Where and what companies have good prices and reps for a cc carb for my 1987 firebird. Car is bone stock and loaded with all options I want to keep it that way for now. It is in great condition and ever button works on it. Cold ac baby.

Its good to be hear I have been into 3rd gens for awhile. Ill try to post some pics. My comp skills suck but Im learning.

 

Its best to learn how to rebuild and do it all yourself.

The cheapest I saw remanned CCC q-jets was $500...freakn rip off. And they're not always done right.

I would just watch the pick-n-pulls for any cc q-jet and overhaul it all yourself.

 

Yup, since they were only built to go on new cars, by only ONE source, and new cars haven't come with em for over 25 yrs now, they're pretty thin on the ground.

While I strongly approve of your desire to keep that part of the car original, you're probably just going to have to learn how to maintain the one you've got, rather than looking to just replace it with new.

 

http://www.nationalcarburetors.com/cat-chevycar.html

I bought a 2bbl carb for a 4.4L V8 for my friends el camino, to keep it stock. They have relatively good prices and test their rebuilt carbs, with the specs written on a tag when shipped. They have computerized q-jets on the bottom of the site: E4ME and E4MC. Whichever one fits your car, it's going to be 230 ish w/out core.

 

Has it stopped working?

I would keep the one you have and send it off to Cliff Ruggles at "Cliffs High Performance" to have it rebuilt...or learn how to do it yourself. I sent mine to cliff and it ran $485 to rebuild the one for my 84. don't forget, evenafter you get it back, you'll still need to tune it to the motor.

Jet Performance sells them, as does Cliffs High Performance as opposed to having it rebuilt.

 

Man do I feel like a dumb *** now. The problem I was having with my 87 firebird with the 305 ccc was it would run fine under 2500rpm then it would hit a brick wall. It would not rev past 2500rpm and start surging and you could hear the engine pinging alittle like the timimg wasn't coming up. You could also hear the 4 barrel trying to kick in but it would not pick up. Well luckily the mechanic I had looked at it was honest and it was the catalatic converter was completely clogged up. He put a smaller after-market one on it and it runs like a champ. It was so clogged up and broken apart on the inside the car was silent even though when I bought the car in may the guy just had a brand new flowmaster cat back system 2.5 in installed on it and they didn't replace the cat. Im sure it was the orginal. The second I fired it up I could tell by the sound and tone she ws ready to rock.

 

Enjoy it.

I always replace the O2 sensor and check the timing when I find a bad cat. They never die, but they can be murdered. Bad timing and bad A/F ratio (thanks to a bad O2) are the usual long-term culprits.

I had an "internet friend" stop by with his CC-Dual Jet (front half of a QJet) equpped V6 Malibu stop by a couple years ago with similar symptoms. Thing was so down on power it was dangerous to drive it in normal traffic. We temporarily uncorked the Air-Injection tubes and suddenly it was almost normal- I know at once what was going on. Like you, we discovered a destroyed cat. Put a cheap universal-replacement on it and it was completely fixed. Computer scans showed the fuel trim was way out of whack, however. Installed a fresh O2 and they came right back to normal. If he had run it without replacing the O2 it's almost certain it would have destroyed the new cat in only a few thousand miles.

Don't just look at the obvious problem. Usually it's caused by a less obvious problem.

 

Thanks for the info Damon. I will replace the o2 sensor this week and will check the timing. Respect.