Need New Carb 77 Bonanza 350?
 

I have my original 77 Chevy Bonanza C10 and I want to buy a new carb. Seen the RoadKill guys, David and Steve, talking about high performance carbs, but all I need is a new carb - STOCK performance, no rebuilds. I've rebuilt the 4 barrel at least twice over the last 44 years. Would like a new Edelbrock or Summit parts brand. The guys said the Summit carb was the best overall carb.

Summit racing has dozens of carbs, but which one for my truck? Any specific model numbers? Thanks, LBJ

I will add that I called Summit about which Edelbrock carb fits my engine. They said EDL 1406 for $368.95 plus an adaptor plate MRG1932 for $22.09. I asked about the fuel line, if the steel line will fit. The helper said that no replacement carbs use steel lines - all use rubber lines. I suppose that's the trend, but like the idea of steel lines all the way to the carb.

Any other tips and suggestions?

Re: Need New Carb 77 Bonanza 350?
 

I put a Eddy 1405 on mine years ago. (manual choke). IIRC 1406 is the same except electric choke. For a stock manifold you will need an adapter plate. If you are using the stock air cleaner, get the banjo hose fitting. The straight out one won't clear. Even with the banjo, you might need a minor hammer adjustment to the cleaner.

Get the calibration kit. Out of the box, they tend to be rich.
Check the float levels before installing.

I think Eddy or someone makes a metal line + filter that comes close to the front of the manifold. You could modify the OEM steel line to fit. The one I remember seeing has the banjo so should clear a stock air cleaner.

You may need a some adapters for the throttle linkages. When I bought mine, it was setup for the older solid linkage setup. The cable set uses different connectors.

Re: Need New Carb 77 Bonanza 350?
 

Hey Dead Parrot, good info there! Not exactly sure about what you are calling a "banjo?" Many thanks, LBJ

Re: Need New Carb 77 Bonanza 350?
 

Here’s a banjo fitting.

https://www.edelbrock.com/banjo-fitt...8-20-8089.html

Why not rebuild your stock one again.
Or spend a bit more for a Sean Murphy quadrajet.

https://www.smicarburetor.com/produc...D2/9/sfID3/108

Re: Need New Carb 77 Bonanza 350?
 

Geezer, OK, that banjo fitting. Know about those. But reference to the stock air cleaner needing a banjo fitting kinda threw me. I could rebuild mine and cost me less than $50 I'm sure. But, it's 44 years old. Might be worn on the butterfly valves and stuff. Engine has less than 100K miles, but that's no guarantee. Also need to reduce the jets as it's way too rich. Just a weekend driver and parts chaser for other projects. I drive it to keep the battery charged, mainly. If I was really going top drawer, I'd buy that FI setup! But it's way over a $grand$. Thanks. LBJ

Re: Need New Carb 77 Bonanza 350?
 

On mine, the stock air cleaner sits low on the carb. The straight out fuel fitting didn't clear the down turn. Look under your stock air cleaner and if it is like mine, you should see the clearance problem. Imagine a 2" long pipe coming out the side of the secondary air horn close to the top.

I went with the Eddy carb as every Chevy Q-Jet I have owned has leaked out of the fuel filter housing at the front casting plug.

Re: Need New Carb 77 Bonanza 350?
 

Re: Need New Carb 77 Bonanza 350?
 

Have you taken a look at Cliff’s high performance? His book and parts are top notch. It’s nice to keep as original as possible. I’ve run a few q-jets and when maintained, they’re hard to beat.

Re: Need New Carb 77 Bonanza 350?
 

Since you have run your Qjet for 44 years, you might like to try something different. Just don't sell that original carb in case you want to go back to it. I had an Eddy carb on one of my trucks and stock Qjet on the other and I couldn't really decide which one I liked better. The Qjet is smoother and has a better choke and starts easier. The Eddy choke can be adjusted to work well enough once you get used to it. It doesn't have a choke pull off so you can't just start it and walk away like the Qjet. I do like the feel of the bigger primaries on a square bore carb. You won't be out much money to give it a try.

Re: Need New Carb 77 Bonanza 350?
 

1406 eddy is the standard for most folks and work great right out of the box. Pretty much any 600-750cfm carb will work well.

There are square bore and spread bore intake manifolds and carbs. Instead of running the adapter I would swap on the matching intake at the same time. Less fail points that way and if nothing else it will cut some weight.

On the C3 corvette forms they are all into this cat named Lars. He is a q jet guru and will rebuild your carb and set it to your apeca. He also has great reference papers to help you set up your stock carb better then factory. ”The Lars papers ” check them out. Also some great timing info from the on him.

Ultimately a well tuned and properly art up q jet will get better MPG and could outpreform the eddy. They are not well understood carbs.

Here is a link to some of his papers and his contact info. No affilation on my end but the better and z28 guys swear by his setups.
https://nastyz28.com/threads/lars-qjet-papers.183265/

Re: Need New Carb 77 Bonanza 350?
 

What would you like to achieve by replacing the carb? Freiburger is a smart guy, but for instance, what he does with cars could hardly be more different than what I do with cars (trucks). If you have an original truck like you said, it would be good to know what you are trying to gain or correct by putting on a new carb since you said you want stock performance. If you are thinking that it needs to be replaced just because it's old and been on there so long, you are right in that it would benefit from a rebuild with parts that are updated for modern fuel. Not too likely that you have a vacuum leak at your throttle shaft with so few years on the truck but if you did that's a specific problem that could be solved with a new carburetor, but could also be repaired.

Your original carb could be rebuilt to work as well or better than when it was new. And you would not have to change the linkage or fuel connection. If you change it, ’why' you are changing it would be the deciding factor on which new carb to get.

Re: Need New Carb 77 Bonanza 350?
 

I ran small block pickups with q-jets for most of 40 years and never did anything with any of them, except for the pickup that came with a POS Holley that I replaced with a junkyard q-jet that I had rebuilt first.

And I ran a couple of those pickups from way up above timberline in CO down to sea level in AK and TX without changing anything.