i have a carter carb on my 52 pontiac with a 400 ci out of a 74 popo car. keep it or lose it. i have heard both from local weekend wrenches. now i would like to hear from the experts. to keep or not to keep, that is the question.
Hey all, new guy here. I have run Holleys on everthing I've had for the last 30 years until last month when I put a set of dual Carter afbs on my wifes 289 mustang. Them babies are sure nice to tune. I have to admit they are less messy than holleys and seem to be more easily adjusted. I run two 700 dbl pmprs on ablown sbc in the willys and they are really a bithch sometme to make run. This is one hell of a sight. JL
carters are pretty solid. Q-jets and carters in general got a bad rap for awhile there, some problem with the late model carbs, can't remember what. I've got a q-jet on my 77 Chev truck. solid carb.
Not trying to start a firestorm ,but Q/Jets are a Rochester carb...as far as your question about Carter AFB's are really nice carbs...no bowl leaks ,easy to tune and stay in tune better than most...Last one I had was a 9625 on a SBC 283..rebiult it,tuned it in ,ran forever....when I sold the car ,I asked the buyer to sell the carb back to me if he ever changed it...so far 5 yrs and he still runs it the way it was...just $0.02 ..... Stan
Rochester got behind in production and Carter made some Q jets fo a while. I have a Carter Q jet that came off a Pontiac.
The Carters [like an Edlebrock ]are AFB and AVS....they are both excellent, easily repaired carburetors.... The Quadrajets can be either Carters or Rochesters... I prefer the Carter, in this spreadbore type carb as well-they're Excellent carbs.
Carters are real nice. I like my Holley, but a nice AFB or Q-Jet is a good way to go. The AFBs looks great too
Depends what you're planning on doing with the car. I've got a good buddy that builds and races big cube hemi pro-stock, and he basically lives with a dyno. He's done a heap of testing carbs, using the same mill but switching carbs to see the overall effects. The Carter AFB's work great, they only have one drawback. They are designed for more lower to mid range power, so the power curve for these carbs tends to flatline or start to fall off in the high rpm's. However, they are a great carb for cruising, gas milage, maintinance, and reliability. Don't get me wrong, I'm running 2 600 cfm AFB's on a weiand dual quad intake on my '59 Caddy's 390, and they work great. But if you're looking for all out performance with a four barrel, a Holley is probably gonna be your best bet. My .$.02.
Woops!!! My dumb*** typingfinger/brain connection had a major malfunction...What I meant to type was..".aren't Q/jet's a Rochester carb ?... " Anyhow thanks for the dust-up....Now I know....Stan
The Jalopy Journal
