PHstratton,
Your carb question is a good one. I have a mutitude of different carbs on my various v8 contraptions.
My t bucket has 2 Edelbrock 500 cfms on a dual quad manifold, my boat has twin 350 chevys with quadrajets on each engine.

With my boat I could have put an adapter on for a Holley marine carbs or Edelbrock for that matter but I chose to stick with what the factory put on her, Quadrajets. I love looking down in the bilge and seeing a fair representation of what the factory had in mind for the engine. I put rebuilt quadrajets on both engines in my boat and they perform flawlessly. Nice to have all the factory linkage hook up correctly too. When I hit the throttles those huge secondaries open and perform and sound great.

If it were me I would put a rebuilt Quadrajet on there and enjoy the power. My two cents. Don Jr.