Hey, just got my engine swapped. 1974 Ford F100, swapped from 360 to 390. 390 has an Edelbrock intake manifold, rv cam, was bored out like 30 over I believe it was, just stuff like that. The Holley carb that was on it hesitates and leaks gas - needs to be rebuilt, and I don't really wanna deal with it, plus I'd like to have an electric choke again.

Anyways, I'm thinking about buying an Edelbrock performer carburetor. I can get a "new" 600cfm manual choke that was just mounted on an engine for 150, or a 750cfm electric choke that works great according to the guy selling it for 120.

I hear the 750cfm carb gets great performance for the 460 and some smaller chevy engines that are in the lower 400s, don't remember exact size for them. So I'm kinda leaning towards the 750, but I don't know how good it would be for the 390. I'd be fine with mpg at 10, would be happy in low teens.

Sorry for all that, but any opinions are greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot.

 

How cold does it get in Jackson, Ca.? The altitude is only about 1200 feet right? Many of my trucks do not even have chokes and our climates are similar. Heak, I run them in the snow. Let them sit over night, and mine fire right up.
The electric choke seems pretty important to you, and you seem aprehensive about fixing the leaky Holley.

Personally I would not put an Eddy carb on anything and would actually fix the Holley.
If you choose to change carbs I would actually lean towards a brand new Demon carb.
If you like the electric choke, you may consider the pt# 4282010VE carb. This Road Demon carb is a vacuum secondary carb with an electric choke rated at 625 CFM, but flows better than that.
The improved venturi design will provide a far better booster signal which means better throttle response. I cant say enough good things about the Demon line of cars, nor can I be too convincing. They work and work well. So many upgrades make this a fantastic carb, and believe it or not they are very easy to work on.
They do have Ford kickdown linkages available to make them an easy install.
I run Demons on everything that demands a carb, and I have come to love them. They are pretty darn good.

 

I have an Edelbrock 650cfm on my similarly built 390 and have gotten 11.5 mpg at it's best. The 750cfm will not get you better mileage, but should obviously net you some more fuel/air flow. However, I'm not certain that having more fuel available is necessarily a better thing, as mine runs great with the 650cfm. Furthermore, a 750cfm isn't really necessary unless you're running it a max RPM.

Typically, you take the engine cubic inch and multiply by the maximum RPM and divide by 3456 in order to get the needed carb cfm. So 390x5500(I'm guessing since I don't know how hard you plan on running it)=2145000. Divide by 3456 and you get 620.66 cfm. So, 600 is a little small 650 is a little big. Your call.

You might also get a better answer to this question in the FE Engines section of the forum. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum51/

EDIT: Or you can take 75F350's advice, he does know what he's talking about usually, though I've personally never run a Demon carb.

 

Lol, it doesn't usually get too cold, except for in the winter it'll drop down to around 30 or so. I actually live pretty close to the Rancheria if you know where that is and we had snow last year, hoping not too much this year. But ya, I fired up the truck today and it wouldn't start up without the choke.

As for fixing the leaking Holley, I'm currently in the middle of rebuilding it, and it sucks. That carb sat out in the weather for like 10 years, under a tarp of course, lol, and it just needs a good rebuild. It's just pissing me off right now, lol. As for the Demon carb, I'll check that out.

BTW, the only reason I'm leaning towards the electric choke is because I don't have a cable ran into the cab for manual choke, so I have to pop hood and do it by hand, otherwise I wouldn't really have a problem with it, lol, and I'm feeling too cheap to go out and buy that cable.

 

I hadn't heard of that equation before Shameless, thanks for the info. I know the 750 will probably get worse mileage, but eh. I'm just trying to get some other opinions before I get something and end up wishing I went the other way, lol. But ya, thanks.

 

You know the thing about carb selection is that no matter what you get, you always have that feeling that there is something else out there that might be better.
In many cases there is, but many of us are not willing to shell out the coins to try all of the possibilities.
This is where tuning come into play and learning what each circuit does.
While an old carb can be tricky, it is only as tricky as we let it be. Perhaps the best thing to do is get a book on how tune a carb. Even cruise the net and read some articles. They can help troubleshoot and even help you learn what to expect while it is apart. Cleaning the carb and installing new gaskets and components can really bring some new life to your old holley. Basic kits are only about 30 bucks and will have everything that you need.
Take your time to make sure that all of the passages are clean and functional and I do believe that you can get that thing running well, and reliable.
With a proper tune you should not need a choke at all. Really......

 

That Road Demon 625cfm is looking pretty good. Only thing I'm wondering about now is if I went in that direction, would it fit on the Edelbrock intake manifold? I'm guessing yes, but not sure, lol

 

I realize I should rebuild it, just to get the experience, but there is quite a bit of rust in there from the rain and all. I have a kit and I have it partially taken apart, its just pissing me off, that's all, lol. I'm liking the idea of a new carburetor just to get a fresh start. Something that isn't rusted and pissing me off from the start. You know what they say about first impressions. This Holley isn't leaving me with too good of a first impression, lol. I blame the weather and the fact that we left the engine out for 10 years or so, but oh well.

 

The Demon is a standard square flange pattern Just like your Holley.
Too bad you are not closer to So Ca. I would loan you one to try out.
I am so confident in them I would bolt one of mine up and help tune it, just so you could see how well it works.
Im not a Demon salesman, I just like everything that this carb has to offer. Though I would kind of like to see the "idle ease" incorperated into this particular carb, but carbs this size do not really see super large cam profiles so vacuum is pretty high at idle keeping the throttle blades closed enough to stay in the transfer slot.

Read up about them Some folks hate the Holley, and any car that shares its design, but my experiance tells me that they make power, and are not so bad to tune. Long gone is the infamous Holley leak problem, and the problems with the power valve problems that are considered the achillies heel for these.
Superior design and upgrades make these old problems a thing of the past. Remeber these are Demons and not Holleys even though they share similar and even interchangeable parts.

 

I think I may go for the Road Demon. Vacuum secondary like the Holley is, 4 barrel, and from the equation Shameless gave, it sounds like that would be just about the right size for that engine. The hard part is to find one. At a cheap price of course, lol.

 

One with about 1500 miles on it for 150 bucks. That's sounding pretty good, lol.

 

Just offerin up my experience, same motor as you less the bored over .30, I put an edelbrock 750 cfm electric choke just as you described. I live up in the mile high city, had to change jets and metering rods to get it dialed in but it performs really well. I wish I would have went with the 600 becaues it seems I have very little power below 1400 rpms, however up above 2000 all the way to 5000 she screams like crazy. Best mpg's ive gotten is mid 13's, lowest has been 7.8 while runnin her hard. lol. I too wanted to go with a demon but couldn't afford it, plus the edelbrocks are simple to tune, easy to work on and rebuild.

 

Thanks for the info and opinions. I guess I'll try to lean away from the 750cfm, especially since I have some issues with wanting to punch it, lol. I think I may try and get one of those Road Demon carburetors, they are sounding pretty good. So thank you everyone.

 

After reading the description again, I had forgotten how many features that I had left out.
Read up on the description and compare, please compare.

http://www.jegs.com/i/Barry-Grant/13...010VE/10002/-1

 

I have never run a Demon Carb either, but after a lot of questions, answers and research on the internet, a Demon Carb will be my next carb. All good reviews and the tech support from Barry Grant has been second to none. They have answered all my questions and seemed very eager to get me the correct carb. They were very interested to make sure what I wanted was what I needed. Just my two cents.