Summit Racing Carburetors

I was just about ready to order a new Edelbrock Thunder Series AVS Carburetors and came across the link below. Its over $100 cheaper and comes with a chrome dual feed fuel line. What do you guys think?

Summit Racing SUM-M08600VS:
Summit Racing SUM-M08600VS - Summit Racing Street & Strip® Carburetors - Overview - SummitRacing.com

Summits offer for the Edelbrock include a "FREE chrome fuel line" but i think thats just a single line feed and dosnt have any easy attachment for a fuel filter so its kind of useless.

Edelbrock 1806 :
Edelbrock 1806 - Edelbrock Thunder Series AVS Carburetors - Overview - SummitRacing.com

 

I personally like edelbrocks. When I bought my '76 it had sat for about 8 years. I couldn't get the crazy thing to run. I went home, grabbed the edelbrock I had sitting there, dropped it on and it fired right up. I didn't have to tune it at all.

My dad had a mustang that caught fire because of a holly carburator. After rebuilding it, he pulled an edelbrock out of the box and set it on and drove off. Again not having to tune it.

I guess my point is, that edelbrock makes n awesome carburator. I have never used the summit carbs, but I will definitely stick with Edelbrock even if it is more money.

 

The Summit brand carbs are a Holley design.When sold by Holley,they referred to them as the 4010 model.My recollection is that carb design was a fail.Summit now sells them as they're own brand. I had a buddy who bought one new and never could get the Windsor to run right.It didn't seem to be very user friendly or tunable.I've never run a Eddy carb,but would choose one over the 4010.There's a reason they're so much cheaper.I prefer the classic Holley carbs.

 

I have heard nothing but good things about the new summit house brand carbs. Many people have bolted them on and only had to do very minor adjustments to get it tuned in perfect, where as the edelbrock will require more time to dial it in. I believe that one of the mustang magazine websites had a review of them when they first came out.

 

I did a quick look around the web and Summit made several improvements over the 4010. Its seems like a decent carb, but i think im fixated on the Thunder Series.

Im actually considering going with the 500 over the 650 cfm. Reason why is my rear butterfiles dont even seem to function anymore and im getting incredible fuel mileage. It not like my truck is a rocket ship or anything 3200 rpm is the max i ever need.


CFM Calculator (On Summit)

Maximum Engine RPM : 3500
Engine Size in Cubic Inches : 460
Street Carb CFM : 395.98
Racing Carb CFM : 512.44


Maximum Engine RPM : 4000
Engine Size in Cubic Inches : 460
Street Carb CFM : 452.55
Racing Carb CFM : 585.65


Maximum Engine RPM : 5000
Engine Size in Cubic Inches : 460
Street Carb CFM : 565.68
Racing Carb CFM : 732.06


Maximum Engine RPM : 5748
Engine Size in Cubic Inches : 460
Street Carb CFM : 650.08
Racing Carb CFM : 841.28


I should point out that fuel cost in my number one expense in life $200+ a week.


Any opinions on a 500 cfm carb on a 460?

 

I have been contemplating this myself. The stock carb on my 84 460 was shot and I took the easy route of bolting on a new 750 edlebrock. Since I have been driving the truck (late spring and summer), I have been getting close to 8 or 9 mpg. I am thinking I will be getting 6 to 8 gpm this winter.

I would like to try a 500 or so on the truck to see if it will help with fuel economy. I dont really need the power as I usually just drive it to work and back (about 14 mile round trip 1/2 town 1/2 hwy), so fuel mileage is more important right now. Can always throw the 750 back on if needed in less than an hour.

Anyone run a 500 or similar carb on a 460?

 

I think i remember trying to talk you out of buying that 750

I've never calibrated a Edelbrock or any carb for that matter, but all you should need is some new jets and rods. They make calibration kits, or you can buy them separately. I dont know how far you can take it, but if i had every thing listed below first thing id do is swap the jets and rods out of the 500 and put them in the 750 to see what happens. bty, recurving your distributor helps with the mpg if you havent already.



Edelbrock 1801 - 500 CFM
Primary .86
Secondary .095
Primary Rod .065 x .052
orange spring


Edelbrock 1405 - 600 CFM
Primary .100
Secondary .095
Metering Rods .070 x .047
Orange 5 Hg Spring


Edelbrock 1406 - 600 CFM
Primary .098
Secondary .095
Metering Rods .075 x .047
Yellow 4 Hg Spring


Edelbrock 1806 - 650 CFM
Primary .095
Secondary .098
Metering Rods - .068 x .047
Orange 5 Hg Spring


Edelbrock 1411 - 750 CFM
Primary .110
Secondary .107
Metering Rods.075 x .047
Orange 5 Hg Spring

 

I Ran the exact carb you listed in your first post. The first one I bolted on and fired it up. check for leaks and went for a drive. Got it back to the garage and pop the hood to check things out. Noticed I had fuel pooled in the intake manifold. Fuel was coming out of the throttle shaft. Called summit and returned and got a exchange. The new one came and I had the same exact issue. Went ahead and returned it for my money back and went with Holley. I'm not saying all the carbs are like this, Just my experience with them.

 

All it takes sometimes is for a person to have one bad experience with a product brand and that's enough to steer them off to a different product.Who can blame them.Parts are expensive and if my first experience with a new to me product is a bad one,chances are I'm looking elsewhere.But,if I have a problem with a brand that I've been using for years without issue then I'm more inclined to brush it off as a fluke and accept a replacement.I've only one firsthand run in with the Summit carb and have "heard" about two others so I can only go on the firsthand knowledge.But,it makes one wonder why Holley was so quick to sell the tooling of their "new" design to Summit Racing.Quick Fuel,Proform,Barry Grant(now called Demon) and others have all designed carbs/components based on the Holley design.

 

When i got my truck it already had a Holley 4160 (0-804572) carb bolted to an Edelbrock Performer intake manifold. Only thing I had to do was swap out the aluminum spacer for a resin one. When I shut down the heat would soak up through the metal spacer and boil the fuel off in the bowls making the whole house smell like gasoline. The resin insulates enough now to prevent that.


Holley 0-80457S - Holley Model 4160 Non-Adjustable Float Carburetors - Overview - SummitRacing.com

 

Swatter/Bump - You can go to Edelbrock's site and download the manual and instructions on each carb. There's a calibration section that shows what you need to do to make changes, and it does it in steps. While that chart isn't the most intuitive it works well once you get your head around it.

As for changing out a larger carb for a smaller, if the smaller carb will flow all you need then it should give better economy - if you tune it. I say that, completely without experience, but with the thinking that you will be running in a different range of flow on the carb than E'brock expected when they jetted it since I would think they assumed that carb would be used on a smaller engine. In any event, please keep us posted.

 

I have always been a Holley guy but have heard good things about Edelbrock as well. I did have a Holley catch fire on an 84 F150 with a 351W H.O., no fault of the Holley though. I rebuilt the carb and one of my buddies put a fuel bowl on and didn't tighten it down. Fuel everywhere and then fire.

 

Theres been a small delay in my plans.

The thermostat for our furnace caught on fire, fell off the wall, caught the carpet on fire. The smoke detectors saved the day. I could also credit my truck cause hitting the fire with a towel wasnt cutting it so i ran to my truck and grabbed the fire extinguisher. The fire department had to axe the wall to check for fire. Thankfully, all is good, but its taken all my time dealing with this. Oh, bty 24v DC systems bypass to the breaker box so nothing gets tripped like normal shorts.. So, if you have one like this you might want to splice in a fuse between the transformer and thermostat.

Anyway, 500 cfm should be more then enough but i dont know much about carbs, so im probably going with the safe option and ordering the Edelbrock 1806 650 cfm and the calibration kit. Either way Im going to need the calibration kit, fuel line, filter, spacer, and probably need a fuel pressure regulator. The hot fuel return valve may act like a fuel pressure regulator but i dont know it might be above the limit. I'll post back in a few weeks.

 

Swatter, I am running a 1405 E-brock on my 460 in my 76.
It's 600 cfm and is all the carb I need.

Out of the box, idle speed adjust, adjust idle mix screws, done deal..

My brother runs an old 450 cfm Holley 4V on an 80 model 454 Chevy..
No problems.

Just some comparisons....Get what you think will be the set-up you need..