I've got a factory origonal (replaced with OEM Reman unti) Q-jet 4 barrel on a 1987 305 motor, electric choke. was wondering what vacuum lines i can do away with? its got a bunch of "garbage" looking lines and controls (say "Rochester controls" on them). makes the engine compartment look really cluttered for a carb motor. any suggestions???

this is how cluttered it is. can i get rid of some of this?

They go to several places. They are sometimes deleted by people trying to simplify their set-up on an non-street or track car (emmissions states will want you to have those).

As I understand and count there should be about 8 vacuum connections off your carb. One is to the charcoal can to capture evaporated gas (saves you gas), another to the PCV with a line off that to the TVI switch which only opens vacuum on a cold engine (80 degrees and below) to allow faster internal preheat of the carb, another to an EGR valve control switch which allows EGR to feed gas from cat converter and keep engine temp lower (you should keep that one), one goes to the thermac on the snorkle for a/c filter (nice on cold days), two provides vacuum to accessories, one to your primary choke pull off, one to your brakes.

If you have an original set-up please post some pictures before deleting vacuum lines. The previous owner of my car put in a new short block while back before I bought it. It'd be great to have a coup;le pictures to compare my vacuum lines, espicially those ones connecting to the Rochester parts.

pic posted. the line to the evap can gets "spliced" into another line. thought about doin away with that and just running sraight to the can. i also plugged the line for aor cleaner. not sure if i should leave it plugged or pen it up. no emissions worries here

ya, I seen the splice to another line. I'd suggest keeping the air cleaner plugged in cause it saves you gas and no performance loss. I cleaned up around my carb by bringing some of the vacuum lines to the front. this leaves carb intact as designed and allows little more air around my carb.

Mine is more like scooter500s. mine's an 84, though, and doesn't have the EGR lines. some of the stuff is also closer to the charcoal canister, an doesn't really draw any attention, so you could try relocating a bunch of stuff. if you end up ditching the lines, though, put on an open element. i think having the snorkel unpluged may somewhat choke out the engine; either that, or it does the opposite: "disables" it's purpose for cold start, and so you might as well have the open, just for the better breathing. mine fires right up in the cold, and it has an open element. it was below 0 the other day, too. here's some pics of my engine.

Does it soak in heat with an open element?

I don't really know what you mean by "soaking in heat". It did idle a bit rough when I first put it on, but does just fine now. I think the computer adjusted to the airflow or something. The main reason I put it on is that I painted the engine and put the chrome valve covers on. The snorkel would have hit the valve covers and kept the air cleaner from sealing. That, and it wouldn't have looked good with everything else repainted. It has become a bit louder, and gas mileage in the summer went up 1-2 mpg city. I use a KN air filter. One other thing I did was revove a small section of the weather stripping from the back of the hood. I don't know if it did anything, though, at least not from what I could notice.

so ive done away with most of those lines, i kept a line going to the evap canister, but i used a single line instead of like 4 different lines all spliced together. i also ran a loop between the other two line (between the rich/lean adjust screws). throttle response appears to have gotten better. :-)

no need to go and start hacking them off unless it is not running right or emissions equipment is broken or partially missing


removing this stuff simply for looks is not the right way to go about it unless you know what youre doing


ports on the carb and on the charcoal canister and such are labeled with a capital letter



the emissions label under the hood will show you all the equipment and hoses and routing

each vehicle is different, there were many different variations of hose routings and equipment levels even within the same year and model and drivetrain

many factors involved here to determine what vehicle did or didnt get a piece of equipment or hose or so on

kool though you might want to box those lines up and keep them for later in case you change your mind. the evap can gas vapors from tank and from the carb. when the carb is warm that when the carb wants to suck those vapors in and burn 'em (= free gas). I think there is three vapor/vacuum lines/relays between your carb and the charcoal canister, the extra lines/relays have to do with that sort of thing (help me here senior carb dudes). anyway, if mpg goes down it could be those vacuum lines

fuel mileage is bad enough, considering its got 21 year old plugs, wires and cap and rotor on it...... as per the other suggestions, emissions stuff is pretty well gutted, i cant stand some damn clutter in my engine compartment because of some BS emissions crap. the label under the hood is gone, wasnt there when i got there, prolly from never being wiped off, hell the rest of the car never seemed to be, i guess nobody told this guy about waxing your car or even taking care of the body. oh well, thats all being done now ;-) but yea, thottle response seems to work way better now, and i kept an inline filter in the line going from the carb to the evap can, incase it picks up some junk in its travels ;-)