Man, I waited too long to buy one of these. Now that I'm really planning on using one, they're 550 bucks from Jegs. I remember when summit had em for 350 when I coveted them back in high school. I might as well buy a new demon for that money. Anyways, anyone know where I can get one for cheap? I put up an ad on the classifieds. Also, if anyone has anything to say to discourage me from using one of these on a somewhat mild 355, give me the straight shizzle. I knew a guy back in the day who ran one on his 283- powered Chevelle and it ran freaking awesome. I'm lazy and hate tuning (even though I know how to do it), so I think they're the carb for me. I prefer dealing with mechanical things that are big and dumb and have few moving parts, and I'm willing to sacrifice things like driveability and gas milage in order to have that.

Thanks

James

 

I'd be lying if I said I had any hands on experience with them, but I've always heard that they don't do very well at idle and especially off idle. Especially on mild/small motors. Basicaly a strip only item.

 

I've heard the same thing, Jester, but I've never known of anyone who had one (who ran it on the street) and didn't love it. In fact, I've never known of anyone who ran a predator strip-only. This is a big checkmark in the plus column for me. This guy who owned the Chevelle drove his damn car to school everyday with the Predator. I do have to admit that part of the appeal is the novelty, but I do seriously want all opinions before I lay down the cash.

 

Jester: For the longest time that was the main problem with Predators - they had NO idle circuit. Now they have a "Street Carb" which supposedly solves this problem. The concept behind them sounds really cool but I wouldn't want to make a $500 mistake when I could buy something I know works great and is trusted (Holley!)

For those who don't know about Predators heres the concept ( http://www.predatorcarb.com )... The pred has a variable venturi design which means it only flows the cfm it needs at any givin RPM (based on air demand) so its never over or undercarbed. This means, so they claim, that you could slap this carb on a stock 350 and the only adjustment you'd have to make is the "fuel metering cam." Then you could pull out your 650HP small block equiped car and drop the same carb on it (and still only adjust the fuel cam)

JRoy91RS: These carbs are designed for wild(er) engines that idle at higher RPMs and have loose torque converters. Unless your motor idles at 1200RPM and you have a 3000+ stall this carb will probably run like CRAP. and I mean CRAP, below 3000RPM. Another issue you'd have is your TV cable you'll need to fabricate your own bracket for it.

 

we have like 5 of those hanging around the shop......cause if anyone remembers...they were the thing to have on monster trucks before we all started using injection.....because they would run at huge angles and upside down.

 

Ive used one on the street many times. Ive had it on the 305 and a 350. If it wasnt because of the high price for this carb I would be using these two on top of the blower instead of the carters. I actually sold the predator to buy two carters and some parts for the blower.

Ill tell you they run bloody great and they are my favorite as far as carburetors go. If you got a good cam in there it will run great.

Torque is killer!! gas sucks a little. Its designed to run at 12.5 or so throughout the band. So gas is comparable to a DP Holley. If you get a 6000PXI carb with the idle circuit (like the one i had). It can idle down to 600-700rpms with ease.

The older units did have a hard time idling any lower than 1000,1200rpms. These uniits are for racing only though.

Adjustment is easy. you get three metering cams in the box. The first is good for about 350hp or so the next one for 450 or so and the third, dont nobody want to use the third you need all sort of fuel bowl extensions for that.

Anyways its a great carb and once you understand how it works tuning it is so easy it makes tunning holleys look like prom programming

 

I'd like to see some side-by-side comparisons Predators vs like a Holley HP series. I think theres gotta be a reason hardly anyone runs them ...I've never seen one at a track

 

ive seen them at the track before, rarely though......

no one uses them cause hardly anyone knows anything about them....they are great in certain applications....would i use one on motor? i might, i've thought about bolting one on a few times to try it...just havent done it yet.

theres nothing really wrong with them, but when people see a weird square lookin thing, they think, hey thats not what a carb is supposed to look like......and the air demand design scares people cause they're used to having to size the carb right on....never seen a dyno comparison done though.

i'll tell you though, they ran great on monster trucks, and we were using some big cubes back then too, so the things can feed the air and fuel

 

I've never seen one at a track either, but I'm really considering giving it a shot. I'm going to have to think about how to fab up a TV cable bracket. Maybe I can use my old TBI bracket or adapt it somehow. I'm just worried about getting the geometry right. About how much taller are they than, say, a Holley 4150 or 4160? (I need to know how big a cowl hood I'm going to need

Oh, and 383backinblack, you say you have "5 of them hanging around the shop". If any of them are the street version, would you be willing to sell one? Thanks.

James

 

There is a reason why nobody uses the predator. They suffer from manifold sensitive losses.

The standard linkage on the predator lends itself to be bolted on wrong. If you bolt the carb with the linkage to the drivers side like most normal carburetors it will have problems with fuel distribution. Most people dont know this and drop them in like most carburetors and end up loosing some power.

Now you get yourself a single plane intake flip the linkage to the back or front get a bell crank so the linkage ends up where it needs to be. Maybe tune with some carb spacers. and the beuty of this is that it will not give up much torque over a dual plane and it will go like a mad man up top. Ive even seen them on tunnel rams and the carbs design makes the tunnel ram actually drivable.

If you look at a predator from underneath you will understand why in some cases it might have a fuel distribution problem. I would not even try it on a dual plane without a spacer and not in the right direction. The separator will actually line up with fuel nossle(NOT GOOD). Now you flip and use a spacer and damn.

I will bet this that if you get an out of the box holley vs. a predator (installed correctly) it will outperform it unless the holley has been "profesionally" tunned. They did a test on this in Chevy high performance and the predator sweept Holley ***. (installed right)

Im not talking out of my *** here ive actually talked with the owner of predator a couple of times, nice guy the operation is actually not very big. (they close for lunch). Oh yeah they are now working on a 1500cfm or bigger version. Making dominators look like little tiny babies

 

Thanks for all the knowledge, AFB. I read the enitre online manual at predator's website before I decided to go for a predator. They do recommend at least a 1" spacer if you're using a dual-plane AND their bell crank so that the fuel bowl will face forward. I wonder how well it would do with Weiand's Xcelerator manifold with a spacer? Hopefully I will be able to find out soon.

 

speaking of other types of carbs... what about those 99.00 proform add ons that you take apart 14 screws on your holly and swap main bodies... is there a big advantage to this?
i would think in warm wheather it would be ok but in cold weather it would suck