Edelbrock carb adjustment
Have you ever compared the idle circuit design between a Holley and a Carter to understand why the Carter idles better?
The Holley (or better yet, any decent Holley clone) will out idle, out power and just straight out perform the Carter style carbs.
The biggest problem with Holley and Holley clones was, is and evidently will forever be Holley. They continue to miseducated the public on how their carbs function, send out anything even close to a performance carb double PIG rich at idle, sloppy in transition somewhat clean in the middle and PIG fat at WOT.
All that is relatively easily corrected. As per normal, the books produced for these carbs are basically worthless for most anything other that learning the most very basic aspects of the carb.
When a “technical” book, written for and purchased by guys who at least on some level, want to learn to tune this stuff starts out with this remark (or a paraphrase of it) “changing the different circuits is a complex matter and should be only done by the experts and not at home...more damage has been done to these carbs by guys at home with drill bits than anything else...don’t junk your carb by going crazy and drilling holes...the Holley carb is very close with its factory calibrations, therefore most anything you may do will be wrong, or worse...”.
That is WORTHLESS, stupid and a waste of paper. While carb function and science is complex, if you can lash valves correctly and use a timing light like it was meant to be used, you can understand carb function, the circuits involved and how changing one circuit can and will affect another. And you can understand where to start, and what to do next with pretty basic knowledge.
The Carter/Edelbrock carbs, by their design are much more difficult to alter, and as the power level goes up, much more difficult to correct because the main jet/metering rods are never separate, where the Holley style carbs have a separate main jet/power enrichment circuit.
For the guys who want a simple, bolt on and forget it carb, the Carter/Edlebrock carbs are what they need. They will be close enough that much tuning won’t be needed.
For the guys that want to get the most power, or even economy, the Holley style carbs are infinitely more adjustable. The level of tune achieved with this style carb is only limited by how much time you are willing to invest learning the basics, and buying some pin gauges, drill bits and brass.
