Who cares about a few leaks, constant adjustments, etc?
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Love my Q-Jets!
- Thread starter JeffKeryk
- Start date
I have plenty of time tuning carbs. That's why I love fuel injection.
I know they can work well when in great shape and configured correctly. However, frustration is never far away
I know they can work well when in great shape and configured correctly. However, frustration is never far away
That looks like the numbers correct Quadra Junk carb for my '68 L36... Wow!I have plenty of time tuning carbs. That's why I love fuel injection.
I know they can work well when in great shape and configured correctly. However, frustration is never far away
And maybe the last unmolested Q-Jet left.
I'm not a fan of carburetors ...
But a flipped lid quadrajet when the secondaries open is just awesome!
But a flipped lid quadrajet when the secondaries open is just awesome!
A carburetor is the perfect device for delivering the wrong fuel air ratio 100% of the time. The carb tuners union moto is, "Close enough!"
Q jets were not bad at all in fact they were one of the best 4bbl carbs out there when properly done. Leaking bottom plugs and worn throttle shaft bores were the biggest problem with them and all easily corrected. This piece of work from Ford on the other hand was a stinking pile of dog poo. I still have the original Motorcraft repair tool set for these abortions, if anyone has interest in it pm me.
Why you dissing on my 82 LTD? It ran great every other Tuesday as long as it wasn't too humid.
I'm totally joking about the 82 LTD, BTW. My uncle had one of those vintage LTD's and it was pretty trouble free. (It probably didn't hurt that he was a 30 year Ford dealer mechanic at that point.)
- Joined
- Sep 30, 2020
- Messages
- 2,132
+1
My fave is when folks decide to swap an FI engine to carb and are astounded when it doesn't idle/run properly.
Ah what a relief it is to switch from a carb to fuel injection. Have more than 60 years experience. A well tuned Qjet will react to a change in humidity frustrating the perfect tune.
For driveability, if a Quadra Jet is big enough, there is no better carb. Holley's are fuel dumpers, which works for WOT strip use.
You may know of my friend Lars Grimsrud; he's done a few Q-Jets for me and returned 1 that was too messed up.
I have the origional 4-Jet on our Oldsey, which is another animal altogether. Lars would not rebuild it for me. Darn!
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I loved the Quad Jets ! I loved tuning them, fixing them. Always ran good for a week or so, then needed an adjustment, or the auto choke broke, again. Had my special tools for them to tweek them just right, change the fuel filter once a month they were so small. Even a rebuilt one never came tuned right. It was like the old points and condenser inside the cap, using the dwell meter to get it where just one little click on the key, and it fired up. Nothing like that sound of those secondaries opening up. Like a hurricane under the hood going on. No wonder I threw so many rods on my Rocket 350's !!! Doin brake burn outs with those secondaries opened up gave you goose bumps. Pair the Q-Jet with a 400TH transmission and you were golden. The 350TH transmissions were so so. Then the 200TH were just garbage. Ahhh...the good ole days. Gas caps behind the rear license plate...You're killin me BITOG !!!!!!!! Not a computer to be found either !!!!!! Big idiot lights on the dash...One of my cars had a blue idiot light that read " COLD" ( telling you the engine was cold)
I remember watching something on YouTube when I was early-doors getting into cars. I'm sure it was an early BMW tuning company and the car was explaining how they took an ECU for a BMW and reverse engineered it to learn how to tune it. His words "We tune the fuelling on a carburettor for peak torque, and everywhere else is wrong.".
Carb's fine for small OPE. But I think if I owned anything bigger I'd be looking at fuel injection.
Would not want a carb today at my age ( 58). Too much wasted time playing around with those things. But, when I was just a teenager, or early 20's, I enjoyed it. Don't have that kind of patience anymore. But, they were fun, and at that time that's all you had were carbs. 4 bbl down to 1 bbl. Obviously, the 1 bbl were the least troublesome, but gave you the least power also. I still loved my Q-Jets. Would flip the air filter lid to get more air in and make louder, throaty sound. It was fun times. No computers, no nothing. Just spark / ignition/ gas is all you needed to get a car going. Very simple and cheap components handled that. Used cars were always just $200-$500 bucks, and were all over the place. Any kid could afford a car and tinker with it. Used transmission in a junkyard was $ 75 bucks. Used engines were $ 100 bucks.
I have 2 60's cars. I keep them as original as I can. No FI on those cars... A 4-Jet on the '65 442 and a Q-Jet on the '68 Vette L36. Now, the Q-Jet is a newer Roach model, it has been reworked by the Q-Jet master for my car. And I am not sure I could find an unmolested original carb for that engine.
An original carb for a 68' L36 Vette ???? That would take some serious researching to find, and would not be cheap. Heck, I remember the rebuilt Q-Jets sold in auto parts stores were expensive when I was a kid. And they didn't work right straight out of the box. You had to play with the adjustments to get it right, then hope it stayed that way. ( They never did. Always messin around with those needle valves ) Very sensitive carbs.
I recall Good times and bad times. Had a number of GM products with Qjets. When they were working properly they were great. And that sound with the top of the air cleaner flipped over. Yeehaw
The part store rebuilds were junk. They used some ridiculous process that ignored the intended use.
I have 3 good ones left. One on my Vette, 1 original never rebuilt and 1 perfect core.
I had a Cyclone with a 429 SCJ the top of the air cleaner had a vacuum operated flap that opened up over the top of the Q jet into the Shaker hood scoop. Kinda cool but realistically it was useless. Back in those days I did a lot of carb work, Q jets, AFB, Solex, Pierburg, Weber, Bing, Amal, almost everything. I still have all the OE tools but someone is buying my Motorcraft VV stuff in a PM, I will never do another one by choice.
I still enjoy working on multi carb setups with multi vacuum gauges and mercury sticks.
I still enjoy working on multi carb setups with multi vacuum gauges and mercury sticks.
