Holleys prettier? Not here. What was said before, Edelbrock-street, Holley-strip. Several weeks ago having carb conversations. One of my buddies saying his Holley hadn't been touched in 10 years, the very next day it cought on fire! Fires are one big reason I don't run them any more. Almost lost a '58 Corvette because of one. My experince with Edelbrock is bolt em on and go. I recommend to get the manual choke version and then put the electric choke on. The manual choke Edelbrock are jetted richer. The only time I ever had to rejet an Edelbrock was when I bought an electric choke carb, I had to richen it up. Just dynoed a newly rebuilt 396. The shop 750 Holley made 445hp. An out of the box Edelbrock made 440 hp. This will be for a street driven car and for 1.5% more peak hp I don't want the headaches of the Holley.
What Holley was it, modified, stock, cfm the same ? I had an Edelbrock catch fire once and it melted the foam filter. Last time I used a foam filter. All carbs will have problems if you run dirty fuel, dirty filters, no filters etc etc. Car Craft did a test on all carbs that were close to 750s and they all came realk close to each other out of the box on a dyno. A wide band O2 sensor is the way to go to dial any carb in. Never had a problem with my Holleys in 30+ years.
You know...this debate will never end. I went with an Edelbrock for my 330 Olds, and I found lots of chips/shavings. Grim. Couldn't get it to run for the life of me on my Olds so I pulled it. Switched to Holley and WOT was a world of difference. Of course, shortly after that I blew out the stock rear end on my Cutlass and wound up calling Currie for a 9 inch. All is well now. I like Holley by far. The stock Rochester was a pain in the a** to keep in tune. The Holley has been a rock. No probs for 6 or 7 months now. And excellent acceleration. For carburetion, it just depends on your particular application. Good luck.
I just went through all of this recently. I switched my 272 Ford Y-block from 2bbl to 4bbl. I went back and forth Holley or Edelbrock. Back in the day (early to mid 60's) I wouldn't have anything but a Carter 4bbl (AFB). I knew how to work on them. Holley's leaked like crazy and I could never get one to work right. Nowdays I don't know what I used to nor do I have the desire or patients to constantly fool with something. I asked here, I asked on Yblocks forever page, I asked on the classic Ford forum. I got all of the answers you have got here. But when I added them all up I chose a 390 Holley brand new out of the box from Summit. I bolted it on and fired it up. I adjusted the idle screw and haven't touched it since. It works well, the vacuum secondaires work good and the electric choke works fine and I think the mileage is going to be a lot better than the 2V although I think that will be more from the electronic ignition than the carb. I really doubt that it makes much difference if you get one new out of the box ...
For your application, either one of the carbs is going to get the job for you. It should run fairly well out of the box without much tuning issues at all. (Unless you really are at a different elevation, etc. etc.) For serious business though, I will modify a HP Holley all day long to run what I need. (As do most of the professionals in any Naturally Aspirated setup)
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