# Holley Carburetors



## Forest (Mar 29, 2014)

Ok, any men here that are afraid to discuss the topic of "Men, The Forgotten Gender" in that thread, can now do it here.

All I can say is that I'm glad the person giving the talk was a woman.


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## *LittleDeer* (Apr 19, 2012)

Bride burning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## Forest (Mar 29, 2014)

Curses! Foiled again!

Is there no respite? Even the sacrosanct carburetor has been compromised!


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## soccermom2three (Jan 4, 2013)

I remember when I was a kid my Dad would be bring home Holley stickers for me and my brother. My Dad owned an auto machine shop and Holley would hand out the stickers as a promotion.


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## larry.gray (Feb 21, 2011)

Just go for one of the add on EFI systems and ditch them altogether. You won't regret it.

Oh, I posted in response to the subject without reading.


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## vellocet (Oct 18, 2013)

Holley Carburetors, very good brand.

My personal favorite are the 4 barrel double pumpers. 

There...turn that into a gender war!!!! I'm sure she will find a way.


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## unbelievable (Aug 20, 2010)

vellocet said:


> Holley Carburetors, very good brand.
> 
> My personal favorite are the 4 barrel double pumpers.
> 
> There...turn that into a gender war!!!! I'm sure she will find a way.



They'll pass anything except a gas station.


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## vellocet (Oct 18, 2013)

Maybe citing the double pumpers was a tad sexist? Sorry


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## Thor (Oct 31, 2011)

About a year ago Road & Track magazine had an article describing what a carburetor is and how it works. What has this world come to?

My dad taught me the trick of turning the air cleaner lid upside down on the 4bbl carb (on my mom's Olds Cutlass with the big V-8) before going out on a date. It growled even more that way.


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## Yeswecan (Jul 25, 2014)

Thor said:


> My dad taught me the trick of turning the air cleaner lid upside down on the 4bbl carb (on my mom's Olds Cutlass with the big V-8) before going out on a date. It growled even more that way.


I did the same.


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## GTdad (Aug 15, 2011)

Yeswecan said:


> I did the same.


Me too, except that my dad thought it was a dumb idea. "Yer going to go through a hell of a lot of air filters that way."

The glasspack exhaust system made up for it, though.


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## Runs like Dog (Feb 25, 2011)

Bosch EFI on Porsches was for years, an invitation to call the fire department to come put out your car. It's kind of a pity that EFIs were employed to restrict fuel usage and emissions and not simply replace the tinker toy of having to worry about carb tuning. Because once leaded fuel went away and head compression was generally lowered as a result, tweaking a multicarb on a small engine like a Porsche 4 became a nightmare so EFI became the lazy man's approach. And it was terrible. Much rather they switched to something like a Hilborn mechanical fuel injector. Mate it with a turbo-compound ERS.


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## Thor (Oct 31, 2011)

GTdad said:


> Me too, except that my dad thought it was a dumb idea. "Yer going to go through a hell of a lot of air filters that way."
> 
> The glasspack exhaust system made up for it, though.


My grandfather's car had a bolt on exhaust system. My dad as a teen would unbolt the muffler and install a Thrush muffler when he went out. My dad is a car nut and encouraged the same in me. Mom always had a hot car, and she earned plenty of speeding tickets too.


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## Racer (Sep 24, 2009)

Hehe... Quadra-jet here... custom tuned for off-road (does fine on the angles). Love it when the secondaries pop open and it goes from a rubble to a full out roar.

But ya... where has the world gone. I've gone through three mechanics who know less about tuning a carb than I do. It takes multiple trips to get rid of gremlins they added... 

Those that know carbs are really proud of that skill $$$$ because they are typically speed shops catering to the race crowd (who still use carbs) or specialty shops like hotrod joints. My last carb tune cost almost as much as a cheap EFI kit.


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## chillymorn (Aug 11, 2010)

Thor said:


> About a year ago Road & Track magazine had an article describing what a carburetor is and how it works. What has this world come to?
> 
> My dad taught me the trick of turning the air cleaner lid upside down on the 4bbl carb (on my mom's Olds Cutlass with the big V-8) before going out on a date. It growled even more that way.


my first ride was a 77 cutlass supreme 350 4 barrel.

loved that car. had a nice big back seat!!!!! 

lots of [email protected] not to good on gas. but gas was only 1$ a gallon


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## tulsy (Nov 30, 2012)

My eldest son and I just rebuilt a 1974 Honda C70 carb...it's so small, it only took about an hour. It was his first time working on a motorcycle (he turned 16 last October), so he was thrilled to rebuild a carb and start up the bike so quickly...told me he was actually surprised it would start so quickly. This weekend we're working on the throttle and cable. Looking forward to it.


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## Thor (Oct 31, 2011)

chillymorn said:


> my first ride was a 77 cutlass supreme 350 4 barrel.
> 
> loved that car. had a nice big back seat!!!!!
> 
> lots of [email protected] not to good on gas. but gas was only 1$ a gallon


My mom's was a '73. I bought it from her when she got something else. It got maybe 12 mpg with normal town driving, maybe 16mpg on the highway. The back seat was pretty small as I remember. Boy did it suck on snow! All that torque, with all the weight up front, and of course rear wheel drive.


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## chillymorn (Aug 11, 2010)

Thor said:


> My mom's was a '73. I bought it from her when she got something else. It got maybe 12 mpg with normal town driving, maybe 16mpg on the highway. The back seat was pretty small as I remember. Boy did it suck on snow! All that torque, with all the weight up front, and of course rear wheel drive.


small back seat? just looked up images of it the 73 and 77 are of similar size. I guess size is relative lol. 
yep all rear wheel drives were crappy in the snow. But great to do donuts in!!!!!


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## Lloyd Dobler (Apr 24, 2014)

chillymorn said:


> my first ride was a 77 cutlass supreme 350 4 barrel.
> 
> loved that car. had a nice big back seat!!!!!
> 
> lots of [email protected] not to good on gas. but gas was only 1$ a gallon


I had one too, when I was in high school. Great car. I was on a double date once with a buddy and his girlfriend and one of his girlfriend's friends they were trying to set me up with. I had literally just filled the wiper fluid about a day before, and while I was driving I smashed a huge bug on the window. Naturally I decided to use my wipers and some wiper fluid to get the bug guts off the window. So I hit the wiper fluid lever and it spurts some fluid onto the windshield. And then it spurts again. And again, and doesn't stop spurting until the wiper fluid reservoir was empty. Needless to say, my buddy and I were in hysterics by then and even the girls thought it was hilarious. That's the one overriding memory I have of my Cutlass Supreme...


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## Forest (Mar 29, 2014)

Some of us had a schtick we'd joke around with that went something like:

"Whadda gotta unna dere?"

"I gotta Fo-fitty-fo widda Fo-batta-cattee-attor"

Ho. I forgot the best part of the story. Back in the 70s there was a well know mechanic in Forest, MS that inspired this bit. It was not at all deprecating, but was done to try and sound like him, because he was a great man, friend, and mechanic. His name was Dixon Mason. Seriously. I didn't realize the irony until I was nearly grown.


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## larry.gray (Feb 21, 2011)

Racer said:


> Hehe... Quadra-jet here... custom tuned for off-road (does fine on the angles). Love it when the secondaries pop open and it goes from a rubble to a full out roar.


I had a '70 buick in college. It had a 455. That was the last year of 10.5:1 compression. I did all of the things mentioned. The upside down aircleaner filter helped a lot with power. It just made cold idle and acceleration rough when freezing because there was no carb heat. I did also ice up one time driving in the fog. I also ran straight pipes a couple of times. It was fun at night because it would light up blue underneath when it wound up.

The speedometer topped at 120. I don't know where it topped out but a buddy I was cruzing with said we were doing 135 at one point. Until the oughties it beat the heck out of anything that didn't originally sell for $80K. Now there is a lot out there that is faster and much safer.


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## GTdad (Aug 15, 2011)

larry.gray said:


> The speedometer topped at 120. I don't know where it topped out but a buddy I was cruzing with said we were doing 135 at one point. Until the oughties it beat the heck out of anything that didn't originally sell for $80K. Now there is a lot out there that is faster and much safer.


It's interesting to watch performance development over time. In the early 80s my Mustang with a 302 ran at 3000 rpm at 75 or 80 mph. I've recently driven 4 cyl. vehicles that run at lower rpm's at the same speed.


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## Yeswecan (Jul 25, 2014)

larry.gray said:


> I had a '70 buick in college. It had a 455. That was the last year of 10.5:1 compression. I did all of the things mentioned. The upside down aircleaner filter helped a lot with power. It just made cold idle and acceleration rough when freezing because there was no carb heat. I did also ice up one time driving in the fog. I also ran straight pipes a couple of times. It was fun at night because it would light up blue underneath when it wound up.
> 
> The speedometer topped at 120. I don't know where it topped out but a buddy I was cruzing with said we were doing 135 at one point. Until the oughties it beat the heck out of anything that didn't originally sell for $80K. Now there is a lot out there that is faster and much safer.


I had a 73 Buick Estate Wagon in college. 455 and 4 brrl Rochester. It was my 9 passenger Porsche that could also carry a keg! We had a great time in that urban assault vehicle.


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## Forest (Mar 29, 2014)

Well, I think the coast is clear now.

Do any of you men actually go over to the women's forum? Why? It seems out of whack.

The last thing I'd do is go over there and spout off a bunch of negative commentary about women. I suspect it rarely happens. They sure get bent out of shape at things men say here, then act like its a major affront.


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## Runs like Dog (Feb 25, 2011)

GTdad said:


> It's interesting to watch performance development over time. In the early 80s my Mustang with a 302 ran at 3000 rpm at 75 or 80 mph. I've recently driven 4 cyl. vehicles that run at lower rpm's at the same speed.



But they're all chipped to an electronic governor that restricts top end to about 132-136mph.


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## Runs like Dog (Feb 25, 2011)

Yeswecan said:


> I had a 73 Buick Estate Wagon in college. 455 and 4 brrl Rochester. It was my 9 passenger Porsche that could also carry a keg! We had a great time in that urban assault vehicle.


The Benz 600 Pullman Limo could pull almost 130mph off the showroom floor. It weighs 7,300lbs fully loaded and is 21ft long.


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## Runs like Dog (Feb 25, 2011)

Thor said:


> My mom's was a '73. I bought it from her when she got something else. It got maybe 12 mpg with normal town driving, maybe 16mpg on the highway. The back seat was pretty small as I remember. Boy did it suck on snow! All that torque, with all the weight up front, and of course rear wheel drive.


Nowadays even unleaded 93 octane gas would predetonate. If you can find 104 octane Avgas throw some in.


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## 2ntnuf (Jul 14, 2012)

A few of us can remember quite a bit under $1.00 a gallon for gas. Yeah, I was afraid. So, at least I admit it. Really, I did not know which way that thread was going. It was a disgusting display of male bashing and I'll have to go back and take a second look. Seemed like someone was not prepared for the inevitable onslaught. bahahaha sorry....


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## Thor (Oct 31, 2011)

Runs like Dog said:


> Nowadays even unleaded 93 octane gas would predetonate. If you can find 104 octane Avgas throw some in.


Back in 1979 on the east coast we had a faux gas crisis. There were long lines at gas stations, with both minimum and a maximum purchase limits. 5 gallons minimum, and I forget the max. There was Even-Odd rationing, meaning you could only fill up on an even day if your license plate ended in an even number, ditto for odd numbers. But if you went to the beach you could see the tankers lined up on the horizon waiting to offload, but they couldn't because all the storage tanks were full!

Anyhow, I was a student pilot at the time at Linden Airport. There was no shortage of Avgas. All the instructors would fill their cars with avgas, cheaper than premium too because there was no state gas tax on avgas.


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## 2ntnuf (Jul 14, 2012)

If you look for the profits made by a shortage, you will understand the reason for the crisis. You will also understand that the environmentalists, while correct in what they were saying, could only achieve their goals through a crisis like that. It makes perfect sense to me from a position of hindsight. Gerald Ford was president. Nixon was gone, even though I think he was a better president. Carter, oh god, was on his way. He seemed so weak. It was really disgusting, and so was Billy beer from what I hear. I never had any. Iron City was very hoppey and good back then. The master brewer knew what he was doing. Dad would give me a shot glass of ice cold Iron after working in the yard with him cutting grass and picking weeds out of the garden on a hot Saturday. mmmm....I sipped it slowly. The simple pleasures of a simple life are some of the best.


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## Q tip (Apr 15, 2014)

I had a 70 AAR Cuda. Nice little double pumper Holley on top of an Eddlenbrock mani. Wish I had that Cuda today...


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## Thundarr (Jul 4, 2012)

Autos had their own personality with carbs. There was a trick to knowing the right combination of pedal pumps before hitting the ignition, how much choke to apply and when, and how to fan the gas when all else failed. I don't miss it much. I had a beat up 73 cutlass though that fired up hot or cold with nothing but a key turn. It was an anomaly.


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## larry.gray (Feb 21, 2011)

The Buick I mentioned earlier was the same way Thundarr. It never flooded, never refused to start. It's only problem was that it would keep on running if you shut it off at high idle. I blew out the muffler one time doing that.

I had a MonteCarlo after that my wife never was able to drive cold. You couldn't just give it gas when accelerating from idle. It would backfire and die every time. You had to pump it some as you came off idle.


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## alphaomega (Nov 7, 2010)

Double pumper?

Yup. That's me lately. 

I need to date more....


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## Yeswecan (Jul 25, 2014)

Thor said:


> Back in 1979 on the east coast we had a faux gas crisis. There were long lines at gas stations, with both minimum and a maximum purchase limits. 5 gallons minimum, and I forget the max. There was Even-Odd rationing, meaning you could only fill up on an even day if your license plate ended in an even number, ditto for odd numbers. But if you went to the beach you could see the tankers lined up on the horizon waiting to offload, but they couldn't because all the storage tanks were full!


Yes sir. Even days and odd days according to the your license plate. Silly really.


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## Runs like Dog (Feb 25, 2011)

Yeswecan said:


> Yes sir. Even days and odd days according to the your license plate. Silly really.


If your plate was custom and read "EVEN" it was odd and if it read "ODD" it was even.


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## 2ntnuf (Jul 14, 2012)

Runs like Dog said:


> If your plate was custom and read "EVEN" it was odd and if it read "ODD" it was even.


I didn't know there were custom plates then? :scratchhead:


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## Forest (Mar 29, 2014)

2ntnuf said:


> If you look for the profits made by a shortage, you will understand the reason for the crisis. You will also understand that the environmentalists, while correct in what they were saying, could only achieve their goals through a crisis like that. It makes perfect sense to me from a position of hindsight. Gerald Ford was president. Nixon was gone, even though I think he was a better president. Carter, oh god, was on his way. He seemed so weak. It was really disgusting, and so was Billy beer from what I hear. I never had any. Iron City was very hoppey and good back then. The master brewer knew what he was doing. Dad would give me a shot glass of ice cold Iron after working in the yard with him cutting grass and picking weeds out of the garden on a hot Saturday. mmmm....I sipped it slowly. The simple pleasures of a simple life are some of the best.


Reminds me of this pipeline business.

I know folks in Oklahoma that live in the area where two major pipelines went thru last year. This is a ways south of Cushing, OK, the pipeline crossroads. 

One pipeline actually crossed the property of some friends. I was there in Sept after these had wrapped up. I personally heard nothing but positive feedback from the landowners. When the crews moved out, everything was left better than before. New fences, improved drainage, more gravel on the roads, and cash in landowner's pockets. The pastures they crossed where smoothed out, and disc'd for planting if the landowner wished. Big boost for the local economy from the crews spending.

Does anyone here use Seafoam in the gas for carb engines? I added some extra in the tank of a tiller, and it sure helped.


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## Thor (Oct 31, 2011)

Seafoam is good stuff. My motorcycle carb wouldn't clean out with anything else.


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## Cobalt (Nov 16, 2014)

vellocet said:


> Holley Carburetors, very good brand.
> 
> My personal favorite are the 4 barrel double pumpers.
> 
> There...turn that into a gender war!!!! I'm sure she will find a way.


I remember reading Car Craft was I was a kid: Holly Double pumpers, Crane Cams, Hooker Headers, Hurst shifters, etc :smthumbup:


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## thenub (Oct 3, 2014)

I've only run one Holley carb in my life. I preferred the Carter AFB on my 70 Buick GS350.
When I got my 69 GS400 I replaced the motor with a 70 stage1 455 outfitted with a pile of Kenne-Bell performance parts along with an Offenhauser dual 4bbl intake manifold topped off with two Predator carbs....... That was a fun car!!


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