Not sure what kits you’re referring to Ken, most of the kits I’ve used over the years were pretty much all the same and pretty much trouble free. The AFB kits are probably the simplest 4 barrel kits out there (fewest gaskets/seals to replace) and usually about the cheapest. The biggest complaint I had about the Edelbrock kits was they were usually priced way too high for an AFB kit. In the early years my trick for the Edelbrock AFBs was to order a kit for a late 60s MOPAR and use that at about half the price.

I’d actually seen this problem with the needles before. In the mid 90s when Ethanol as was first introduced around here it played holy hell with all the “rubber” products in the fuel system. Guys like me that did a lot of carburetors were pulling their hair out because we couldn’t find needles and seats that would stand up to it. I talked to a few guys in the industry and Carb specialty shops and even tried to find old kits that had steel needles just to find something that would hold up. Fortunately, the industry stepped up and within about 6 months we had ethanol safe kits.


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