350 Powered Snowblower

[Bob_T]

I have a stock 1970's(?) 350 mounted in the rear of a pickup under a camper shell.  The 350 runs a hydraulic pump that in turn runs a snowblower mounted on the front of the truck.   The existing Quadrajet is damaged and has to be replaced and I'm looking for suggestions and advice.

The engine runs most of the time at a steady 3,000 RPM or less at about 6,000 feet elevation.  Don't need a lot of HP, mainly steady reliable torque.  The throttle is via a cable, so hard to "pump" the throttle to get fuel on cold starts, and of course it's cold when we need the snowblower.  Not that cold, maybe 20F or so.   I was thinking that a marine carb for a boat might be a good choice.   Not sure what the differences are in a boat carb, or if they would like cold weather. 

Appreciate any advice or Q-jet tuning suggestions.

Thank you,
Bob

[429bbf]

would love to see a picture , thats something that i would build .only difference is i would use a 4bt cummings less fuel burn . answer to your question , i would find a carb of a late 70,s pickup example 17058213 get a kit from cliff and you would have a nice setup. happy blowing.

[Bob_T]

Thanks for your reply.  I will post a picture later, kind of got my hands full at the moment!

[Cliff Ruggles]

Marine Q-jets with few exceptions are divorced choke, so make sure that isn't an issue if you decide to go that route.

They are also designed to run in heavy duty applications where the engine sees heavy load, so they are calibrated accordingly.  Marine engines don't use vacuum advance or PCV either as there would really be no need considering how the engine is used.

I've seen attempts to use Marine Q-jets in automotive applications with very spotty results, once again one has to consider that a Marine unit is not emission calibrated, and set up pretty "fat" everyplace based on how those engines are used.

If you engine see's moderate to heavy load then a Marine carb would be a good choice for it.  Biggest problem is finding a good core, they are becoming very hard to obtain these days, and forget the automotive "conversions" you see on Ebay and other sources, they are complete JUNK in every respect......Cliff

[Bob_T]

Well, I went to the local Pick 'n Pull this afternoon and got the only old school Q-Jet that I could find.  It's a 17057213 from I think a '77 half ton pickup.  It's a divorced choke, same as the original 17054930.  Only visible flaw is that someone removed the choke limkage, all of it.  I don't think I need a choke and I'll see about rigging up a manual choke linkage.

This carb looks very good, for what that's worth.  I will be ordering a kit for it but in the meantime I need the truck running so   
I'm putting it into service to see what it does.  I have Cliff's book, it was a big help with the last Quadrajet I worked on.

Pictures to follow soon.

[Cliff Ruggles]

Those are excellent units for what you are doing.  You will also need tuning parts for it, as they are very lean carburetors being emission calibrated.

We build a lot of those to replace early model Chevy divorced choke large MAB units, they will have the single main airlbeed design but divorced choke......Cliff

[Bob_T]

Here is a poor summertime  picture of this thing.  350 mounted in the bed under the camper shell.  It powers the blower via hydraulics.  454 under the hood.  Both motors have QJ's.