A couple of years ago I bought an Edelbrock 600 carb at a swap meet to use on the 42 Chevy project. Since I just built the engine for it last week, it was time to rebuild the carb. When I tore it apart I noticed WEBER cast into the body of the carb. I guess Edelbrock must have Weber do the casting work on the carbs. Probably a good move on their part, that way they don't have the cost involved.
I don't think that is true anymore. Weber was making them in Italy for some time. I think they are locally produced now.
I have a dozen or so and some have Weber and some don't, all the kits are the same, AFB, Carter and Edelbrock
I don't know how old this carb is, but I bought it 2 or 3 years ago. I bought an Edelbrock kit from Speedway for it
Good carb design and has been around for a long time. They are pretty much trouble free and don't leak. Adjust the mixture screws and after it warms up and the choke is off, set the idle speed. Use a good external fuel filter and keep the pump pressure around 5# or a little less.
The kit should work just fine. ^^^ they are good carbs, I think the best Edelbrocks was when they were using Weber carbs. I think weber did the initial casting and Edelbrock did the final ***embly if I am not mistaken.
Out of the box, they work pretty good, not perfect for all combos, but with the booklet that comes with them as well as a plethora of replacement parts they offer, these are really hard to beat for a street engine. I don't know what they charge for the booklet, but I'd bet it's worth having if you plan on doing some parts swapping. I did learn one thing about them (at least the case with their earlier ones), the 600 w/elec. choke version is not just a manual choke 600 with an electric choke added. The manual choke version is internally set up with richer metering out of the box.
One thing about the edelbrock, other than fuel pressure, is that fuel boils in them easily. the float area is inside the carb, holley has the float bowls out in space, I've measured the fuel boiling in an edelbrock with 145deg temp on the intake manifold. To avoid this get a phonelic spacer under the carb, a 1/2" is all you need. An edelbrock is so trouble free it just takes up the space between the intake and air cleaner.
Mr. DD is correct. The electric choke versions are set up more for fuel economy. Manual choke and no choke versions are set up more for performance. And it's not just a jet or metering rod change, but it does help. P***ages inside the carbs are different. Also, it doesn't always help and sometimes hurts to take the choke plates out of these carbs. They are set-up from the factory to direct air across the booster ***ys. in a certain spot for the best performance.
I've used these carbs since they were the "New AFBs", by Carter. Just replaced the 650 Holley double pumper with an electric Edelbrock 600, notable performance deficit! BUT, (and it's a big one) this Edelbrock starts cold with a 1/4 turn at the flywheel...cranks for about 1 second...cold idle is smooth 'til choke releases, then it's so smooth you wouldn't know there's a 290* cam in there. (it does idle lopey...) But shifts are smooth, my wife drove it and asked, "Did you do the same thing to the truck that you did to Cisco?" Er...I had poor Cisco 'neutered'. But hey! The truck won't piss on the Galaxie any more...
J have used AFB carbs in the past and they are very simple to tune, much more reliable than Holley's, good economy too. I paid $20 for this one at a swap meet, beats the hell out of the $320 -$350 foe a new one.
X 2 A spacer is a must for these carbs, IMO. I used the cheapy plastic type on my Thunderbird. Heat soak was horrible without it. Would not start until it cooled off, once the car was up to operating temp.
That's not the carb's fault. It's a result of ethanol in today's gasoline (which ****s). Holley's suffer the same issue. Think about it: we never had this heat-soak problem with any carb 25 years ago...
Years ago I had an AFB on my 39 deluxe coupe with a 400 Pontiac and had fuel boiling problems. I got a heat shield that Ford used on 351 Windsor with Holley carbs in their pickups. That cured the problem on that car. I don't know if the heat shield is still available from Ford or not
I have a GM issue one on my small block, Eddy carb and performer intake, bought it in the 90's, not sure they are still available, I know many are available in the aftermarket.
I took all my Holleys off and sold them cheap. Put on Edelbrocks and didn't look back! Very pleased with ease of tuning and performance. I always remember my uncles 409/425 HP had two of them!
I too have had very good luck with them. I had one in a 66 impala with a 350 "r" code swapped from a fuel injected gmc w3500 cabover.
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