hey everyone, I need to pick out a carb for my new engine, and I wanted to see what you all think I should run. The engine is a 350 4 bolt main, .030 over. forged pistons, torker intake, some re-done heads from the speedshop, headers. would a holley be better to run than an edelbrock? on my 305 i got an edelbrock performer 600cfm. also, do i want to run mechanical secondaries or vacuum? the car is mainly gonna be driven on the road, not too much at the track, but i wanna make sure i dont lose at the stop lights either, we got alot of punks in honda civics around here and i want to show them what a real car will do. also, i didnt buy the heads, cam or intake yet, they guy at the speed shop put a package together for me (the re-done 2.02/1.60 heads, worked up pretty good and the torker intake and a cam for 800bucks)

what casting # heads? What cam? What pistons, gear, converter/tranny?

if you drive it on the road most of the time vacuum secondaries should help with mileage.
you forgot the trust worthy q-jet. my choice would bea qjet or a holley street avenger.

i dont know the casting numbers, but he said the heads are off i think it was a 71 camaro. he did a 3 angle valve job, pocket port, 7/16 screw-in studs, valve springs are good up to .500 lift. stainless valves, i forget what the combustion chamber size was. i also got crower split ratio rockers (1.5/1.6)that i bought for $100.i dont know for sure off the top of my head but i think he said its a its a duntov cam, solid lifter. forged flat top speed pro pistons, 4 speed manual borg warner, 3.42 rear, non-posi for now.

charlie- im assuming that the stock q-jet from '81 isn't a good choice. what should i look for in a q-jet? any numbers or a specific year?

If you are driving it mostly on the street, a well tuned vacuum secondary 650 Holley will be a good choice. You won’t get much more out of a double pumper, and you will have better mileage and drivability.

Your selection for heads, cam and manifold will determine what carb will work best for you, but look very carefully at the combo your engine shop is pushing. The torker is a very old single plane design, and won’t run very well until you get pretty high up in the rpm range. It will not help your mileage either. You can find them at swap meets for $50 or less. IF the cam is really a Duntov cam or a repro of that cam, it is also a very old design. These cams were used in performance engines (primarily the Corvette) from 1956 to 1963. I believe that it is also a solid lifter cam. There are certainly more choices out there that are better suited for a street driver that is raced a few weekends a year.

I’m not sure if this guy is trying to pawn off some old parts or is just so old school that he is unaware of newer technologies. I would check things out very carefully before I buy. Good luck.

thanks for the input everyone. i will definitely do some more research before i buy the parts. my engine guy said that the reason i should go with a solid lifter cam is because it is easier to adjust the valves on the fly. he explained it all to me, and it seemed to make sense, but i just can't remember his exact words. he said the duntov cam would work good because its got a relatively flat torque curve all the way up to 7 grand. he seems like a good guy, i've seen alot of the cars that he's built, and they are all pretty nasty, but i think he might be a little more racing oriented, which might be good because i'm going to run the car hard on the street too, just not all the time. any advice i get from you guys is definitely going to be listened to though. i have built a couple engines before, but they were all stock rebuilds(289 from a 66 pusstang and a 326 out of a 67 tempest), this is my first performance engine and i want to make sure i do it right. if i get an intake to go with my edelbrock carburetor, would the car run as good as with the holley? i dont want to spend extra money if i dont have to. thanks again everyone

for a street car you'd want a hydraulic one and not a solid.. but i'm no master engine builder myself...

maybe go with a holley systemax like this, comes with a cam and an intake http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=HLY%2D300%2D502&autoview=sku
all you'd need is a carb.

for a qjet i'm considering something like this ;

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=JET%2D35002&N=700+400201+115&autoview=sku

of course a qjet wouldn't go with the intake manifold in the holley kit above..

thanks