I am currently in the process of building a 306. The block is a roller motor out of a 88 stang. I am using GT-40P heads with 1.94" intake and 1.54" exhuast also with some minor porting of the exhuast side and polishing, E-303 cam, Edlebrock dual plane intake and 1 5/8 shorty headers. My question is what would be the ideal carb for my set up? The motor is going into a 89 F150 and the truck will primarily be used for some off road driving. Basically a BIG toy. Just figured I'd throw this question out there and see what kind of feed back I get since I'm stuck with this last piece missing! Thanks in advanced!

 

Your post title indicates you are looking for a carb recommendation, but the text asks for cam advice. Since you indicate a cam in the post, I will assume you are looking for carb advice.

If you will be doing lots of off road to a point of it seeing lots of crazy angles, look at the truck avenger or maybe another one that has float bowl arrangements that work better on angles. For the engine you describe I would think that a 600 CFM vacuum secondary would be a good choice.

 

Yes you are right. I was referring to carb and not a cam. Correction has been made.

Thanks for the feed back!

 

One of the fellers around here just bought a custom tuned Autolite carb and he said it was the dog's nuts. Ponycarbs, maybe?

I've got a Quickfuel DP on my Mustang - I wouldn't recommend a DP unless it's a manual tranny - and it is outstanding. I talked my buddy into getting one of their vac sec carbs for his Camaro and he absolutely loves it. IIRC, Quickfuels use the same annular system as the Autolites. Very crisp and it freakin' gets it.

 

Yes, the Autolite carbs are very good IMHO if you can find the right one in good condition. They are simple and about as leak free as you can find.

As far as a double pumper, they can be challenging to get dialed in. I consider a double pumper a race only item and as Baron points out, double pumpers are better suited for manual transmission applications.

 

Last night I picked up a Edlebrock 600 vacuum secondary w/electric choke. Going to try it for a bit then make a decision based off of its performance, but where can I find one of these Autolites you speak off? Would like to see one up close.

 

I tried Ponycarbs dot com as hinted at by the Baron. They are a carb rebuilder, but they also sell cores. If you can't find what you need in the wrecking yard, you might poke around their site and then contact them.

They show core prices for the 4100 in two different throttle bore sizes. I would expect that the smaller of the two would be best for your application.

Hope this helps.

 

Yes that helps! Thanks for the advise.

 

That Eddy 600 is a good work-a-day carb. Splurge for the tuning kit (and a couple of extra main gaskets, JIC), play with it, and it will run about as good as anything else out there. A wideband A/F meter really helps for tuning if you're looking for fun toys on which to needlessly spend money.

 

There's a little bit of good in everything, so I suppose that the Carter AFB (Edelbrock) design makes for a virtually leak free carburetor. Also, they are quickly tuned via the metering rods. It is at this point where my positive attitude toward them stops.

I remember back in the late sixties or early seventies hearing someone make the comment about an AFB saying "the flow of gas through them just seems to wear them out."

I personally believe that what wears out is the power pistons and bores, but whatever it is, they do go away over time.

Now, to be fair, maybe Vic has done something with the power piston and bore to make it longer wearing or easily repairable. I have never had my hands on one of Vic's versions of the carb. If he did not make improvements over the original Carter version, then it will be a short lived carburetor.

 

That would probably be me. I replaced my Holley 470 cfm Truck Avenger carburetor with the Autolite 4100 "Spreadbore" 480cfm carburetor, and couldn't be happier with the results. Yes, Pony Carburetors was expensive (but not NEAR as expensive as EFI), but it was custom tuned to my vehicle's specs. No matter how cold it gets, the Autolite starts up in the morning with only one single pump of the accelerator, and because of the annular boosters, idles and drives like it has electronic fuel injection!

The Holley worked ok, but it was just a bit more unpredictable. Sometimes it took one pump to get it started, other times it took three pumps. The electric choke would sometimes come on when I didn't need it (its on a timer that is reset every time the engine is turned off), whereas the Autolite "hot air" choke only comes on/off when the engine actually needs it. I finally decided to replace the Holley because it had an annoying "stumble" that would come at odd, unpredictable times that I never could figure out, and then it started leaking, as most Holley's will.

Performance wise, the Autolite is MUCH crisper. Starts up and idles perfect every time, and I never experience any flat spots or stumbles. Again, you would swear it was fuel injected. As soon as I replaced the Holley for the Autolite, I noticed that I could now easily spin the tires on my 1985 F150, whereas I never could with the Holley, no matter how many times I tuned it.

Also, because of the annular boosters and smaller primaries on the Autolite, I now get better fuel economy than I did with the Holley!

 

BC Bronco's makes a killer quadrajet in three diff stages. I've heard good things about them. Might be worth looking at. Especially for offroading. But, would require a diff intake.