VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1980-1989 Rebuild Or Replace Carburetor

Hello All,
I am a new member on this forum, but will probably be a regular as I am doing a complete renovation on a 85 Chevy C10.
My question right now is, about the carburetor, should I rebuild, or replace?
Been looking at some of those Holly or Edelbrock units and am wondering what the general consensus is, Replace or Rebuild?
I know I have problems with the carburetor, I have to crank for quite a while before she will start, not running real smooth, and dying unexpectedly. Maybe just a cracked seal?
I am replacing the entire fuel system, new gas tanks, fuel lines, vapor lines, pump, etc.
The current carburetor is the original Rochester 4bbl. I would prefer not to spend 500 bucks on a new one, but I really want this old girl to run good when I finish this project.
Any help, suggestions or opinions are greatly appreciated.

I am probably in the minority with this response. I am a big fan of the Rochester QuadraJet. At one time I owned 3 vehicles that used that model.

Between the vacuum controlled air valve above the secondaries and the tapered rods controlling the fuel flow through the primary jets, they could be pretty efficient. They are also a spread bore design. The primary bores are smaller than the secondaries. That means they have higher velocity air flow at part throttle for better throttle response and economy. The secondaries are larger for high flow when you really open the throttle for power.

If you are lucky to find a person that knows how to rebuild and properly adjust the original carb. I would have it rebuilt. That carb. is controled by the computor and veriuus sensors and metering rods need to be adjusted with engine rruning, like setting the dwell of the meteing rods.

Thank you both for your input, I really appreciate it.
Unfortunately I don't know any where to send it to be rebuilt, or any one to tune it once it is.
I think I will try to rebuild myself and then see what I can do about tuning. Any advice about how to do that?

Might want to also check a forum for the square body trucks. They might have a source for the parts you need in a single kit. They may also know of a site that sells the parts, lines etc. you need. This community is great but for my 87 Monte Carlo I have found a form dedicated to that specific model had more detailed knowledge.

A couple of things to consider:

(1) Of all of the components in the fuel and ignition system on that new a vehicle, the carburetor probably has the least probability of failure! I would do lots of testing before even removing it from the engine.
(2) While emission testing has slacked off in the last decade, that vehicle is still subject to Federal smog regulation. There are probably zero new aftermarket carburetors that are legal should you ever get checked.

Jon

Just looking at your symptoms:

"I have to crank for quite a while before she will start" - very possibly a function of todays fuel, which tends to evaporate from the carburetor after sitting overnight. Once started, it should start fairly easily the remainder of the day.

"dying unexpectedly" 99.9 percent probability of ignition problems.

As I posted earlier, testing is in order; just might save you a bundle.

Jon