So my car, and carb are having alot of problems. i know right off the bat my choke doesn't work. i know its the choke thermostat. i put a new one on but it still doesn't work properly. i don't know if i did it wrong or what. basically my question is, i have a rochester quadrajet already on it...and from what i hear that's about as close to fuel injected as it gets, and that its a very good carb to have...but also a pain in the butt to rebuild. and i'm pretty sure i'm due for a rebuild. i do what work i can on my own cars but i don't think tearing apart my carb is a good idea since I've never done it before and apparently these kind are no walk in the park. I saw the same carb on craigslist for 50 bucks which is way cheaper and quicker than a rebuild, they said its been off for about 4 months and in a box, and it worked great on their truck before they took it off. should i buy it and save my time and money? or if im going to replace it is there a better carb i can use that's street legal in california? or should i just save for a rebuild...i was going to buy an edelbrock that's not street legal and just put the old one back on for smogging, but it still wouldn't fix my old one which probably wont pass smog anyways, plus i heard quadrajet is about as good as it gets.

 

q-jets are one of those things ya eather hate it or ya love it, if you can get them tuned they are great all around street carbs i've even seen some people have good luck on the dirt track with em, but with a carb that sat off a vehicle for 4 months....i would personaly rebuild it anyway, imho i would rebuild the one ya got (or have someone that knows how rebuild it for you) i like the q-jets myself but lots of people dont, a good holly or edelbrock would do ya good to, but its honestly up to you....i say rebuild the stocker

 

The factory Qjet is the only carb you can use that's street legal in California. There are no others.

The Qjet isn't any more difficult to repair or rebuild than any other carb.

 

Yeah thats kinda what i thought to, me and my brother were just going to buy a rebuild kit and try it ourselves, but i wanted to see what everyone else thought about it, and if it was really so hard to do.. thanks for the help, i guess ill try my luck rebuilding...only one way to learn right?

 

i would recommend gettin a how-to book from like autozone or something, they are easy to mess up......but once ya get the hang of it they are easy to rebuild

 

thanks for the advice, ill do that. im kinda expecting it to be a little tougher than I'd like, but if it doesn't work out I'll just try it again.I'll get it eventually, that's how i learned all i know so far, even if it didn't happen on the first try....or second...or third...or....nvm lol. don't the rebuild kits come with instructions though?

 

is the Carb electronic? if not Edelbrock I think does make 50 state legal carbs...


BTW, I hate E4ME Carbs...

 

yeah im pretty sure its electric....i found out electric parts don't have as many after market parts as the older vaccuum line ones that are legal whats an E4ME?

 

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/carb...e-rebuild.html



My carbs, could never get accurately tuned... bought remanufactured ones too... they were remanufactured by Holley... had them also rebuild by reputable shops, but to no avail... every couple of years I had to cough up about 1-1.5 K dollars on parts and stuff in order to comply with the sniffer test, 2005 was the last year I drove it, I ran out of money, in addition fuel was too expensive, I have to pump premium, otherwise it'll ping, did I mention my gas mileage at the time was anywhere from 10-12 mpg...

 

wow...this sounds all too familliar...ESPECIALLY the gas mileage..my mileage sucks! but yeah..when my carb DID work...it was great. but most of the time its alot of problems for me.

 

I've had it with the Carb setup.... Fuel Injection will go in soon... right now the only decision I must make is whether to go with speed or maf... I'm thinking Maf, but not sure yet... I have access to both setups...

 

by access do you mean you are able to try both before you use them, or is it one or the other? cuz if its both sounds like its a good deal to me

by the way once you try fuel injection, let me know what you think of it compared to a carb, because i've been thinking about doing the same

 

They belong to my Brother-In-Law.... he has no use for them... I've just been reading about both systems.... the MAF system has a larger scale built in that it can adjust its parameters to a modified engine, while speed has to get a custom tune to wreak the full potential of your engine... well at least that's how I interpret the data I read on these two setups... ultimately though, I will go with the setup that allows me to run FI with the least minimal modification in order to be able to pass the sniffer test... for example if one of the setups requires dual cats, well, I don't know exactly how I would be able to fit dual cats on my car .... ..

 

Lol yeah thats true

 

I have a 1986 El Camino with the CCC Quadrajet. It has been rebuilt and set up for the car. I get 20+ mpg on the highways in New Mexico at 65 mph. It works well for a stock engine just fine in my case. YMMV
Craig

 

Id disagree the CC qjet is probably one of the hardest carbs to rebuild and you need special tools as well.

 

The most difficult carb I've ever worked on was the WCFB Carter that came on the '57.

The E4ME is a breath of fresh air in comparison, even with the "special tools" needed to work on it.

Last fall, my Camaro was taken on a 1500 mile round trip, with 5 passes down the 1320, ran 13.4, averaged 23 MGP on the trip (including the 5 passes). I know, LS1 owners will scoff at those numbers, but not bad for a vehicle I did nothing to other than add gas and swap highway rear tires for DOT slicks.

 

I havent rebuilt a WCFB so I cannot say, you have me wanting to find one now though!

 

Go for it. 385 CFM 4bbl wonder.

 

A 385 CFM wonder that weighs almost 20 lbs, too. They couldn't even decide if they were going to make it out of cast-iron, aluminum or zinc, so they just used all 3.