Best intake/HEI/Carb for crate motor

[digitalnic]

Bought a 302 crate motor from Napa, just need to add intake, carb, ignition.

I want to keep it simple, carbureted but electric choke. What do y'all recommend these days? I'm being recommended a DUI HEI distributor, so building around that.

Finally getting my bronco into the shop for i6/3 on the tree to crate v8/AX15 floor shifter, power steering and power disc brakes.

Thanks in advance!

 

[73azbronco]

Most basic of edelbrock performer works great, I have one on my stroker.

I would say find a well rebuilt 2100. Beyond that you have to get into fairy dust with a quadrjet.

 

[SteveL]

DUI, offenhauser manifold with a q-jet

 

[Speedrdr]

I don’t rock crawl, but my 1st EB had an Edlebrock Performer intake and a Holley 600 CFM 4-bbl electric choke. Loved the intake but hated the Holley carb. Would not stay tuned if I ran it hard in the mud. The present EB is a 347 stroker with the Edlebrock performer and an Edlebrock #1406 600 CFM 4-bbl with electric choke. This has been a much nicer combo for my money.

 

[ntsqd]

For a street only driven vehicle I would go with the AFB/Edelbrock if you need an out of the box solution.
If going to the junk-yard to harvest parts is more your thing then Q-Jet and buy the book on tuning them.

I think the Offy intake is the only one that will directly bolt on a Q-Jet, all of the others require an adapter/spacer. I'm sure that'll be corrected if I'm wrong.

Not a fan of the HEI's huge cap. Can cause hood clearance issues, so look into that. It is probably the best easy out of the box solution.
If you're more interested in the JY solution than Ford Dura-Spark II all the way. Use an E-Core coil from a late(r) model.
If you are slightly adventurous and doing electrical doesn't scare you, then use the D-S II distributor & wiring with a Davis Ignition (DUI DynaMod) HEI module. Use the E-Core coil from a late(r) model

 

[SteveL]

The Edelbrock carb work good on flat ground but tilt em around and they lay a bit turd. If you're leaning toward the performer carb the carter is the same but at least $100 cheaper. The only draw back is the carter may not be smog legal

 

[ntsqd]

Is why I qualified it with "street driven only." Those longish side hung float bowls make it easy to uncover a jet in any off-camber work, particularly climbing, and the lack of slosh control side to side makes it easy for the uphill bowl to dump some of it's fuel into the downhill bowl..

Edelbrock has a tuning method that reportedly works well enough. In the days when I was running a Carter AFB that info wasn't available. Instead I worked up an Excel spreadsheet that listed every possible needle and jet combo and organized them by Cruise open area and then within that the WOT open area. Made it easy to look up what was in the carb and figure out what the next combo in any particular direction needed to be.

 

[Broncobowsher]

Napa crate engine, so a stock replacement engine, not a performance crate engine.
Stock 2100/2150 2-barrel carb on a stock intake. The hood will still close. It will run good.
Stock Duraspark distributor with a GM HEI ignition module on a heat sink on the inner fender, and late 80's Ford TFI ignition coil.
All solid dead simple cockroach parts will will be available forever and reputation for just working right no matter what.

If you want a little more, 4-barrel intake and a Q-jet. Same ignition.

The DUI (and clones) are huge. Well known for hitting the bottom of the hood (DUI usually clears, cheap clones not so much). Nothing screams "I don't care and just did the laziest distributor install possible" like a Ford with an HEI dropped in. Don't need to waste the money on a DUI or get the crap quality of the DUI clones.

 

[gnpenning]

In all seriousness 2100 series carb and dura spark. The stock parts are pretty good.

 

[NGABronco]

Don't know where you're located, but me & others will give you a stock intake, 2100 carbs are reasonable and ain't nothing wrong with carbs & points!!!

 

[ntsqd]

Yes, there is. I H8 points!!! Not because they're points, but because by now all of the irreplaceable wear parts (breaker point cam specifically) are worn and usually worn out.

Broncobowsher put the recipe more succinctly than I did but this is the best path forward for ignition if not going with a full engine management system:

snip.....
Stock Duraspark distributor with a GM HEI ignition module on a heat sink on the inner fender, and late 80's Ford TFI ignition coil.
All solid dead simple cockroach parts will will be available forever and reputation for just working right no matter what.

As a bonus, the engine will run way better than it ever could with points. My slant 6, a notably smooth running engine to start with, was noticeably smoother running with a GM module and the GM equivalent to the TFI coil than is was with any previous OEM based ignition system.

I would suggest that the "DynaMod" from DUI may be the best GM module out there. Years ago MISF & I tested one against a genuine GM module and their claim of more dwell time held up. Better, it didn't fall off like the GM modules do as the RPM increased. It had a rock steady 45° dwell angle as high as we cared to rev that engine.

 

[DirtDonk]

I wonder if they still make them the same quality?
I always prefer buying the expensive performance aftermarket brands, versus buying whatever is in the parts store.
Good to know about the DUI version.

 

[ntsqd]

That quality question is I only suggest rather than recommend it. The module that we tested was still in the car when it was sold several years later, but that was a decade ago or so.