ok who all runs them and are they the way to go for a 4 barrel. what is the difference between the performer series and the thunder series? its going on a SBC double hump heads and a mild cam. also, i am looking at a couple of breathers and does anyone have one handy to measure the neck diameter, is it 5 1/8 ?
I just put a rebuilt Edlebrock 600 CFM on my 283. It is like a new motor. I dig the thing and recomend it. Power and mileage vastly improved over the busted down Carter AFB I had on her.
I have a 600 as well, and love it. Basically, Edelbrocks are known for just plain working well right out of the box. I have heard that Holleys are the way to go if you like to tune and tweak a lot, and that Edelbrock is if you just want it to work good right away. You can tune Edelbrocks, but I just have never done it because it works good already and there are too many other things I gotta do to my heap.
i agree that unbox and go is the way! what about the thunder/perfomer diffs? all i can gather is the thunder is a higher performance carb but its not real clear.
I've got Edelbrock Performers on a few things, I like them. They are the best compromise between tunability and usability to me. I really like Quadrajets but they can be a bear to tune. As for the Road Demon if you go that route call them up and order it direct, they'll set it up for your motor...
I think that the Thunder is a larger CFM for performance applications? For instance, the Performer can be had in 600cfm, but the Thunder comes in a 750cfm? From talking to the guys at the parts store, I came away thinking that the Thunder was much more of a dragging type carb, and that for street the Performer was the way to go.
I like Demon carbs too...but I just put an Edelbrock 500 cfm on my 315 hemi and it runs perfect out of the box. For a mildly built 350, a 600 or 650 cfm carb works great...if it's under 327 cubes...probably go with a 500 cfm. I've dealt with Holleys in the past...and it seemed like I was constantly adjusting the floats when the temperature outside would vary more than 20 degrees in Florida. I know the Demon carbs are just better versions of a Holley...they have clear sight plugs which are nice, but you can get them for a Holley...the big thing is they have billet metering blocks which work better than the pot metal or whatever they were Holley uses. By now though...they've mostly eliminated power valve issues. But if you want a streetable carb that is no fuss out of the box and works fine all day every day...go with an Edelbrock. If you want tunability for draggin' or something...go with a Demon. Stay away from 70's era Rochesters and Quadra-junks. Old 50's and 60's Carters work well when rebuilt...in my opinion.
I like the Edelbrock AFB so much I run two on the 57 with straight linkage. They are easy to adjust, but for most applications out of the box will work fine. If you need to tune it just buy the calibration kit they sell, between that and the book that comes with the carbs they are easy to tune. Once they are set you're good to go. No constant adjusting like other carbs. The "new" thunder series AVS is only new to Edelbrock, Carter made that as well as the AFB years ago. The AVS was used on alot of late 60s early 70s Mopars from the factory. It has an adjustable secondary valve, in my opinion not needed. Just go with the AFB. I'm also running two 500cfm Comp. Series Carter carbs also with straight linkage on an off topic car, I bought them both new back in the 70s when Carter was still Carter, and they work great as well. I've only had to freshen them up with carb kits just resently. Alot of people on the net like to say Edelbrock for every day driving, Holley etc. for performance. I think if one AFB is not enough, run two!
Yes! I run a freshly rebuilt Carter 625 (same design as an Eddy) with electric choke on my 350 SBC. It's got a Performer intake, 461 "double-hump" heads with bigger valves, L79 (350 HP/327 cid) cam, hypereutectic pistons, 9.25:1 compression, block-hugger headers and an MSD ignition. It runs out of breath @ 5500 RPM, but makes a very nice street motor. Hope this helps.
I run an 800cfm Edelbrock on my 455 and love it, it is very streetable and starts the engine well when cold. BUT, it looks too modern and doesn't fit the old school look well in my opinion. The Road Demons are BEAUTIFUL carbs, they look much better, the air horn on the primaries is removed (no choke function) and the plenums are soo cool looking, they are more for racing and probably wouldn't be as streetable. I think the Thunder series have a new power valve blow out protection built into the design for one thing, but not sure what else differentiates them from the others.
I ran a 600cfm Edelbrock with electric choke on a 302 I had, it ran great, never had a problem with it. To me it was easy to mess with as I am used to Carter AFB's on Mopars and they are almost identical.
it sounds like the easy was to go w/ the best results is the 600cfm edelbrock performer for everywhere driving and a little fun at stop light times. i agree the look of the demons is cool but the cost seems higher.
My understanding of the Thunder series vs. Performer series is the Thunders have ajustable secondaies, so you can tune when the secondaries come in. Plus they have black hardware instead of the typical gold-cad plated, which is good for another tenth in the quarter. From Edelbrock's site:
Are you going with a singe carb? We were talking about 2x4 setups last weekend. I got a little distracted with the chick brawl landing in my lap, and we never finished talking. I use two Edelbrock 500's, with their manifold and linkage. Works great. The only issure I have is that the manifold puts the carbs real close together and limits your cleaner options. Were we talking about cam choices? What did you decide?
yeah, i forgot alot of the evening. i am just weighing everything out. (money) to be honest i dont remember the cam talk :\ but i am sure you gave me good advice!
my expierence..... When they work they are great!!! But when they dont toss em and bet a demon!!! I have one on my sbc and it worked great for 6 months but it sucks now so im gettin all my stuff to bolt on my 6x2 intake with 6 ford 94's on it!!! good luck
I have a 77 suburban with a 454 that my daughter drives. Having to get it emissioned turned into a nightmare. Had the Q-jet rebuilt, failed. Put on a rebuilt Holley, failed. Bought a used edelbrock and stuck it on. Just adjusted the idle speed and it passed. Passed again this year without doing a thing to it for a year but drive it. Anybaody want to buy some Holleys? jerry
Edelbrock 600 is probably a great carb out of the box if you live near sea level. It's the most altitude sensitive carb I've ever run tho. When I leave Idaho Falls at 4900ft, climb over a 6500 ft pass into montana and wind up at 2700 ft in north Idaho it's like I'm driving 3 different cars. It boggs off the line when it's cold and humidity makes a MAJOR difference. I run up the same onramp every morning on the way to work. Humidity change between 30% and 80% makes a 5 to 10 mph difference on the speed I reach at the top of the ramp on consecutive days at the same time. I swapped out the metering rods and jets for those Edelbrock reccomends for my altitude and my mileage on the freeway went up from 10 to 12 mpg to 12 to 14 mpg. This is in a chevelle with a performer cam and 2.73 rear. I'm NOT impressed. It does however run great when I'm in california.
Performer comes in 500, 600, 650, and 750 that I know about.... I think you are confused, the Road Demon has a choke, maybe you're thinking of the Race Demon or Speed Demon... Sounds like there's more than the carb to blame if the engine just started getting crappy after 6 months...
If the stuff was Chrome, it would be even quicker! As for the adjustable secondaries, I think it would be most useful if you had a particularly heavy or particularly light car. My guess would be that Edelbrock prolly sets up the carbs (Performer & Thunder) for the medium-weight cars, so most muscle cars and post-war to mid-50s cars would land in this category. However, I wouldn't mind having the ability to experiment with that on my 52... just not sure if it's worth the extra coins to do so... Mind you, all this is my own uneducated speculation, so take it with a grain of salt.
I totally agree with the elevation! I live in Reno Nevada where its 45-4700 feet above sea leavel and it seems like sluggish sbc but.... when I shoot down the mountain to say Sacramento Or that Bay Area it runs like a kick ass car..
I would take a demon any day, but they are a lot more money. Thus I run edelbrock on every thing. The only thing that i have noticed as a problem, when the engine is warm I gotta put it to half throttle to start it. kinda like it floods itself. I have had 3 different ones do this so I dont think its an adjustment thing. But thats not enough of a problem for me to hate them!
Edelbrocks work great, but don't let them sit. Both of the 600's I have on my 2 Mopars have sat, the truck for the summer and the 300 for 2. They both are giving me tuning fits! One leaks out the top like the float is stuck, the other won't hold an idle. One day it's right, the next it's at 1500 RPM. I guess I've been spoiled by fuel injection. Jay
I've got an Edelbrock 600cfm on my 312 yblock. Pulled it outta the box, bolted it on and off I was. I picked up 2 more mpg(When you're only getting 10 to the gallon, 2 is a nice jump), it's a cinch to tune and have had no problems with it. RRR
Never had one, but isn't the Edelbrock carb basically the same as a Carter? I have a 625 Carter on my Riv, and they look identical.
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