Motorcraft or Edelbrock?

[El Jefe]

My truck has an Edelbrock 1406 carb on it right now. Its sat long enough it probably needs a rebuild. The guy also gave me the stock intake and Motorcraft 4350, least I'm pretty sure its the 4350. Well, in everyone's opinion. Which carb to rebuild and use?

Details, 77 J20, 401/400/Qtrac.

[FSJunkie]

Motorcraft if you know how to work on and tune them.

Most people who don't know carburetors go Edelcrap and shortly after convert to EFI. Coincidence, ya think?

[jaber]

Not having a lot of experience with carbs, I went with the Edelbrock for simplicity. It is very simple to rebuild, and on a DD it performs great. Plus its already on and set up.

[haminawag]

The Edelbrock 1406 is basically a Carter AFB, it's a very good carb and a snap to rebuild, rejet, etc., I'd go with it if for no other reason than it's already set up for it, keep the Autolite 4 bbl. for a good backup, 4 bbls are getting more and more expensive on the used market and there are a lot of folks out there who are restoring old Fords and Mercs that used that carb. Just my 2 cents.

[fulsizjeep]

I say get a Holley.
Most 4350s are junk by now as they are famous for warping.
Edelbrocks and AFBs were junk when they were new. (my opinion)
My $.02...

[El Jefe]

Ok. Thanks for the input. Think I'll rebuild the Edelbrock for now. Don't feel like changing intakes anyway. I'll hold on to the Motorcraft.

I have an Edelbrock 1406 on my Cherokee and really have no complaints about it other than floods out on angles.

[j2sax]

If the Jeep Carb is a spreadbore with the spreadbore intake (outline matches the bottom of the Carb with smaller primaries) sell it to an AMC purist for silly money and run the Edelbrock. There are mods you can make for light off-roading.. running 3 out of 5 trails, but if you are going to do extreme off-roading, there are better choices. For ease of tuning, dependebility, longevity AND being able to work on it without having to spill gas all over your intake (like a Holley) the Edelbrock is hard to beat.

I have run them on many different levels of performance, CID's and types of vehicles and have not been disappointed yet. If you want a preview of how to build and tune, go to Edelbrocks youtube channel and you can see everything there is to know.

[El Jefe]

I think I'll keep the Edelbrock. Rebuild it. I thought it pretty interesting that the PO had the intake and carb changed out, but held on to the old ones. So its nice that there isn't an carb adapter.

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2

[rocklaurence]

Spend a few dollars and get the Off Road needles when you buy the rebuilt kit. Also, make sure to use the filter with the return fitting that goes back to the tank. AMC's have issue with vapor lock.

[El Jefe]

I pulled the carb off yesterday to clean it up and such. And too my surprise, the intake is an Edelbrock aluminum one. The guy had painted it the factory AMC color. And it already has the off road needle and seat in it.

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2

[El Jefe]

Oh and I do need to get the right filter. The return line is just capped at the moment.

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2

[VOX]

I pulled the carb off yesterday to clean it up and such. And too my surprise, the intake is an Edelbrock aluminum one. The guy had painted it the factory AMC color. And it already has the off road needle and seat in it.

Great news! That saves you about 45 pounds of weight versus the cast iron intake. Stick with that AFB carb. Those Carter designs are great, Holley 4 barrels always were a lousy design, they were only really popular because of almost infinite adjustability, which is the last thing you need in a street driven carb., and because of good marketing. The two best carbs I've ever owned were the Carter AVS 4 barrel, and the Carter Thermo-quad. The all-time WORST carb. I've owned was the Holley truck Avenger that was on my '80 Wag when I bought it. I had an old Carter TQ in my shop I bolted on and in about 20 minutes the Wag was running better than it had run in years.

[haminawag]

Thermo-quads can be tricky with those metering rods being suspended from that center beam, but otherwise it's a great carb, especially if you have vapor lock or hot carb issues, I'd love to find one of the rare 500cfm TQs to put on my Wag. My old 440 race engine would turn in better and more consistent e.t.s with the Holley 4500 than it would with the 850 cfm TQ comp series carb no matter what I tried, but I agree the Carters are a better all-around street carb.

[El Jefe]

I'm glad it ha the Edelbrock intake too. Right now I got the carb tore apart waiting for the kit to get here.

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2

[Tad]

I say get a Holley.
Most 4350s are junk by now as they are famous for warping.
Edelbrocks and AFBs were junk when they were new. (my opinion)
My $.02...

Agreed.
Edelbroke.

[haminawag]

I say get a Holley.
Most 4350s are junk by now as they are famous for warping.
Edelbrocks and AFBs were junk when they were new. (my opinion)
My $.02...

Agreed.
Edelbroke.

What's the deal with the Edelbrocks? I've worked on a few and they looked like copys of AFBs basically, and the only Carter AFBs I've had problems with were mostly just way outta whack internally, easy fixes, but I've heard several comments like yours about the Edelbrocks, do they have specific failure points, poor castings?

[El Jefe]

If I had the money I would get a Holley. I really would. Or a brand new Q-jet.

I have ran the Edelbrock for a while on my Cherokee. And for street driving, really no complaints. Off-road is another story. Also I've talk to people around here that hate them cause they just won't run right. What they don't seem to understand is in stock form, they are jetted for sea level. Well living at 4,600 feet, they're not going to run quite right.



Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk 2

[The PIG Smith]

I say get a Holley.
Most 4350s are junk by now as they are famous for warping.
Edelbrocks and AFBs were junk when they were new. (my opinion)
My $.02...

X2
...if you can sweet talk one particular Cheesehead in setting up your Holley, then you are just that much better off.

[j2sax]

COngrats on the Intake Score! If you are not running 4 or 5 level trails, you will be happy with the EB Carb, especially as it is configured.

A good Quadra Jet is more complex but better for more extreme 'froadin.

All you Edelbrock Haters who dumped 'em in favor of power valve poppin, fuel bowl fires starters... I mean, Holleys... feel free to send me those nasty, no good, junk Edelbrocks... I will even pay for shipping, just to keep them out of the trash!

(yeah, Holleys and all their off-shoots and iterations certainly have a place in the world of performance and people love them.... but since EB took some pretty virulent shots here, I felt the need to stand up for them!)

Room for everyone this side of EFI!

[El Jefe]

I never really had a complaint about the Edelbrock on my Cherokee for most driving. But bouncing around and side hilling, it sucked. Even with the off road needle and seats. But the J20 will not see much more than fire roads. Now the Cherokee has a QJ. And its great.