Why do Edelbrock carbs look so bad so fast?

Every one Ive seen that is in a daily driver, especially a truck, looks like **** in a year. All black and pitted. A Holley still looks presentable 20 years later.

Any secret in getting them clean and staying that way?

 

No, but I can tell you the last one I did I clear coated....not sure how that'll last!

 

Mine looks like **** allready too but mine is mostley cause i got easy off oven cleaner all over it when i was cleaning my intake and it made it look like ****. Ive had some that were old that look good spray some windex on it and wipe it and that should clean it up

 

i think edelbrock carbs look like trash so fast because they are bare chrome thst simply been polished in one of those shaker machines, and dont have anything protective over the finish

if i ever bought a new edelbrock carb again, first thing i would do i pull it apart and give it a powdercoat finish, if i ever wanted a used one to look good again id plobably soda blast it, clean it spotless and give it a primer / paint job, or powdercoat it

 

last year I bought 2 holley street avenger 670s. I put one on a car (car isnt finished, carb has never been used, always covered) and the other is still in the box. A year later the boxed one looks the same, but the other one on the car, never used mind you, looks alot less than new. The chrome finish seems to have lost alot of shine and oxidized or something. And this car is always in a temperature controlled shop and never exposed to any sort of elements or even a change in temperature.

I havent tried polishing it yet, and hopefully it will polish up.

Who knows.

 

I thought those carbs were just polished aluminum... Not chrome. A guy in my club runs one on his g***er, and it started looking rough after not too long on the car. I think the older Holleys are made from zinc, which probably oxidizes differently...

Just my 2 cents,
Flatman

 

my first REAL Boss was a BMW engineer that grew up in NAZI Germany. Anything that was aluminum was sprayed with WD40 and wiped down on a regular basis. We kept jugs of WD in the Shop....

 

what are you guys doing to them to make it look ****py? i've had one on my `28 tudor for at least 12 years and it looks like new...the one on my `36 has been on for 4-5 years and also looks like new

 

they all look fine down here in dry warm AZ....

Holleys were always plated zinc, so they didn't oxidize. The Edelbrocks are (somewhat) polished aluminum, and the Carter AFB is raw aluminum.

 

I don't think the quality of the aluminum that they are cast from is as good as the old AFBs were, hence, it oxidizes at a faster rate.

 

Holleys and Edelbrocks always look good to me. But my Barry Grant 650 looked like hell a month after I put it on, before the engine was run. It looked dusty and slightly pitted. I never liked that damned thing.

 

Mine has been on the 35' for four years and still looks like new.

 

Soooo...your saying WD in WD40 stands for "World **********"?

I thought it stood for Water Displacement!!! Who knew!?!?

 

Okay -


The basic Holley carb is treated with a coating which essentially seals the carb and give it the characteristic greenish/gold hue. I believe if you do a web search on carb coatings, you'll find the coating is available for restorers.

Most carbs are diecast from base metal (zinc) which is one of the less noble metals. A polished zinc part can be as shinly as chrome; a corroded one will be a blackish grey. My suggestion is to locate the carb coating - and use it B4 the cab gets all gooky!