Edelbrock 1406 carb problems

[rodnutrandy]

Actually, when I checked, I had choke backed off so it wasn't working. I did unhook my hot feed and the truck still starts cold and idles fine. That tells me Edelbrock was wrong when they told me the reason truck runs better with vacumn plugged is its running lean. If it was that lean ,it wouldn't run at idle in my opinion starting up at 30 degrees and no choke. I drove truck in town today and went to car wash to wash off motor. it had mice droppings and thought the small drive would be good for truck, also tooped off tank at 2.97 a gallon. Then took both drivers we had to Kroger with $1.00 off and filled them and 2 gas cans at $2.09 a gollon,so its been a good day so far!

[Stan.Gundry]

I have two cars with the 1406 Edelbrock carb, one on a conventional 289 and the other on my R-2 Avanti. I consider both a vast improvement over the old and worn Carter AFBs I had been using. Both have the electric choke, and both have the unplugged hole. I have never had a problem of rough idle or stumbling/hesitation with either one. Nevertheless, when I take them out of storage next spring, I will try plugging the holes to see if it makes a difference.

[JoeHall]

I have two cars with the 1406 Edelbrock carb, one on a conventional 289 and the other on my R-2 Avanti. I consider both a vast improvement over the old and worn Carter AFBs I had been using. Both have the electric choke, and both have the unplugged hole. I have never had a problem of rough idle or stumbling/hesitation with either one. Nevertheless, when I take them out of storage next spring, I will try plugging the holes to see if it makes a difference.

Carb preferences are like oil preferences, and some of us are downright passionate about ours.

I too, consider the AFB cloned Edlebrock to be a major improvement over the OEM, WW series two barrel, WCFB, especially for performance and all around function. Main drawback is MPG, which is no better than the aforementioned; if anything it is worse on anything but the Interstate road, due to the large capacity accelerator pumps. As for superiority over an [U]serviceable[U] AFB, the Edlebrock is a clone, and for me, has done nothing better or worse than an AFB. Of course, if the AFB is worn out, that is not a fair comparison. I like that one can easily play with the jets & power valves on both of them, but then again, so can one with the WW and WCFB.

IMHO, one of the best kept secrets is the now nearly extinct, model 4350, "baby Holley". It is a 450 CFM four barrel, "economizer" carb that was designed to be a cheap replacement for Quadrajunk carbs in the 1970s-1980s. For MPG and all around function, it is VERY hard to beat, i.e. two days ago, the wife's GT, with baby Holley, got 18.9 MPG on a 200 mile trip (mostly Interstate), and consistently gets 16-17 MPG on Kentucky's country roads. It has a 3.07 rear end, which helps too, but most Stude folks have trouble believing a Stude V8 can get that kinda MPG under any circumstances.

[MCCAB1]

The hole in question is there for a reason! If you have to plug it you have another problem. The early ones had a nipple to put a rubber hose on and it went up to the air horn area and got filtered air. On the newer ones they did away with the nipple and put a screen inside the hole to get air without getting debris. If you didn't have a small amount of metered air across the electric choke it can overheat. The electric choke gets plenty hot enough to open completely with this air bleed even at 0 deg. F. or colder. I am using three of these setups on some of my vehicles with no problems what so ever!

[rodnutrandy]

Mine is going to stay plugged, I don't use the choke and disconnected the hot wire to choke, Edlebrock told me my engine is lean and thats why it runs better, if lean why does it start on a 30 degree day with no choke and set and idle right off the bat, I have old afbs and avs carbs also, they had a vacumn hook up on the carb that went to the ch9oke pull off, not a vacumn leak in the choke housing.