Holley or Edelbrock

I dropped the 351W in my old work truck yesterday.
I have everything buttoned up except the carb.
I have an old Motorcraft 4100 4v I was gonna use but I discovered some damaged parts after closer inspection. I can’t find the parts I need.
I decided on a new Holley 1850 or a new Edelbrock 1406.
I’ve only had one Edelbrock and had a hard time getting it right but it was good after that.
I’ve messed with Holley’s quite a bit.
What’s your opinion?

I would go with the Edlebrock,and get a strip kit with it.

You can fine tune it very easily.

Well,,I've messed with them Holleys back in the day and found them to be trouble free when you get em set,,but never had one that was too awful hard to get set right,,,

Did Edelbrock buy out them old AFB's,,? I think the AFB's were made by Carter, weren't they? Now, I really like'ed them AFB s ,,easy to get set right and they only knew one thing,,,and that was to go FAST,,!!!! LOL

I remember I used to have an aluminum dual four manifold with two AFB'S ,,that I bought thinkin it was for a SBC,,,come to find out is was for a 409,,!! Sold it for $110 at a flea market,,,,sob was worth bout $500 and prolly worth $1000 now,,,!!

Thad,,I gots a couple of Motorcraft carbs if you want,,I'll dig em up and see if they gots what you need and I'll send it to you,,,,, Clap

Never had good luck with the Holley. And they were excessively thirsty for me. Maybe I just didn't know how to set them.

'49 A-C WD, '51 A-C WD, '63 A-C D17 Series III, 1968 A-C One-Seventy, '82 A-C 6060, '75 A-C 7040, A-C #3 sickle mower, 2 A-C 701 wagons, '78 Gleaner M2

The edelbrock is a direct copy of the old carter AFB. They have a much better idle circuit and part power than the Holley if you get a strip kit they are very easy to tune. You can order one for your application and out of the box it'll run well and give you significantly better mileage than a Holley. The only thing I've found Holley good for was track use the power circuit is more tunable at WOT.

Originally posted by Brian Jasper co. Ia

Brian Jasper co. Ia wrote:

Mac's Auto Parts has the secondary lever. They're part of Eckler's now.

Do you mean kick down lever?

The only'ist thing I hated bout them holleys,,,is one backfire and you gots to go buy a new power valve,,,,,,,,,UMMmmm,,,,, lots of fuel IN means lots of HP,,,,,,, out,,,,? Wink

Everyone has experience with Holley POS! if they expected the engine to run properly for any amount of time.

Do the Edelbrock as suggested, you will be happy you did.

I support the development of hybrid automobiles and alternative fuels as I need DIESEL fuel for my ALLIS CHALMERS!

The most ignored issue with any carb is Anodizing. They are from the factory where Each and EVERY time they are cleaned with chemicals the old carbs lose a layer of their original anodized surface, Aluminum is Porous, the wheels on my 20 year old truck leak thru the rims as the applied coatings have eroded over years, carbs too are aluminum and porous until Anodized same for TBI units with plasticized coatings, clean those coatings away and they vacuum leak to a point uncontrollable as well non adjustable and NON Repairable.

https://cfc7329ad537523a5de1-b21544d490ba797ec9de9d17e947de3d.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/mustang-distributor-cap-rotor-adapter-kit-79-85-5-0_1a88582d.jpg

if like this then no

HTH B:-) Dnoym

Well,Thad,,,lookin like you're fixin to put a spark in the 351W pretty soon,huh,,?? Good Luck,,!!! Clap

I always did like this part of the whole thing,,,when it lights off after all the work,,!!! Clap

Thad,

Get yourself a piece of 5/16" brake line tubing and bend yourself a nice steel line to a small piece of flex hose to the Carburetor. Matter of fact, couldn't hurt to install an inline fuel filter to protect that shiny new Edelbrock! I'm coming into this conversation quite late, but I've rebuilt many a Holley 2 & 4 bbls over the past 50 years, and they had more issues then they were worth. Like Joe mentioned, run it a little to lean to try to get some mileage out of em' and one little backfire and "POOF" goes the power valve! Let the vehicle sit for more than a month or two without opening the hood to check things out before you start it and you turn your vehicle into a possible firebomb from the puddles of fuel on the intake manifold that leaked out of them damn metering blocks and down the side of the block on the exhaust manifolds!

Rebuilt a ton of Carter AFB's over the years, and they were simple, easy to adjust Carburetors. Since Edelbrock brought the rights to Carter many years back, their improvements with easy metering rod/jet changes, improved gaskets and a few other little upgrades, its made a nice Carburetor "great". I must admit though, I've recently wandered a little bit lately and picked up a Street Demon Carburetor for Jo Jo's 55' T-bird. I must admit, this Carburetor is just as easy to adjust and dial in as the Edelbrock/AFB is. I was quite impressed to say the least.

I even ventured a little more and went a little more "exotic" and on my latest "grocery getter" project for Jo Jo, I've moved to a pair of 45 DCOE Webers on the Vortec V6 that I dropped in her 67' Nova Station Wagon. For those youngin's that don't know what a Station Wagon is, it was the first SUV. I haven't fired the engine yet cause the exhaust system needs to be designed yet, but we're workin' on it. I got Jo Jo working on it to. Its been a 6 year project, but its almost there. Needs a windshield, exhaust, and the fluids put in it yet, but we're gettin close. I always wanted to try a set of Webers, so this should prove to be interesting. LOL! Been doing a lot of reading on them to learn how to dial em' in. We'll see.....

Steve@B&B

39'RC, 43'WC, 48'B, 49'G, 50'WF, 65 Big 10, 67'B-110, 75'716H, 2-620's, & a Motorhead wife

Street Demon! Ain't heard that name in YEARS! In fact have only seen one, and that was 30 yes ago.

Looking at the past to see the future.
'53 WD, '53 WD45, WD snap coupler field cultivator, #53 plow,'53 HD5B dozer

Duct tape.... Can't fix stupidity. But will muffle the sound of it!

the holly will just blow your gas out the tail pipe' the pipe will be wet all the time' my book there junk;

shameless dude wrote:

I spose the 15 gallon barrel mounted on top the cab with a steel line and petcock is outta the question then huh? shucks you can adjust the petcock by reaching out the winder as you drive! (poke,poke)

you don't be givin nobody any ideas like that,,!!!! LOL

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