Im not very good with carbs my question is is it worth replacing my 2 barrel to a 4 barrel? its on a 400

 

Welcome to FTE. If your question was, will I see gains by going to a 4 barrel, then the answer would be yes. But you asked if it's worth it - which needs some clarification. Is it worth the time? Of course; it's not a hard install and you'll be pretty happy with the results. Is it worth the money? That's tough to answer. You should definitely switch to a 4 barrel intake manifold as well because otherwise it's not worth the trouble. A 4 barrel carburetor is nice because the primaries (the throttle bores that you spend most of the time driving on) are smaller than those of most 2 barrels, so if you have a light foot, you might even get better gas mileage. When you get on the gas, the secondaries open up to give you the extra power. In conclusion, a 4 barrel intake and carburetor is a nice upgrade to a motor, especially a 400. However, it can be a little pricey if you go all-new. If you're not too good with carbs, you'll probably want to buy new instead of rebuilding a junker. However, used intake manifolds are usually a pretty safe. There's not too much that can go wrong with them other than being cracked or warped. A 400 is a dry manifold (coolant does not go through it) so of all the motors this could be on, it's not too big of a deal to install. This site is a great resource for any questions you may have on this topic, so welcome aboard. There is also a 400-specific forum on FTE, called the 335-series forum. The guys there will be able to go into even more detail for you, since this board covers all the stuff on 73-79 trucks rather than one specific topic.

 

Long tube mandrel bent quality headers and an MSD ignition as well as 8.8 mil spiral wound ignition wires and a premium copper cap and rotor as well as a K&N filter kit.

If you have the knowledge and time and money I would also go with a bit more aggressive cam.

All fairly easy jobs even for the beginner if you have a little bit of help and patience.

Depending on the quality and number of parts you replace you could see as much as a 100 HP improvement for about $1000 to $1500 investment if you do the work yourself, probably add another $1000 dollars if you get someone to do the work.

Cheers, and let us know how you make out.

Rick.

 

I know for my 390 it was an incredible wake up call when I went to a 4bbl intake/carb combo. I gained 3-4 mpg highway and I had power to pull up the passes here in CO. Like fmc400 said, if you keep your foot out of it you increase your mileage.

 

My advice is DO IT!!!!!!