:

 

OK

 

You might have to go the coompanys' websites to get the long version, but in a nutshell:

Q-jet - small primary, large vac op secondary, better part throttle response
Holley equal ports, more even flow, a bazillion adjustments for fine tuning
Edlebrock - modern version of q-jet
Demon - racing version of holley, more airflow

Joe

 

The Edelbrock Performer is a copy of the old Carter AFB.

 

Q-Jet: Stock equipment so people think they're junk ;) Can be tuned throughout the RPM range more than most other carbs and are more forgiving if oversized. Easy to find used, rebuild, or already on the car.

Holly: Been around for ever. Lots of good knowledge on how to tune them available. Parts everyware. Easy to find used or rebuilt. Aging castings don't flow as well or smooth as some of the more modern copycats like the Demon or reworked Hollys.

Edelbrock Performer / Carter AFB: Simple, effective, not as tunable as Holly or Q-Jet but easier to make just work. Reliable and low profile.

Predator: Huge, generally won't fit on anything with a hood. Entirely vacuum operated much like the secondaries on the Q-Jets. Don't know much else about them. Had a line on a used one for $200 but the guy didn't want to ship so he took it to a swap meet instead :(

Throttle body injection: Electronicly controlled fuel and air meetering dumped into an intake much like a carb. Depending on the model excellent tunabillity, millage, and easy starting. Drawback. Real expensive.

Multi point fuel injection: Same as throttle body except each cylinder has it's own fuel injector so the fuel is mixed as it's going through the valve. Better efficiency and performance than throttle body. Hella expensive.

Mechanical injection: Generally very expensive. Other than that I don't know much about it.

All 2nd hand but that's what I've gotten out of what I've read. YMMV :cheers:

 

Any real reason why an edelbrock performer wouldnt be a good carb to run on my vette. Or does the Holley/demon setup really work that much better.

 

I prefer Holleys mainly because I've had a few of em and they are easy to work on. Pretty reliable too, at least in my experience.

Brett :thumbs:

 

Edelbrock QJet is probably the best street carb. Perhaps uses the least fuel. And it'll fit on a stock manifold.

But if you want to do a 1/4 mile in a hurry, the Edelbrock Performer is a good choice. But do NOT put too big a carb on there -- a 600 CFM Performer is plenty enough for a small block.

People think that since a QJet is 750-795 cfm, then a square bore carb should have the same volume, too. Not the case.

BTW: Demon is also highly regarded as a performance carb.

 

There are a couple of good carb. articles at http://www.corvetteFAQ.com

I like the Edelbrock myself just had better luck with them, however once I get it mastered may move on to a demon for fun.

The Edelbrock 600 cfm is good to 400 ponies and maybe more.


[Modified by Tominator, 12:41 PM 4/24/2003]

 

Holley has teh squarebore (4150,4160) and spreadbore (4175) with choses between mechanical and Vacuum secondaries. Vacuum secondaries are the best for street driving. Turning is simple but takes time. Edelbrock is bolt on without much to do if car is stock. Demon is the way to go for modified performance cars.

 

My car is a bit modified. I want to scrap close to 400hp out of it if I can. An edelbrock carb is like 275 bucks for a performer and I still have the holley 650 around. Its just beyond my abilities to tune well at this point. I solved alot of backfiring by turning out the idle screw pretty far. and the only reason I knew to do that is by the demon carb webpage.

 

QJets are a very respectable carburetor, but I really prefer the Holleys. My greatest reason for this is that the center pivot float 4150's are less prone to fuel starvation under hard cornering. The average Detroit Boat couldn't generate enough lateral G's to create a problem. My Vette did.

Chuck