RustyRatRod's Guide To Hot Rod Bliss

RustyRatRod said

... Carburetor. I gotta be honest here. Carburetors can be somewhat complex for a beginner.....hell I still have some give me fits today. Sometimes you just get a bad one. But I strongly recommend finding a good used core and building one yourself. You will learn it yourself and you will save money. What's not to love about that? I can get a kit for most Holleys and AFB and AVS styles for under 30 bucks. Thermoquad kits are usually around 50...

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Almost any OEM Mopar 4 barrel carb works great as long as all the parts are not corroded in place and water has set inside the bowls. They have the right linkage, pretty close to the right mixture (typically 3 steps on primary rods), and simple choke functions. The best are the ones covered in oil, has all it's parts intact, and no one has rebuilt (ruined) including major rebuilders. The best were on factory High Performance engines, 273 340 383 400 440. These were calibrated closest to the type of engine we want to build. Mopar used the AFB, AVS, TQ, QJ, and Holley. My favorites are the AVS, TQ, QJ. These three have an infinitely Adjustable Air Valve to regulate air to the secondaries. The TQ and QJ have small primaries and huge secondaries which give them great drivability and gas mileage with no penalty when the pedal goes to the floor. As RRR said, some times you just get a bad one, but usually you can save a lot of time and money by picking up one of these carbs used. Clean it up, put a Kit in it, return it to specs, and finally tune it for your combo. And once your done, it won't require constant maintenance or tweaking.