How do you convince a person to try a Quadrajet? Combating the nay-sayers.

[omaha]

Ok,  What is the most common knee-jerk comment that you always hear about the Q-jets and what is your best argument when you hear it?  (I realize that just getting a person to understand how a carb works is hard enough as it is).
All in all, I think Cliff has the best argument. That Ventura  is the best argument for using a Q-jet!!
 

[kelley555]

I've heard the quadrajunk line so many times the last day or two from guys stopping bye just Bsing.Give'em some tail lights & they'll shut up.Later Kelley

[Cliff Ruggles]

This should help?  Here is a copy of an email I received a few days ago:

Hi Cliff,
    I thought you might like a picture of one of your beautiful carbs sitting on this nasty 468.  Twas the night before the dyno session and all thru the house, not a creature was stirring... 
    And the next day on the last and best two pulls, peak tq. was 604 ft.lbs.at 3900 rpm, and the best hp pull was 552 at 5500 rpm.  SD ported  KRE heads flowing around 297 cfm,  RPM intake,  SD Old Faithful cam,  10.5:1 cr.,  crank scraper,  30 degrees total timing,  and Cliff's 800 cfm q-jet.
     There were a couple of other brand boys there that were so shocked, I thought we were going to have to dial 911.
      The dyno guy walked out into the shop and says...604 ft. lbs. with a Q-Jet, can you believe it !!!   The only thing we had to do to the carb was adjust the idle speed and lean the APT 1/4 turn!   Thanks Cliff!!!
 

Folks are a LOT smarter these days than they used to be, and we don't hear too much of that nonesense these days.

I can say with without hesitation, we don't hear any of that CRAP when we are sitting in the staging lanes in final rounds at a big race!!  I keep toilette paper in my car when folks wonder over and see the factory q-jet sitting on the stock intake, as they usually crap themselves!

Seriously,  I've watched for years as folks with all sorts of engines removed their factory carbs and intakes and installed aluminum intakes and 600cfm Holley or Edelbrock AFB clone carburetors....only to LOOSE power everyplace over the factory parts.....but it was the "cool" thing to do back in the day.

Hey, at least they could put a sticker in their window, do "donuts" in the High School parking lot, and burn everyones eyes who stood behind their cars when they were idling!.....LOL.....Cliff

[omaha]

you know, I sold my old chevelle (68) to a bud of mine and he is already talking about pulling the pontiac motor (1970 350) out of it and building a vortec 350 (for the spring-time). I asked him if he would need the Q-jet on it and he said no. He is going to give me everything back and will be using a Holley.
I am kicking myself in the a## for selling the old 4dr chevelle now because the Caravan I bought to replace it has already grenaded the trans (which I am now rebuilding-real fun when when you aint got no heat in the shop too). So I guess I will look for some kind of old GM car to put the Pont. motor back into. (got my eye   on an old 4dr lemans right now) BTW, I helped him change the rope-seal in the old Pont.
motor (leaking) and the original bearings looked like they were almost new! We changed the oil pump and screen and cleaned out the pan (talk about crud!). everything is back together and doing fine but he says it is only temporary 'til he gets that chevy motor together (with a Holley perched on top). Thats pretty bad when you cant even convince your buds to try a Q jet,(not even on a CHevy motor for cryin'out loud)...... I just turn away shaking my head....I guess some people just don't have the vision....LOL.
  BTW, FWIW, I got the (Cliff's) book for the 700R4 rebuild too and the same bud was reading it the other day with great interest. Next thing you know we are at the junk yard and there sits an '88 700R4 trans on the ground, {in front of a P/U with a motor missing}. I say "there's a 700R4 and that's one of the better ones" so we ended up putting it in the cart . He paid $85 for it. Guess it is destined for the chevelle.
So I guess 1 out of 2 aint too bad. I need to build some kind of kick-ass motor with a Q-jet to convince him I guess on the Q.  I am putting one together for my '80 power wagon. (Yep, will be ordering some parts soon-rest of the motor is in the machine-shop jail,doin' time) Thanks for the rant space. I like to spout off sometimes around this time of year 'cause I ain't workin too much due to the cold. (workin' in the concrete biz)    To everyone out there. enjoy the holidays!!

[kelley555]

Amen,for the holidays. Some of the kids are coming down for holidays,1 from NYC & the other one is in Seattle At Ft. Lewis with her husband & 1 is here.The 1 in Seattle will spend x-mas with her 2 small kids &  her husband for the first time in about 4 years.He's been deployed alot.This ought be a special x-mas for them. She'll fly in after the holidays & we get to see the Grandkids &  record some music while husbands gone to a training class for a few weeks.As far as the car stuff,i knopw what you mean,I had a 68 chevelle 4 dr. with 6 banger with 21k original miles & the original turquois paint with black cloth interior.The guy I sold it to 10 years ago still drives it.I seen it the other night coming back from the local Sat. nite car show named: Nifty Fifties.Check the websit,this isn't a nit s--t ran show,vintage music door prizes,security & it's in a leased Grocery store parking lot.The Starbucks & restraunts love the function.I heard EDELBROCK WAS THINKING OF DOING A VIDEO OF THIS SHOW.By the way a great show runs from March-November & trick or treating out of the back of the old cars for the kids.How many cars,probably around 600-700 quality cars Halloween nite,probably 300 + regularly. I mean quality cars.1930-1980's.Buses with Bbc blower's,Belvedre's with hemi's & 2 x 4's crossrams,Sd Ram air Z-28 & on & on,you name it,it's there for all types of car buffs.I finally sold it when the 1972 chevelle with 26k 2 dr. malibu,350ci.,auto with the original paint & interior,vinyl top.I got all the build sheet infor & all the paper work where & how much she paid. Shje was an elderly lady that worked when my wife's Aunt. The car is definitely a suvivor,but was a DOGG with a whopping 175 hp. 350 ci. I set all the OEM stuff in the attic & eventually will detail the oem engine & drive train. Granny's car is getting a few more pony's & the elderly lady is steadyly shaking her fist from heaven saying"your better not mess that car up son". I left all oem stuff in tact for future replacement in years to come & won't hack the car at all.It's a true looking granny car with a few more ponies for now.Later Kelley

[kelley555]

Now we know what to get Cliff for x-mas,a few rolls for the car or baby wipes would work. !LOL ! Do they need to Sqeeze the Charmin, or is the quadrajet  just ! PLAIN  BAD A--!. I love that surprise look on their face,it's like spot lighting a deer.The one picture is a pic of the Edelbrock 1910 I purchased. The guy made it a manuel choke instead of the typical electric choke out of it. Also do I use a Brad Penn Oil with  zinc added  or use a diesiel oil (like a Shell Rotella) that gets tortured by the diesel machinery for hrs. everyday. I can add an can of EOS to the modern day oil also. I'm using  an older Gen 1 motor with the street/strip alloy 4032 piston's with  003. clearance & using a hydraulic roller cam similar to the later models that use a 5-30w is far from the 50w we run in race cars with lot's of clearance. On the cylinder walls we ran .007-.008;rod side clearance of 0.30-.035 & main & rods oat .003. & we had to use a hi volume pump to maintain a descent psi down low. What's out there without being  over kill or under kill.Later kelley

[omaha]

I always run a  quart of mobil delvac truck oil, in my motors with flat tappet cams. I mix it with valvoline.
I have not tried the synthetics yet (cause all my vehicles like to mark their spot). In my minivan with the overhead cams I dont worry about it. Just plain 10w30 valvoline. Probably the rotella would work better in a car app., but I am a fan of the mobil delvac. It worked good in my Detroit diesel in my Frieghtliner. Had over a million when I traded her in. I tried the rotella in the diesel but it semmed like it just spitted it out (leaked alot and had more blowby). I have heard that just a small amount is necessary when using the EOS. Like 1 tsp to 5 qts. I have even heared that too much can be bad.. Oh well, I haven't flattened any cams yet. 

[Cliff Ruggles]

On the original topic, we recently added another non-believer to the list.

One of our customers decided to take his high 10 second street/strip car and install an OD trans and smaller cam to run it on the street.

He was using a "Bear Claw" 1000cfm Holley carb, custom built for his engine.

After "de-tuning" the car for street driving, it ran low to mid 11's in the hot Texas summer weather.

The Holley was using a LOT of fuel for normal driving, so he switched to a q-jet.  He built his own carburetor, we helped him select the core and sent him everything required to build/tune it.

He went to the local track and the first runs were somewhat disappointing.  He was a solid .2 and 2 mph slower.  He loved the way the q-jet drove on the street, but all of his Holley buddies were dogging him pretty hard because it wasn't running as well at the track.

After a few phone conversations, he discovered that the attachment point of the throttle cable was higher on the q-jet, and the throttle plates weren't coming all the way to full throttle.  He moved the attachment point closer to the center of the shaft, and went back to the track.

He ran almost exactly the same ET and MPH as his old carb did in similiar weather.  He's driven and raced the q-jet quite a bit since the first runs, and got it to go even faster with some fine tuning!......Cliff

[omaha]

yes!  a 1000 cfm bearclaw. Makes you wonder dont it??