Edelbrock Carbureators,and Chinese Distribuors etc.etc.

Okay I was on 3rd gen the other day and there was a guy on there, he pulled his factory Qjet, replaced it with a new Edelbrock went to the strip and lost almost a full second. I don't remember his build I'll find it and post it. Anyway pulled his Edelbrock back off and went back to his Qjet. He didn't jet it,didn't try to dial it in,it didn't outperform what he took off so he put things back like they were. I've helped out more than one member who put in a generic distributor,then started thinking they needed to dial in the carb. Like this guy,he thought the carb needed help. I told him to change the distributor curve 1st. Not bagging on him just an example
(Wow, went to the lightest springs and what a difference. Super peppy thru all throttle ranges now. Thanks Ricko!) Because the distributor wasn't right for what he needed out if the box.
Here's the deal, the guy that lost a second he only knew that because he ran it at the strip, he didn't know it just driving around,if he had jetted it and dialed it in for his combo he probably would have got his time back,and maybe more. The point is when you put in/put on a generic 1 size fits all,big block,small block,auto,manual,stone stock, big cam,different heads etc etc. it fits everything. This one size fits all stuff will do all of this,but probably not well or as well as it could,unless you dial it in for YOUR engine not every single engine ever made. A lot of times people spend money and it's the placebo affect I spent x dollars and it runs so much better now,it maybe slower,you don't know unless you check it.Anyways people if you are going to put on generic parts, to get the most out of them you need to dial them in. No way can a manufacturer make one part that will work optimal on everything right out of the box. That's why GM had hundreds of carbureator setups and Distributor curves. Read his post,there's more to carbureators than,mixture and choke. A lot more. And there's a lot more to distributors than setting timing.

I just received my distributor advance tuning kit and will start adjusting the curve on my K5 for my needs which is mostly cruising. I have a avs2 on it which is tuned for my needs but will go over it again as soon as I'm happy with the distributor.
@Ricko1966 Thanks that you brought to my attention that I completely disregarded the tuning of the dizzy curve.

One reason I don't suggest tossing rebuildable/repairable parts. Another is unknown quality.

potent rodent said:

the edelbrock carbs are not really a perf carb to start with

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Wouldn't be my choice of a carbureator for anything,performance,economy,nothing,but my point was people buy very generic parts and expect them to run optimal.Not the case, if you buy a,distributor,or a carbureator meant to run on everything, its going to need work to run as well as something designed for their application.

Elelbrock's work well and are easy to tune with their kits and manuals available on line but when you get a bad one they are impossible. My neighbor had a brand new 650 installed 10 years ago on his Corvette and could never get it running right. I spent a little over an afternoon with it only to find, after running it with its top off, the float bowls were leaking into the idle circuit. You could see little bubbles coming up from the floor of the bowl when it was running, you had to see it to believe it. Threw a thin coat of JB weld on it and it fixed it, tuned it and it's still working, runs great. The alcohol in the gas combined with the thin castings that corrode will drive you nuts.