I have an '85 F-150 4WD with a 302 4 barrel engine. Which 4 bbl. carb is the best Edelbrock or a Holley?

 

The holley is the better of the 2. If you know nothing about carbs some people have an easier time with the edelbrocks. keep it small, 600 or less in cfm and make sure it has the kickdown for ford on it if you have an automatic

 

For a street truck, I like the Edelbrock. As wdfp mentioned, they are a bit easier to work on and while the 600cfm is the most used, the 500cfm is a better match for the 302. Offroad w/inclines and off camber situations, Holley is better suited. But it's like the Ford/Chev debate, people are diehard on each.

 

Both are good. The Edelbrock's usually give better mileage and throttle response. Holleys give a little more all out hp. I can build Holley's in my sleep but prefer the Edelbrock carbs.

 

I currently have an Edelbrock setting on top of my 5.0. It does what I want it to do. I haven't exactly got the choke set just right yet. Everybody round here says that I should have stuck with a Holley but to me a Holley seems to be just a little bit more complicated to operate. IDK that's why I was really asking. Thanks Anyway!

 

This has been a debate for a long time. There are good and bad points for each. My experiences have been as follows: the Holley works like a million bucks when you first pull it out of the box. Take it apart to re-jet or anything else, and they never run the same, even with Holley gaskets. Also, they are prone to leaks. The Edelbrock seems to be a re-packaged Rochester AFB and has all the failings, especially with the primary side jets and metering rods. The combinations are endless and the pistons can stick. Spend a weekend to get them tuned, and then leave them alone. In reality, and proven at the track, a Ford F-4 (aka 4100) will out perform a comparable Holley of 600-650cfm. If you have privy to the old specs, you can set one of these up specific to your application and they run beautifully. They don't leak, jetting is easy and if you're careful you don't need to replace gaskets, and they're not prone to dry-out and gasket shrinkage. However, they don't have choke pull-offs and can flood, they don't have idle speed solenoids for A/C, and the rebuild kits are getting hard to find. Pony Carburetors can speak volumes to these carbs and have made a business out of restoring them for Concours cars. I've had experience with more of these than I care to remember and still like them. As gfw1985 recommended, stay close to 500cfm to optimize performance. To size your carb correctly, the formula is simple: peak rpm times displacement (in cubic inches) divided by 3456 equals cfm at 100% volumetric efficiency (all she'll draw without forced induction). The peak rpm needs to be realistic and tempered by how much of the time is spent there (you don't drive at 5000rpm all the time). If the cam doesn't let her pull hard past 5000, why wind her up any more? Size the carb to the average rpm range of operation. Oversizing a carb is a common mistake. It's amazing how much better the intermediate throttle response is with a well sized carb. Your 302 can only draw ~437cfm at 5000rpm, normally aspirated. Re-calculate for 2500rpm (~218cfm) and you could use a motorcycle carb. No kidding, we tried this once. This formula came from an old, old issue of Hot Rod with an article called "The Hot Rodder's 10 Most Common Mistakes", and I'll bet you can guess what #1 was. Good luck and choose wisely.