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quadrajet replacement help

T

tankmfd

New member
i have had alot of problems with the 2 i have and want to go to a different carb, am i making a mistake. the two i have are very old and have been rebuilt many times. should i go holley and if any suggestions. or should i buy one of those rebuilt quads for 200-300. just dont want any more problems. thanks Greg
 
I changed both of my quads for Edelbrocks this summer , if you search it on this site you will find some excellent posts on installing them. I'm very happy with my installation and even picked up a few mpg. The install was fairly straight forward, but there are some hardware items that you will need to do the install , everything that you will need is listed in the post. Unfortunately , I found the post after I did mine but it turned out to be done the same way , so there's no need to re post the directions again. My carbs were the 1409 model and they cost me about 360 each,and they are brand new... if you have trouble finding the post message me and I'll detail it for you......Lee
 
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Some of us with larger cruisers would be tickled to death to see 3 mpg.
So if you're seeing a "few miles per gallon" increase, you are no doubt talking about a smaller boat.

I'm a Holley fan, so I'd have to suggest that if budget allows, go with the Holley spread bore replacement.

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Don't get me wrong, the Edelbrock is a good carburetor, I simple prefer the Holley.

That being said, I'd actually prefer to stay with the Rochester Quadrajet, and make them function correctly.
There are no new Q-jets, and have not been for years. So if you were to purchase a Q-jet, it will be a re-man'd carburetor.

There is an e-Bay seller under the name I-5 AutoRoca.
His name is Carlos.
I have reason to believe that Carlos would be good to deal with.

There is another seller "Carb C___ " on e-Bay....., his name begins with the letter "H"!
He does not take care of customer issues.
He has changed his seller name several times.... BE WARE!
I'd recommend steering clear of him.


I'd suggest that you not get overly anxious about CFM requirements.
Since we don't operate at high RPM, we typically do not require high CFM rated carburetors.
Here is a CFM calculator.
http://www.carburetion.com/calc.asp

Plug in your displacement in cubic inches, and your anticipated MAX RPM.
You'll be surprised at how little CFM will do the job.
Examples:
350 cu in @ 4k rpm requires only 344 cfm.
454 cu in @ 4k rpm requires only 446 cfm.



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leokow said:
I changed both of my quads for Edelbrocks this summer , if you search it on this site you will find some excellent posts on installing them. I'm very happy with my installation and even picked up a few mpg. The install was fairly straight forward, but there are some hardware items that you will need to do the install , everything that you will need is listed in the post. Unfortunately , I found the post after I did mine but it turned out to be done the same way , so there's no need to re post the directions again. My carbs were the 1409 model and they cost me about 360 each,and they are brand new... if you have trouble finding the post message me and I'll detail it for you......Lee
Click to expand...

Lee,

Did you mean to say that your fuel use went down by a few gallons per hour (GPH) and not that you "picked up a few mpg", where mpg is miles per gallon?

erich
 
One other thing if you go reman Qjets I would stay away from national carburetor. I bought a reman from them and it was spraying gas like there was no tomorrow. sent it back and the replacement did the same thing. (I suspect they just packed it up and resent it but no proof) I called them again and said "let me return it and I'll pay the difference and sell be the edelbrock" they said no, send that one back and we will fix it. finally I just gave up and bought the edelbrock from jeggs 1409 I think. I love it.
 
sammi said:
One other thing if you go reman Qjets I would stay away from national carburetor. I bought a reman from them and it was spraying gas like there was no tomorrow. sent it back and the replacement did the same thing. (I suspect they just packed it up and resent it but no proof) I called them again and said "let me return it and I'll pay the difference and sell be the edelbrock" they said no, send that one back and we will fix it. finally I just gave up and bought the edelbrock from jeggs 1409 I think. I love it.
Click to expand...
OK, in post #4 I mention this, but not as National Carburetor.
That may very well be one of his other seller names.
What was this man's first name ???
Did it begin with the letter "H"???
And was he based in California????

 
You may want to try calling cliff at cliffs high performance.com (remove the spaces). He really knows the Q-jets and the rebuild procedure he uses is MUCH more thorough than the 'factory's'. It isn't cheap but he will make you happy.

suggest you get the current rate and then compare that to the 1409's with all the additional parts needed. Suspect the cost will be very close.
 
Erich... What you said is what I meant to say, I gained just under 3 gal per hour, and my boat is a- 1990 31 Boston Whaler, with twin 454's. Sorry for the twisted up Philly slang and the typo mpg instead of gph. I've never had a lot of luck with re built carbs either in cars or boats, that's why I went for the new edelbrocks.
 
leokow,
when you say you are using ~ 3 gals less an hour... you mean that each engine is using ~ 1.5 gals less per hour. I am assuming that this is at your sweet spot at cruse on plane. What rpm is you sweet spot if I understand you correctly...

Thanks,
Scott
 
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Hey guys....this is the gas guzzling 454 that we have been posting about ad infinitum (6 pages worth) trying to find out what's wrong with her and after looking for water in the hull and a million other things, the carb change is the only thing that gave me any type of positive result. I've only had a chance to run her a couple of times since the carb change but in that amount of time she does get about 3 gph better than before the change, and that's over both engines at just under 3000 rpm, plus at wot she doesn't peg out the floscans any more ,they hold at around 25 gph, not great but at least now there's a reading and not a pegged out meter. I wouldn't do this change just for a gph increase alone, but if you're having other problems with what you have , then it was well worth it. They run perfectly. If you want , you can look at the previous posts during the whole month of november....Lee
 
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Lee, I'm sure that you know this ..... I'm just tossing it into the mix here.

I think that for any numbers to make any good sense to you, you're going to want to monitor your fuel consumption in MPG, and forget about GPH.
If all boats traveled at 10 mph, then GPH would makes sense in that all of us could compare these numbers.
But since GPH does not necessarily equate a distance traveled, the numbers are rather meaningless in terms of any comparison.
The exception to this would be if you are running at the exact same speed each time that you make your own comparison.

Just say'n.

So bottom line it looks you are seeing an improvement? That's excellent!

.
 
Rick...you're absolutely right, but all I was able to do to get any type of an idea was to compare my floscan readings at certain RPM 's from before the changes to what the readings are that I'm getting now. It is getting better but not quite there yet. I'm going to re-do all the testing,(timing, compression,etc) when I put her back in this spring....Lee
 
Hey Lee..

Fond memories in that post :) Hope your are getting what your looking for in the new carbs and as you know, they are capable of various tunings. This also means your are in the water ? Tommy has that place a bit more secured that previous years. I was always able to drive up to the boat and throw my 7 bags of tools on the swimplatform. Now I gotta bring a small wagon !
 
I, too, have wrassled with that MPG vs GPH debate. To me, it's all about how one is boating at the time.

If I want to get somewhee, then MPG is key, but if I just want to enjoy my time on the water, then GPH is more important.

Think about it.

Jeff
 
Jeff...Agree with you completely.

AL...Too many things growing legs down there lately, so the improved de-fences !! I'm one row deeper and about 4 or 5 in from the end, bow facing the marina,I think you're all the way at the other end in the first row. We'll run into each other one day down there I'm sure of it, especially once we start working on the boats for spring.......Lee
 
Another bow in first guy! We do the same thing. Easier on return to the slip, easy to "pole" the boat out, allows me to launch my dink off the stern, and we get to sit on the cockpit deck to enjoy the water views.

Jeff
 
sorry guys I have not been here in awhile the reman q jet I bought was from an outfit in jacksonville fla. not california.
 
Sorry Jeff, didn't mean to confuse anyone. My boat is on the hard, 1st. row, with it's bow pointed toward the marina and knuckles' boat is in the second row opposite end of the yard.....Lee
 
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