What Modifications to make an Edelbrock carb work off-road?

[cro_bronco]

What modifications has anybody done to make an Edelbrock work offroad. I have the offroad needle and seats and I've lowered the floats a little. I am looking for trail tested mods. I've searched the net and this forum and can't find much at all. Help!

 

[RangerRob]

Two other mods I have heard of are:

Fuel Pressure Regulator- 4 or 5 psi for normal driving and 2-3 for crawling. Just don't forget to turn it back up for the drive home unless you like burnt pistons!

Block the Transfer Slot (between the bowls) with something like vacuum tubing. This prevents fuel transfer from one (higher) bowl to the other (lower) in sidehill situations. This sounds worthwhile to me and I will probably do it next time I have the carb apart.

I haven't had a problem with mine without doing anything other than the Offroad needle and seat with a proper float level, BUT I don't do any hard core rock climbing either!

Hope that helps!

 

[cro_bronco]

Thanks, I'm in the process of installing a regulator and gauge. I'll have to try blocking that passage. I read that somewhere once before but I can't find the site back now.

 

[broncnaz]

Ditto one other thing remove Edlebrock and install just about anything else.LOL

 

[bsaunder]

remove carb and replace with efi ;D

the float level helped me a good bit and actually switching to an auto helped a bit too - as long as I kept the rpms above 1500 it worked well - with all the mods listed above on it though, as soon as I got tippy and the rpms dropped, the carb would flood and had a heck of a time starting again unless I coasted down to a flat spot.

After several too-close to feel fun encounters I started amounting parts for the EFI swap.

 

[Rustytruck]

We have used small plastic airline to extend the fuel bowl vents about 3 inches or so. Finding the plastic line that small was hard we found it at a truck supply. If I still had that carb I would measure it for you but i dont. All the above mods help but the solid fact that if the nose of the truck is pointing down hill and your off camber this carb sucks. Keep this carb on relatively smooth level roads and you wont have problems. Out here in the west we cross all terrains and for most real offroaders there are much better choice of carbs and or fuel injection. Good luck with yours and what ever you do keep it clean.

 

[crab]

What are you guys talking about. My Edelbrock was the perfect off road carb. It went places no bronco could after I threw it off a friggen cliff (POS!) :-X

 

[PPiazza]

I say throw it on Ebay, I sold mine for almost the whole price of my Truck Avenger. Best modification to the carb I ever did

 

[wilson]

I've had no problems with mine after I put it on the shelf in the garage and installed efi ;D I did all the tricks the regulater worked the best but when wheeling from 8000ft to 12000 feet nothing beats efi!

 

[45acp]

If you bolt it on, its gonna suck offroad. If you do a few things to it, its gonna suck offroad. If you try the following, it will work nice offroad-

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=175389&page=2&highlight=edelbrock+carb+sierra+nevada

Also, if you'll check the last post, the guy says something about epoxying a U-shaped piece of tube in the vents and drilling holes in the top (like a Holley). Ive seen this done and it works awesome. Never had time to post up pics though.

 

[RajinCajun]

I will give another vote for getting rid of the Edelbrock. The only carb I have seen actually work well on extreme angles is the old Ford Motorcraft 2 barrel. I saw it on a Heep with his left tire about 3' in the air and it only had a little darker exhaust.....it never sputtered or tried to die. Other than that one I say go EFI..but I am biased:

 

[cro_bronco]

Thanks everyone, and if you have anything more keep it coming.

I thought I should clarify, I am after this info because i already own this POS carb and need to buy a little more time until I decide whether to go EFI or get a better carb. (I have a 86' Mustang GT sitting in my barn for the swap) the only reason I am still considering the carb is the simple fact that it is much simplier than EFI.

 

[cro_bronco]

Anyone have a pic of the raised vent tube mod?

 

[Skuzzlebutt]

No pics here but I've seen it done a few ways. Pieces of fuel line held onto the vent tubes with hose clamps, or tight fitting rubber pushed onto the tubes, or removing the original tubes and pressing in longer ones. Even the stock Bronco carb had taller vents than the 2100s used on most cars, at least mine does. Or you could do it like the Holley T/A (Google it for a pic).
It's a pretty effective mod, and cheap too.
Ideally you want the tubes to stick up as high as possible without hitting the air cleaner.

 

[Gummi Bear]

Here's the article that prompted all of this hullabaloo. http://www.ih8mud.com/tech/carter.php

Personally, the best mod I've made to an Edelbrock carb, is to put it back in the box it came in, and bolt on a Q-Jet. ;D

Edelbrocks are a fantastic hot-rod carb, but they suck off-road unless you do a lot of fooling around with them.