Book review "How to Rebuild and Modify Carter/Edelbrock Carburetors"

[yellow76]

Just received the new Book out on Edelbrock/ Carter carburetors. Published by SA Design and written by Dave Emanuel.
I really was let down. This book has a nice section on the history of the Carter/ Thermo quad/ Edelbrock carbs. but with a title of "How to Rebuild and Modify Carter/Edelbrock Carburetors"
I was hoping for a lot more information.
In the first place while a Thermoquad and a Carter are similar there is a lot of difference.
I do not know why the author choose to try to review so many different carbs. in one manual.
All this did was result in very weak information on any one of the carbs included.
The owners manual available for download in the tech section of Edelbrocks web site is a lot more informative.
I guess I was looking for more tuning and modification tips. As the title would suggest.
However this is not the case with this book. If someone was to attempt to even rebuild a Edelbrock carb with little experience and only this book, they would be left wondering where is the rest of the story?
The "modify" part is nothing but drilling one air bleed.
Trust me there is a lot more info. on the web, Yes some good and some not so good.
In my opinion this book could have been a LOT better.
22.95 at Summit 2-3 days, 16.95 from Amazon but it will take a month for them to get it to you.

[VileZambonie]

That sucks. I have a tweakers manual for those carbs somewhere but I don't see it in my library. If I find it I'll look it over and let ya know how it is. Best thing you can do is get the strip kit for it. They come with metering rods and jets. Take a note book and baseline your reults until you acheive the best idle quality, acceleration and power. Just make sure you have your ignition system whipped into shape first.

[yellow76]

Thank you Vile.
I do have a question that has been bugging me for a while.
Motor is a GM performance products crate 350.
Carb. is a Edelbrock 1406 with electric choke. Now freshly rebuilt. Intake is a Edelbrock performer RPM dual plane. Pump is a 6 valve Edel. street pump.
Distributer is a Accel performance I believe a 59107 with a Brute Thunder HEI in cap coil. Dist. does have a vacuum advance module on it.
No smog stuff at all.
With both vacuum ports on carb plugged, I set the timing at 12 BTDC at idol, of course choke off and motor warmed up good.
In the instructions for the carb. it shows the left vacuum port from front (pass.) side as being a timed port for emissions controlled motors and the one on the right from front (drivers) as being full manifold vacuum for non-emissions controlled.
Now this is the part I get messed up on. If I set my timing with the ports plugged at 12 then I hook it up to the full manifold vacuum side I get a big pull on my vacuum advance right away. At idol.
If I hook it up to the timed port it does not advance the timing with vacuum until the RPMs are brought up. In other words it seems like that is the correct way to set it up?
Right or wrong?
Currently the thing runs great. I did have a small bog from idol on very hard throttle launch but I think its because I had a open plenum 1" carb spacer. I removed that and the bog went away.
This was put on to get my air cleaner away from the HEI.
Thanks for any info you or anyone can provide.

[VileZambonie]

A lot of people debate ported vs non ported as how it's "supposed to be" The way it's supposed to be is however your engine runs best. Typically with a modified engine you'll get a cooler idle and more stable idle along with better throttle response from full vacuum so you might just try it both ways and see which way suits you better. You will have to correct idle speed however when you make the adjustment.

[marian33]

Based on many reviews given by different readers, I can say that this book doesn't really give the exact information. Anyway, the author belongs to the top three who have been doing a very good book about carburetors. This book in general reflects the emergence of Edelbrock carburetors as the predominant carburetors in the market today.