Even if you faked the computer out what is going to happen if the O2 sensor picks up a lean or rich signal? There is a big differents between being able to drive a car and getting 22 MPG on the highway.

 

As far as the carb is concerned nothing. But hmmm...it's still gonna mess with the timing isn't it! Was a good idea while it lasted!
Keep it computerized if he's not going to make radical alterations to where he's going to need to make his own tuning adjustments. Just curious, and it wasn't asked, why does your brother want to get rid of the Quadrajet anyway? When they work they work well, and some guys swear by them even for racing. I don't like em as much as a Holley, but everybody has their favorites.

 

I don't think he plans on keeping it really stock (though I think that he should). By "delete the emissions stuff," I think he wants to make it old school, but I don't know for sure because I don't think he knows for sure what to remove/how to go about doing it. He always complains that when he looks under the hood, all you can see is hoses and wires and can't see the actual engine. I'm not sure what his plans for future mods are. I think headers and exhaust. The biggest mod I know he wants to do is a T5 swap (has a 700R4 now). He really has very little experience working on cars, and I personally think he'd be much better off leaving this car fairly stock, but I think since my car has a lot of mods, he thinks his car needs to be modded to be respectable too. He's having a shop do this carb/intake work for him, I seriously doubt he would have the slightest clue about doing it himself.

Well somebody told him that it was worthless, a big downer on these engines (referred to it as "Quadra-junk"), so he sort of just went with that. Also, is this the Holley you were referring to?

Holley Model 4175 Carburetors - SummitRacing.com

He said quadra-jets are very touchy, go out of adjustment really easily, and for that reason no one wants or knows how to tune them.

 

i like the edelbrock 600 to replace the quad. they have a 500 spread bore to replace the 305 quad. never have liked holley. carter used to be a good carb but went downhill, dont know if they make em anymore.

 

is the 600 an electronically-controlled one? Like Gorn was saying, closed-loop control is important to keep the thing running optimally.

 

Whoever he is talking to is kind of clueless. Quadra jets are not hurting the stock 305 and they do not go out of adjustment. The computer re adjust them 10 times a second. The computer controlled carburetor is the closet thing to fuel injection with a venturi. If the rochester was out of adjustment his check engine lite would be on.

Working at the dealer in the 80's I rebuilt a lot of Quadra-jets. The only real adjustment is idle air flow. People end up trying to fix other problem by adjusting the Idle air screws. One thing we use to offer on higher miles car was a Tuneup and carb rebuild. I always return everything back to the original settings and 99% of the car are dead on with no further adjustment needed. I had one guy walked right into the shop after I did his car and handed me a 20 and said the his car never ran so good. I just said thanks but I thought "sure it did, when it was new" No magic adjustments or tweaking. Its not the carb adjustments its that small vacuum leaks that form over time in the air horn and intake, carb base and hoses that cause the little shake these 3C carbs get at idle. A lot of times just retoqueing the intake, carb and air horn will make them run smooth. Instead people try to adjust the carbs and get pissed when they don't work right.

The term Quadra-junk has been around for a long time. It is an unfair term. The quadra jet is designed for a factory defind application. There is not a lot of designed in easy ways to adjust things. So a guy builds a motor up and the it is not running good, he installs a Holley has a friend make a couple adjustment that are easy to do and now the car is a monster. It was all that Quadra-junks fault! NO, If you pull a EFI system system off a 160 HP 305 and stick it on 320 HP 350 will it run well? no it needs some parts changed and tuned. Well the the rochester was never designed to be "tuned", It was designed by application. The aftermarket Holley was designed from day one to be tuned to work because Holley had no idea what it was going on.

Before anyone chimes in I know the Rochester can be tuned it just not by simple means. Bending rods, reaming jets all kinds of fun stuff. I like holleys better on a engine that has modified air flow requirments. Just know your current carb is the best choice until you change that bottle neck 305 cam. Any other non computer controled carb is going to cost HP at some RPM ranges and MPG. Any change in CAM that could take the car over 200 HP should be done with a stronger bottom end.

 

And once again, Gorn FTW

 

A lot of the hose on top of the motor are for the ventlation or the carburator and fuel tank and the exhaust air injection systems. These can be removed with little or no effect on how the car runs but is required to stay in some States. If you research each system and see how to correcly remove it Id bet you could remover 50 precent or more of what is on top of the motor.

 

Again, what's your brothers capabilities, or is he going to have to pay someone to swap all the parts? And what's his budget? Add up a new intake, carburetor, distributor, and a transmission controller (the current computer will be rendered useless). He's right under a grand in parts right there. I know you said you didn't want to hear "put a 350 in it", but putting that kind of money (plus labor) into a 305 with the hopes of it becoming a "performance engine" might not be the best investment. A lot of us do this kind of thing as a hobby...doing it ourselves because it's fun. There are some things I wouldn't have done to my cars in the past if I had to pay for the work, as it wouldn't have been worth it.

 

My brother doesn't really have hardly any experience working on cars. I believe a lot of stuff he would pay to have done. He's having somebody else do the carb/intake job (had a blown intake manifold gasket, so he was thinking that as long as that stuff was off, this would be the time to change it), so that's what kicked all of this stuff off. Don't know what his budget is.