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Carb Comparison & Opinions

petieg383

petieg383

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I'm looking to replace my old tired ugly worn out carb on the 440. It's a 30 year old Holley 750 Vac Sec carb that I've used to just get it running for the past year or so. I'm just tired of it, it's always leaking here or there and frankly it's time.

I'm looking at replacing the old 750 Vac Sec carb with a 750 Double Pumper style carb with 4 corner idle and as many features as possible so I'm looking at the following ideas:
  1. A "refurbished" warranty replacement carb direct from Holley. Somewhere in the $350-375 range. Holley claims these are gone over and fully functioning, and that most times it's an installer issue not a carb issue.
  2. A new Proform 750DP carb. About $400, shiny and new. Even comes with the electric choke and more features than an standard Holley.
Everything else is over the $500 range and that starts cutting into the budget for other things. As always I'm looking for a mix of good deal/low(er) cost. I'd love to hear your opinions on these 2 choices and any other options. No Edelbrock style carbs please. I'm DONE with them.

And if it helps, it's a street driven relatively stock 440, exhaust manifolds and way too small of an exhaust system, Weiand intake, small cam (likely a 484 type cam, it has a nice idle and pulls about 14-15 vacuum), 4 speed and 3.23 gears.

Yellow
Yellow
Yellow
Green - GO!!
 
I don't want to hijack this thread, but I have the same drive train as you except for the engine (383 vs 440). The car came with a 750 Edelbrock and I have had no problems so far so I am curious as to the reasoning behind your comment "No Edelbrock style carbs please. I'm DONE with them".
 
Quickfuel Q series-735cfm.

I bolted on mine (680 cfm), set the floats, idle speed and 4 corner idle to 1 1/4 turns from bottoming out (standard specs)

Ran exceeding well. Barely have touched it since.
 
Well.... I'd suggest you buy another 3310 750 vac secondary Holley. A double pumper anything is too much fuel for you in my opinion. I ran a test on my 440 many years ago & change carbs 3 times in 30 days. I was running a 292/509 purple cam then.

1. 650 Holley double pumper - mileage 6 city/8 highway & puffed black smoke when I floored it. I concluded in my test that a 650 was too small & a double pumper anything was too much... and I have a 4spd car.
2. 750 Holley vac. secondary (3310) - mileage 8 city/10 highway - not bad, ran well.
3. Six-Pack - mileage 10 city/12 highway - pulled at least as hard as the 750
 
edelbrock/carter type carbs don't give me heartburn. they're fuel efficient, can't break them and far easier to tune than the internet jockeys would have you believe. it really doesn't make any difference what you buy, you'll still have to tinker with it to get the correct tune. i'd probably do quick-fuel before holley. i like the old stock avs's. 6paks are very good performers and i'm currently running an edelbrock dual quad that is a great street set-up.
 
I have a friend that has had nothing but trouble with Edelbrocks.

I personally have had nothing but "drop it on and it runs good" experiences with them.

OTOH, I've had nothing but headaches with Holleys.

My biggest peve is that they (every one I've ever had) idle at 600 today, so I crank it up to 750, then tomorrow it idles at 1100, so I crank it down (repeat).
 
I could never get on the idle circuit.. the primary blades were not closed enough so the transfer slots were exposed. Lewtot tried to talk me through modifying it but I just bit the bullet and got a QF and have no regrets.

I do have a decent sized cam 230/236 @0.050
 
I liked the old 780 vac secondary type which is probably the 750 vac secondary now. I ran one on a very mild 400, 268 comp cam with weiand dual plane and headers. great combo for street or strip, ran mid 13s in a 4 door Coronet. Good luck!
 
The old 3310's were pretty decent carbs...probably the best vac secondary carb Holley ever made. There's no other vac carb from Holley I'd ever consider using. DP's are my next choice for performance but they demand more attention to tuning and maintenance. The best street carb I've ever used was the TQ. They demand that you learn how to tune them or they will be nothing but a headache to ya and even though having the air door adjustment tool isn't a must, it makes adjusting the secondary air door much easier.....and they can pull down great mpg's too. PLUS, they will go many many miles longer than any Holley without having to make adjustments! On the Eddys.....not sure what's up with so many having problems with them but imo, they don't have the performance and mpg that the TQ does.
 
RT K_line said:
I liked the old 780 vac secondary type which is probably the 750 vac secondary now. I ran one on a very mild 400, 268 comp cam with weiand dual plane and headers. great combo for street or strip, ran mid 13s in a 4 door Coronet. Good luck!
Click to expand...
at the time when the holley 780VS was used they were pretty good universal carbs. quick-fuel has revived this carb and i'd bet it's probably a very good street/strip carb.
 
Cranky said:
The old 3310's were pretty decent carbs...probably the best vac secondary carb Holley ever made. There's no other vac carb from Holley I'd ever consider using. DP's are my next choice for performance but they demand more attention to tuning and maintenance. The best street carb I've ever used was the TQ. They demand that you learn how to tune them or they will be nothing but a headache to ya and even though having the air door adjustment tool isn't a must, it makes adjusting the secondary air door much easier.....and they can pull down great mpg's too. PLUS, they will go many many miles longer than any Holley without having to make adjustments! On the Eddys.....not sure what's up with so many having problems with them but imo, they don't have the performance and mpg that the TQ does.
Click to expand...
Agree 100% also a fan of the TQ here
 
I've ran just about every brand of carb and have ran an 870 vs, 850 dp and 750 dp on my current motor and like the 750 dp best. As far as brands go I like Holleys, Demons and Quick Fuels (favorite), my recommendation is just try to get as much tunability as you can. Seemed like I always had idle quality or off idle issues but now with tunable air bleeds it's finally dialed in everywhere. I'm running a Q series 750.
 
I been playing with 3 carbs since I got the car running. First was the Eddy 600, had to jet up from the economy calibration,not a bad unit when cold but warm was kind of soggy. Second the 3310, had to jetup slightly and tune the secondary spring, better carb than the Eddy IMO. Third is a 750 DP with the choke horn milled,stock internals per the list #s. Great driveability and power when romping on it. Will probably go back to the 3310 for economy whatever that is? With the weather turning I wont have a chance for a good long ride to check hot weather issues or mileage. Hopefully we get a break.
 
petieg383 said:
I'm looking to replace my old tired ugly worn out carb on the 440. It's a 30 year old Holley 750 Vac Sec carb that I've used to just get it running for the past year or so. I'm just tired of it, it's always leaking here or there and frankly it's time.

I'm looking at replacing the old 750 Vac Sec carb with a 750 Double Pumper style carb with 4 corner idle and as many features as possible so I'm looking at the following ideas:
  1. A "refurbished" warranty replacement carb direct from Holley. Somewhere in the $350-375 range. Holley claims these are gone over and fully functioning, and that most times it's an installer issue not a carb issue.
  2. A new Proform 750DP carb. About $400, shiny and new. Even comes with the electric choke and more features than an standard Holley.
Everything else is over the $500 range and that starts cutting into the budget for other things. As always I'm looking for a mix of good deal/low(er) cost. I'd love to hear your opinions on these 2 choices and any other options. No Edelbrock style carbs please. I'm DONE with them.

And if it helps, it's a street driven relatively stock 440, exhaust manifolds and way too small of an exhaust system, Weiand intake, small cam (likely a 484 type cam, it has a nice idle and pulls about 14-15 vacuum), 4 speed and 3.23 gears.

Yellow
Yellow
Yellow
Green - GO!!
Click to expand...

Invest in a A/F gauge setup, that's the best advice anyone can give for tuning a carb. Without it you're just blowing smoke with air bleeds and jet changes, as this is how dyno operators tune your car, there is no secret methodology. My father thought the car ran good, seemed a bit lazy off idle with a slight stumble when warm, car was running 10:1 AFR at idle and 11:1 AFR while cruising. Required 30 minutes worth of minuscule changes to get it to a proper 14.5:1 at idle and cruise, without the wideband, it would have been nearly impossible to make the proper changes necessary for a perfect AFR. I doubt you'll see much difference in economy with either style of carb overall, but the six pack setup is probably the most fuel efficient as it runs off the center 2-Barrel for a vast majority of street driving.
 
Last edited:
I've ran just about every brand of carb and have ran an 870 vs, 850 dp and 750 dp on my current motor and like the 750 dp best. As far as brands go I like Holleys, Demons and Quick Fuels (favorite), my recommendation is just try to get as much tunability as you can. Seemed like I always had idle quality or off idle issues but now with tunable air bleeds it's finally dialed in everywhere. I'm running a Q series 750.
 
Sweet5ltr said:
Invest in a A/F gauge setup, that's the best advice anyone can give for tuning a carb. Without it you're just blowing smoke with air bleeds and jet changes. I doubt you'll see much difference in economy with either style of carb, but the six pack setup is probably the most fuel efficient as it runs off the center 2-Barrel for a vast majority of street driving.
Click to expand...
So does a 4 barrel?
 
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