Needin' some HAMBer help! What I'm dealing with is a 289 with a Holley 4bbl 600cfm (vacuum secondaries) 4010 series carb sitting on a Edelbrock Performer in my girlie's Ranchero. I'm not super savy when it comes to these Holleys, are theys cool or ****? It seems to need a rebuild, it looks kinda tore-up and the car sometimes stalls out at stop lights, but runs killer when you're moving... smooth-like, plenty of power, even sounding. No amount of idle/mixture screw tinkering or vacuum leak detective work has solved this problem yet. I guess my main question is should I rebuild this thing or get something else??? Is there the perfect carb for a stock SBF? Should I keep my induction ALL Edelbrock? Any and all suggestions greatly appreciated!!!
Holleys are nice, and the vacuum secondarys are really cool for cruising around, but a lot of people tend to believe that they need almost constant adjustments. Edelbrock is said to be a set it and forget it carb. Its up to you, but I would just rebuild the thing unless the body is messed up.
I have a 4160 600cfm vacuum secondairy holley on a 302 with an edelbrock intake. Bought it at a swap meet with the manifold, rebuilt the carb, and it's been good to me for a long time now.
BUMP!!! I'm kinda suprised this isn't getting more responses, I know alot of you HAMBers are runnin' 289/302's. Thanks again! newstranger
If the bottom plate with the shafts and ****erflys isn't worn, that leaves float settings, needle valves, and power valves. A kit and some knowledge should fix it. If no adjustments change the low speed, I would look for bad float valves or improper float settings. If the power valve is ruptured, strange things happen also. Obviously, you need to look every where for vacuum leaks. The basic theory behind carbs is that the engine vacuum tells the carb what to do. If anything distorts the signal, it's confused. As far as a holley being a bad carb, no. If you don't know the history of it, you're at a disadvantage in determining what happened to cause the problem. If you don't find anything, look at the distributor and the rest of the ignition.
i've got an edelbrock 600cfm on my '63 ranchero with a 302 and it seems to be to much sometimes. everyone i talk to usually tells me it is too much carb for a stock 302, and that usually sbf work better with a smaller carb?? but who am i to argue, it was a brand new FREE carb my buddy let me have that was sitting around =)
The nice part of the edelbrock carb is that they are pretty much out of the box bolt on and go.If the 600 seems too much then get a spring kit for it, install shorter springs as there are 5 differant sizes in the kit and then set your adjustments.I've set up many carbs for guys that couldn't get there's just right as well as my own with no problems.It may take a few trys to get it right but the Edelbrock is worth it in my opinion.Great response trouble free and no power valves as in the Holley.
Holley's are, IMHO, simpler carbs than the Edelbrock/Weber/Carter contraptions - of course, I'm biased because I cut my teeth on Holleys - it boils down to what you know & are familiar with, so you'll hear both sides... Something that will cause you nightmares on any carb, but Holleys are very succeptible to, is the idle air bleeds. These are the small br***-looking orifices on the top of the carbs facing up - they will be adjacent to the bowl vents on either side & there should be two on each side. Make sure they're clean & only use soft plastic or a toothpick to clean them - use plenty of carb cleaner here. Rebuild your Holley, set the ballpark (good enough for most) float level by holding the bowl upside down & adjusting until the top of the float (now on the bottom) is level with the top of the bowl (also now on the bottom). Clean everything very well, don't use anything metal to s****e the gaskets off - soak well. They're pretty simple carbs, but not as forgiving of tuning errors as the "square" carbs...
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