I'm considering replacing my old quadrajet carburetor with an Edelbrock #1400 carb, on a base engine 1972 coupe.. A spacer has to be used to match this with my intake manifold....the spacer (#2696) is thick, and I question whether my hood will close after the installation! Anyone have experience with this problem? Thanks. Howard

Howard, how thick is the spacer? If your car doesn't have a bigblock hood, then I would have to say chances are you will have clearance problems. You can try taking a couple pieces of modelers clay, roll them up in about a 1 1/2" ball. Place 1 on the front edge of your air filter housing and 1 on top at the wing nut, close the hood and see if the hood mushes them down at all. You can measure the thickness of the clay to get an idea of how much room you have to play with.
I read awhile back that you don't get the full benefit of a square bore carb bolted to a spread bore manifold. Did you look into a Edelbrock Perf. Q-Jet carb? I have one on my car (p/n 1904) that works pretty good.
Sarge

Consider having your Q-Jet professionally rebuilt. That way you won't have to worry about any hook-up problems. That being said, I don't believe an Edelbrock Performer carburetor is any taller than your stock Q-Jet. You will need some extra parts with the Edelbrock, such as a different fuel line, an in-line fuel filter, an Edelbrock kick-up solenoid and bracket for the a/c if you have that, and maybe new throttle brackets. It's more than just the price of the carb itself.

It might be a different situation than yours, but I have a edelbrock 1405 carb, on an edelbrock 2101 intake with no spacers. It fits without a problem, and was a definite inmprovement.