Thread: Holley or Edelbrock Carb

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Whats the deal with all the cars I see with Holley's and just a few with edelbrock carbs? I mean did I choose the wrong carb or something?

I've always heard an edelbrock will take more abuse than a holley and thats all I know!!

Please someone shed some light on this for me so I can choose my next carb whenever I decide to build another motor!

Oh and has anyone ever heard of piston rings not seating after 5000 miles? Because thats what mine are doing in a .30 over 350 chevy, rods installed in order, new pistons, lifters, cam, crank, oil pump, you name it, and the compression test with heavy weight oil tells me its the rings soooo .. am I just very unlucky or is this a sometimes common issue?

It mostly boils down to preference. The eddy is an old 60's Carter design whereas the Holley has made a few changes since then. I like the eddy for a pure street carb where the Holley is my preference for street/strip or pure strip.

Nothing beats the Holley HP's for all out performance.

For what it's worth, I've seen issues with the Holley carbs due to floats sticking. This occurance has been on new out of the box units; I understand there is a "repair kit" to corrects this known issue, but why would someone want to buy a new carb and then have to buy a repair kit it make it work? The Edelbrock carbs I've used have worked the first time right out of the box and continue to do so years later.

It all depends on what your building. Im a holley guy, both will work when properly selected for the aplication and then tuned.

Generally, a Holley will win on race day, but the Edelbrock will get you home from the track. That seems to be the general concensus. Plus, Edelbrocks require less fiddling, and work pretty much out of the box.

I ran 2 Edelbrocks on my '27, day in day out for 7 years, in pouring rain, etc. THey never missed a beat. Have had one on my Jeep 5.0 for 4 years, same experience.

Don

As has been said this is a personal preference issue similar to Ford vs Chevy, but in the last couple of months I've seen some posts on this board from people who have had hesitation/bog problems with thier Eddy's right out of the box. That normally relates to metering rod, float adjustment, and/or accelerator pump problems. I'm not real fond of having to pull the air horn off to adjust floats, something you don't have to do with a Holley and changing sizes of metering rods is also something you don't have to do with a Holley. Eddy's are good carbs when tuned properly, but IMHO Holley's are easier to work with as long as you don't over carb a mild street engine.

its whatever works for you. I personally prefer Holley carbs over Edelbrocks. Edelbrock carbs do seem to be more forgiving when not tuned... meaning they will still run decent. Although that doesnt mean its right.
A Holley generally will run like crap if its out of adjustment. I have just had to many bad experiances with Edelbrock carbs.

the eddys- afb - carters are a good carbs and they do not like to much fuel psi .yes you have to take the top off the carb to get at the floats. but one "GASKET " this is great and move two caps on the rod towers and you can set up your fuel mix with your rods or your spring setup in less than minutes. HOLLEY are good but many gasket and they allways do not come off in one pice the holleys main body look like it could make more CFm flow and the eddy as alot of spots that do not look very smooth for air flow but they do work good have used both and fix many holleys but for a mild use or for twos4 on blowers the eddys shine if i want to go fast i use 4500 holleys hey why dont eddy remake the carter thermoquad? i used them and like them but they where hard to get jets and parts. but i think it was a geat carb

It truely is a fordVsChevy kinda issue, i love my holleys, never had a major problem and love that they are essentially infinitely adjustable, where as the edelbrock carbs i dont believe are, im the only one out of my friends to run a holley, and have helped them try and tune their edelbrocks but i could just never find that sweet spot without adjusting metering rods, but they are alot more forgiving for street use, especially when it comes to backfires
Steven

afbs. eddys. carters .will still work with a pile of junk in the bowls. i had two i had to scrape out the junk and rebuild for a customer and they work? water sat in them so long that it ate big pits in the bowls . holleys i do not think if that bad would have been saved

Originally Posted by pat mccarthy

afbs. eddys. carters .will still work with a pile of junk in the bowls. i had two i had to scrape out the junk and rebuild for a customer and they work? water sat in them so long that it ate big pits in the bowls . holleys i do not think if that bad would have been saved

I think Pat has hit the crux of it. The Edelbrock/AFB/Carter design just seems to handle dirt and abuse a little better, maybe making them better for the average street driven car. Before we put the tripower on my one Sons 455 Olds convert, he had an aluminum hi-rise with a Holley 750 on it. He was constantly breaking down, and every time it was some very small piece of dirt in the carb. Pulled it off and put the trips on it, problem gone.

This may be an over simplification, and boils down to personal preference too, but from conversations I have had with rodders at shows and runs, this seems to be the general opinion. Now if I were building a drag car, I think the Holley would get the nod.


Don

Originally Posted by DennyW

Maybe not, but you can buy the Holley bowls cheap.

yes and metering blocks to? and do not forget the hand full of gaskets holleys do not like dirt i have used holleys but i fell out of love with them way to much stuff to buy for them GASKETS. but i have a 4500 9377 that works good and have had one for over 15 years

Originally Posted by DennyW

You just got to use the anti-stick on the gaskets. And, a good filter. My little 390 cfm on my Bronco II has been on there since 1991. I've never had to tear it down and clean it. All the carbs have there draw backs. You just have to know them well.

oh i do. but like i said way to many gaskets for way to many makes yes i know all about the no sticky gaskets. holley did not used them and it is fun for the first times getting them apart with the stock sticky ones i have mill the main bodys flat mill chocke horns off turned a dual feed out of a single feeds and have made a single pumper to a double pumper and done just about any thing you can do to a holley for me and for my customers. i do not like the price and the quality you get for it and buy jets gaskets power valves or power plugs and for $50 later you may have something that may work better that aQ jet or a carter or maybe not? like i said i use a 4500 holley and have had one for many moons but i do not like keeping $100 of holley stuff to do a 20 dollar job

i will not post on this any more why? has any one paid over $770. for a HP holley and this junk out of the box dents in the main body? had to mill it rework it .what did holley do for me??? one set of gaskets hey denny they sent me sticky ones

you can do a lot more with the Eddy's than the Holley's if you know how. a 40.00 kit of rods and springs and you can make it do anything. almost that is.