Ford FE intake: Iron vs Aluminum?

The engineers at Rochester had their thinking caps on wit' that one! Experimenting over the years with that particular Carburetor used with a one inch Carb spacer for a little more plenum area, netted great results on a lot of different engines that I worked on in mileage as well as torque & power.  With some Carb tuning secrets from Val Headworth, a little jetting, a little timing and hold on!   LOL!

Steve@B&B

Okay, so everybody has their own opinion on this so I'll give you my experience with this stuff being I've been a hotrodder for 60+ years and still into it. Four barrels are much better than two barrels on larger engines because of better fuel mix or charge to each cylinder. Also, a lot has to do with the intake manifold used as Ed mentioned. Being I'm a Chevy guy, I always worked on the Carter AFB's & Q-jets although I have some Fords in my corral as well and worked on many Holleys and Autolites over the years when I had the Auto repair shop. The Q-jet always took a bad rap all the time (like the Powerglide trans) because if you weren't used to working on that particular Carb, you had problems. That Carb is one of the best designed Carbs ever made in my opinion. In front, you have the small throttle blades for low speed driving and excellent mileage. Out back, (depending on the cfm size) you had two trash can lids for secondaries. Set up correctly, when you stuck your big toe into those secondaries, with the engine set up right, you wouldn't need seat belts cause the crack of yer' ass is mashed in the seat! The problem with the Q-jet is it's not real easy to adapt to some applications without some fabricating. I actually adapted a Q-jet to a Dodge Police cruiser and it worked great. But, that's another story.

Now, let's talk about Holleys. Personally, I hate Holleys for the street. Not because they aren't a good performance Carburetor, its because of other stupid issues they have like metering block gaskets leaking puddling up fuel in the intake manifold. Nice setup for a fire if you aren't aware or didn't lift the hood, if the car or truck sat for a while before you got your butt in it to take it for a ride or use it for chores. I ran Holleys on my Drag car for a while and they worked well. Lots of adjustability for racing, till I moved to Hilborn Injection which is a whole other thing. If you had a Holley on your street car that was a tick on the lean side, or if the electric choke kicked off a little to soon and it popped back through the Carb, (one of the guys mentioned blowing out power valves) Yup! another PIA!  Remove the right lower screw, drain the fuel bowl, change out the power valve AND metering block gasket. (again)

The Edelbrock carb is an upgraded Carter AFB. They're simple, quite easy to work on, & work quite well on pretty much anything, BUT you do have to "dial" them in. Edelbrock's design in the metering rod department made them even easier to work on along with a lot of new bracketry they came up with to hook to the trans. Just like our Tractors, all engines are different, so it's rare you get a "drop on" outta' the box Carb.  Two of my hotrods have Edelbrocks on them along with their intakes, and with a little "dialing in" they work sweet. I did try a Demon Carburetor on Jo Jo's 55' T-bird, and being that was a little bit different and a newer design to me, once I learned how to adjust it by reading the booklet, (similar to others) it's worked flawlessly on the stock 292. 

Sooo, after all of that, I would say for your application Creston, I would call Edelbrock tech, tell them exactly what you have,  and ask them what they recommend for your application. They did all the R&D and dyno work for all of us, for all combinations. They would be the one's to ask as far as induction is concerned. Dual exhaust is also a plus in most applications, but they can also probably can steer you in the right direction in that department too, along with what to run for exhaust and camshaft profile....... Good luck man!  Hope this project works great for ya!

Steve@B&B