Thread: Edelbrock EPS 800cfm carb tuning help needed!

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Hi guys,

I went to the Edelbrock website and I didn't see what I needed. My problem is fuel mileage, or lack thereof. I have a freshly rebuilt 1971 460 motor, with a Weiand Stealth aluminum intake, new coil, full roller-rockers, slightly bigger cam(there is almost no "lope" to be heard), new plugs & wires, new dual exhaust and a Pertronix II electronic ignition setup. Topping all of this off is the Edelbrock carb I metioned in the topic.

The carb has no choke on it right now, but I have an electric choke kit I hope to have on before too long. My problem is that I'm only getting about 5.9 miles per gallon! And I run premium gas only... Yikes! This is mostly highway driving, about 15 miles to town and back home again.

I am no speed demon, and while the car is a mother to first get started(because of no choke), the car seems to run fine after that. Occasionally, I can smell some raw gasoline but the car isn't throwing any kind of smoke at all. I have the idle turned down about as far as I can get it, to try to help my fuel economy, but it hasn't shown much improvement.

Here are my dumb questions... When I am looking at the carb head on, are the two brass-looking screws that sit parallel to each other on the carb base the metering screws? Do I turn both to the right all the way if I wanted to start over fresh? Is one screw normally turned further than the other to improve performance? Do both screws control the overall fuel flow in the carb?

As you can see, I've never really played around with carbs that much before , I never had to, my Dad loved messing around with my cars so he was usually the vehicle troubleshooter of the family.

Any one have any advice, or links to a website that would help with carb tuning? Thank you all in advance...

Michael

Those two screws are for the idle mixture, they have very little effect on gas mileage. Changing to bigger metering rods or smaller jets inside the carb is the way to go. 6 MPG with a 460 Lincoln isn't unheard of, that's a lot of iron, but you should be able to tune it enough to get 10 or so.

You need to hunt around on the edelbrock website, the tuning information is there. If I had to venture a guess, unless you are turning high revs, I think you might be over-carbed as well. Here's a link to the information you need.

http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive/index.html

1) Click on carburetors on the left hand side.
2) Click on "Edelbrock Performer Series (EPS) Carburetor Owner's Manual." It is the 7th link down.
3) Your tuning info should show up now.

Thanks for the info gentlemen. I guess I didn't look at the Edelbrock website close enough Fatfndr, I appreciate the link to the info. I guess I will start playing with my carb this week.

Michael