Your heading says it all ! I would'nt want that carb on my vette. If they said they installed a holly...then by golly it should be a holly ! Now for the gas tank haveing a hole in it..that's kinda scarry thinking that they fixed it to. If your vette set for 16 years , did you flush the tank , or use fuel stabelizer in it at all during the setting time ? Go Edelbrock , and do it yourself. That way you know about it personally.I rebuilt a carter that was spitting gas. It was amazing how cloged up everything inside was.After rebuild...perfect!

|UPDATED|10/28/2003 5:57:57 AM|/UPDATED|

To add my 2 cents again, since you paid good money for the carburetor and work done on your car, you should give them a chance to make good on their work. if you're not satisfied, then take your complaint to the boss, owner, whomever. I wouldn't go making changes until after that. You don't want them saying you made changes and that voids their work.

I've never been an advocate of changing carburetors unless it's absolutely necessary. I would much rather have my original carb rebuilt by a professional shop (have had that done for different cars many times over the years) than buy a replacement rebuilt carb. Years ago I work in an auto shop and never saw an assembly line rebuilt carb worth a damn. Actually, there are very few assembly line rebuilt parts I would care to use...primarily water pumps and starters. They seem to have a far lower defect rate in my experience. Having your own part rebuilt is far preferable. The downside is that the car is immobile for a few days, but it's usually less expensive as well.

If you do decide on a replacement carburetor, I would avoid Holleys. While they are a good carb, they tend to require frequent adjustments and can blow out their power valves if not carefully matched to your engine and type of diving. My local speed shop recommends Demon carbs...they call them "Holleys that work". I like Edelbrock carbs...they aren't particularly expensive, and are simple carbs to install and adjust. Edelbrock also manufactures new Quadrajets that are a direct replacement for you car. A bit pricey, but you don't have to buy additional chokes, fuel line adapters, linkage and throttle adapters to make them work. They bolt right in and everything matches up. A lot of people put down the Q-Jet, but properly set up and adjusted, the Q-Jet is one of the best carbs ever made.

I hope you get things straightened out quickly.

As for the tank, it was flushed along with the rest of the system.

As for the carb, I'm going back to the shop and have them get things working correctly. From the postings, sounds like it wasn't setup right - the choke situation alone is indicative of that.

I'll report back as to what happens. Thanks guys for all your input - very helpful!

Edelbrock makes a blockoff plate for that "hole in the manifold." Summit carries it, but it's not in the book. (When using Edelbrock heads and their manifold, the hot air choke's gotta go, and this plate neatly seals the "amputation zone.")

BTW, I've been running their QJET clone for three years, and I'm real happy with it. Don't let the choke linkage get gummy, though; it's pretty sensitive to fouling, and binds easily when fouled.

Eric...I'm having many of the same issues that you are having with my '73. Here's what helped me...first the car sat for may years and the fuel tank took the brunt of the damage. I was getting alot of rust and dirt comming through the fuel line...ran like crap unitl it warmed up and the pump started providing good fuel. To remedy this, I installed an in-line fuel filter (works unit I can get the new tank on). I also noticed that I was getting a lot of water in the fuel line..don't know why but it was there..I used HEET fuel water remover and cleared that up. But the best thing I did after having my mechanic install my "new" rebuilt q-jet was to readjust the air/fuel mixture metering screws. They are on the front of the carb on each side. Run them all the way in(carefully and easy)...counting how many turns it takes to bottom out....then turn each one out 1 and 1/2 turns...start the car and readjust if needed. I wound up being at a little over 1 and 1/4 turns on each.(keep in mind that turning the screws IN make the carb run leaner). Car runs great now. Hope all that helps.

|UPDATED|10/29/2003 12:57:11 PM|/UPDATED|