I don't want to sound like an *** ,but, I'm gettin the feeling that you guys don't know how to make a Q-jet talk. You can't just floor it of the line, you loose all your vacuum and the motor is'nt getting any fuel. The issue you're describing sounds like the secondaries are opening to soon, assuming this is an automatic car. You want the secondaries to open at the same instant the trans downshifts. To soon and the motor boggs down, too much fuel not enough air velocity. One cause of this is the choke rod for the secondaries, sometimes it wont let them open all the way or at all. Removing it dose help a bit. The other solution to this problem is to not let the trans think for you, shift manually, listen to the motor it will tell you what it needs if you listen. Q-jets got a bad rap due to this little quirk, they are not as snappy as a Holley. However, they are the most reliable and trouble free carb ever built. I have had both Holley and Edelbrock carbs on my SB Chevy's, and I put the Q-jets back on within 6 mos. If you decide to change carbs, I will be glad to take your Q-jet off your hands, no joke, I always look for good running Q-jets.

 

Yeah, Quadrajets are great for tunability but when coming out of tune it can be a pain. This is where you get the "quadrabog" term from. They're very reliable, last many, many years but you do have to keep them tuned. THere's a lot of options that you can do with them that a lot of carbs don't make as accessible as the q-jet also. If you want an idiot-proof carb that you don't have to check every-so often then I would suggest changing it just for the ease of your sake.

Personally, I've never owned a q-jet so I would take someone's advice that has (V8chvyguy in this case) over my own. Experience is definantly the best advice. Most of my experience with them came from my dad who has had them on multiple cars and loves them.

I remember that there was an article on quadrajets a while back on the same site I linked on my last post in here if I remember correctly. I'm pretty sure it was on a camaro also and it had some information in there was pretty interesting.

V8chvyguy> I know you said that they were known for being "trouble free" but from my understanding with q-jets is that if something goes wrong it can be a lot more of a pain to narrow down the problem due to so many options for tuning. Granted, I haven't talked to my dad about q-jets in years though and I'm getting old so the termites have probably eaten through my brain in that area making my information spotty.

 

I guess I'm lucky with them. I've never had an issue with one and never had to tune or retune one. I have to admit, I have had some run like **** no matter what I did, now I just swap them out for one of the known good ones I have, and that's the end of it. My truck had a 650 Holley on when I got it, you could watch black smoke roll out the tailpipe at idle, but it was snappy and ran good. I replaced it with a brand new 795 Q-jet. All I had to set was the idle, it was not as snappy, but, it was faster than the Holley and got better mileage. Unfortunately, I was runnin her hard, popped a head gasket, and shelled the lowerend. She still runs good, but, she's not the same.

 

I'd go with a Holley Carb.

 

i would go the demon . maybe just a road demon.

 

Got to go with Edelbrock. Put a 750 thunder avs endurashine elect. choke on my SB 350 over a year ago, easy to adj. secondaries, no problems at all, very consistant.(8 mpg city/14 hwy)