Holley vs. Edelbrock
Views on this page are strictly my opinion.
When I bought the truck it had a 600cfm Holley 4150 Double
Pumper on the Edelbrock Performer intake.
I switched to the Edelbrock 1) so I could pass emissions and
2) I had heard good things about the Edelbrock over the Holley as far as
stability, flooding, fuel leaks... etc.
Right out of the box the Edelbrock 600cfm #1406 fired up and
run fair even though I live at an altitude of 7,500 ft. I jetted the Edelbrock 3
stages lean on the primaries and 2 on the secondaries as well as increasing the
metering rod spring 1 stage Hg and changed the metering rods as recommended in
the manual that came with the Edelbrock Performer.
Now I am back to a Holley. I just put on one of the new Holley
Truck Avenger 670cfm carburetors. Why? Because, I bought my daughter Heather
a '76 Bronco Special (She just turned 15) and it was a good enough excuse
for me to try one out.
Again right out of the box the Holley started up and performed
well although burning rich due to the 7500ft altitude. On the Holley Truck
Avenger, I went 4 stages lean on the primaries and 3 on the secondaries. Other
than that, I went to the factory supplied lighter vacuum spring (not a good
idea if you still have a 302ci engine).
| Holley
 |
No Fuel Starvation (Large Holley
Fuel Bowels 4150) |
|
Smooth Acceleration (Vacuum
Secondaries) |
|
Great Low-end and Towing Torque (Vacuum
Secondaries) |
|
Good Overall Gas Mileage (Vacuum
Secondaries) |
|
Spring loaded needle and seat already installed "stock" |
|
Less Touchy Tuning (using Vacuum
Gauge, Timing Light, and a Tachometer you basically put the mixture
screws, and electric choke at factory settings and leave them) |
|
The #4150 Truck Avenger has the classic front and back
bowls so all your intake bolts are accessible |
| Automatic Transmission Kick-down works just like the stock Holley did |
 |
Remanufactured parts (if you want a "new"
carburetor buy the Edelbrock) | |
Cold Starting - Typical Cold-blooded Holley | |
Less Tune Friendly | |
Although the Low Idle screw is placed well the High
Idle screw placement is very hard to reach to adjust. | |
Idle Tends to Fluctuate | |
The Manual the comes with Holley's Truck Avenger is
minuscule but covers the installation and basics well they do have a
great free online Manual
though |
|
Edelbrock
|
Better Cold Starting and Operation |
|
Faster, Crisp Acceleration (Mechanical
Secondaries w/Metering Rods) |
|
Fair Gas Mileage Except when Towing or Racing (Mechanical
Secondaries w/Metering Rods) |
|
Spring loaded needle and seat available as an add on |
|
Easily Tunable |
|
All Adjustment fixtures are easy to reach and adjust
on the Edelbrock |
|
Reliable Idle |
|
Great Owner's
Manual in the box |
|
Fuel Starvation (Small Fuel
Bowels) | |
Hot Fuel and Boiling Fuel (Small
Fuel Bowels) | |
Bad flat spot off idle (I tried
every thing from choke adjustment, idle adjustment, accelerator pump
adjustment timing and even custom distributor vacuum advances and
delay switching. Although the vacuum delay worked fair, there must be a way to eliminate it but it is beyond
me) | |
The Edelbrock carburetor is short and wide having it
fuel bowls on either side of the venturies (this
setup makes it very hard to get to intake bolts for periodic re-torque the intake) | |
Touchy Tuning (best to do small
adjustments - Drive a few days then make more small adjustments) | | Automatic Kick-down
Shift Points are Incorrect - (after installation on a 302 and a 351W both of the C4 Automatic kick-down linkage did not work properly. The 1st to 2nd shift seems to be early and they both held 2nd way to long causing over-rev conditions.) |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Verdict:
I'll keep the Holley. The superior low end and better fuel handling is
worth the cold weather throttle pumping |
Verdict:
It is a little big for the 302 but because my daughter doesn't know how
to adjust chokes and keep from flooding the engine in cold weather, the
Edelbrock stays with her |
