Carburetors & Carb Accessories
Pontiac V8 Carburetors & Carb Accessories
Right Carb, Right Combination — Carburetors & Carb Accessories for Pontiac V8s
Carburetors & Carb Accessories decide how a Pontiac V8 drives, not just what it makes on the dyno. A rebuilt 400 with a stock cam wants a different carburetor than a big stroker with a solid roller, and CFM is only half the decision. Secondary type, choke, flange pattern and fuel inlet matter just as much.
Butler stocks Rochester Quadrajet carburetors, Edelbrock Performer Series and VRS-4150 race carbs, and the Holley line from Street Avenger and Brawler through Double Pumper, Ultra XP, HP and Dominator, plus studs, spacers, fuel line kits, linkage and adapters.
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1. Quadrajet: the Factory Answer
The Rochester Quadrajet is what most of these cars left the factory wearing, and there is a good reason people still run them. Small primaries give real part throttle manners and fuel economy, and the big secondaries are there when you want them.
| Replacement Q-jets | Butler stocks a remanufactured 800 CFM Rochester Quadrajet with an electric choke for Pontiac 350 through 455, the straightforward answer for a stock or mostly stock car. |
| Built Q-jets | Professionally rebuilt stage units add adjustable part throttle tuning, bushed throttle shafts to kill vacuum leaks, epoxy on the main body casting plug to stop the common leak down problem, and a composite float that cannot sink. |
| Fuel inlet | The Pontiac Q-jet uses a 5/8-18 inverted flare inlet. Butler stocks the adapter to -6 AN and to a 3/8 hose barb, plus complete pump to carburetor inlet kits. |
| Hardware | ARP Quadrajet studs and a stainless Butler Q-jet fastener kit replace the rusty originals. |
2. Edelbrock Performer Series
The Performer Series is the easy-living square-bore carburetor. It is the one to hand someone who does not want to become a carburetor tuner.
| Sizes | Stocked in 750 CFM with a manual choke in satin or black, and 800 CFM in manual or electric choke, all non-EGR square flange. |
| Why people like them | Metering rods handle the transition between circuits, so there are no power valves to blow out on a backfire, and the rods can be swapped in seconds without removing the carburetor or draining fuel. The two-piece all-aluminum body resists warping and is compatible with gasohol and blended fuels. |
| Where they fit | Edelbrock calibrates these for Performer RPM, RPM Air-Gap and Torker II manifolds and for Performer manifolds on large cubic inch engines, which describes a lot of Pontiacs. Timed and full vacuum ports are both included. |
| Manifold and carb kit | Edelbrock's single-quad manifold and carburetor kit for 1965-79 Pontiac 389-455 arrives as a manifold, carburetor, chrome fuel inlet, intake gasket set, intake bolt set and carb stud kit in one box. |
3. Edelbrock VRS-4150
The VRS is the carburetor Butler dyno tested in house, and it earned its place on the shelf.
| What Butler saw | On Butler's dyno the 750 CFM VRS made the same horsepower as a Holley 850 and 950 Ultra XP, and the 850 CFM VRS made the same horsepower as a Holley 950 HP. Getting that from a smaller carburetor is worth knowing about. |
| Sizes and fit | Offered in 650, 750 and 850 CFM. The 3.75" tall cast aluminum main body fits all 4150 and 4500 carb flange manifolds without an adapter plate. |
| Tuning | Four circuit billet metering blocks with screw-in emulsion bleeds, adjustable intermediate fuel circuits, interchangeable idle discharge jets in all four corners, and an externally adjustable idle bypass reachable without pulling the air cleaner. |
| Fuel control | Fuel bowls hold 20 percent more, with internal ribs and a sculpted baffle to control slosh and aeration, corner cut floats that do not shut off flow in a hard corner, and jet extenders in the rear. |
| Street friendly | A universal fit throttle arm, PTFE-coated throttle shafts, multiple vacuum hookups and a provision for a GM three-wire TPS sensor. |
4. Holley Street Carburetors
For a Pontiac that gets driven, Holley's vacuum secondary and street calibrated mechanical secondary carburetors are the volume sellers.
| Street Avenger | Stocked at 670, 770 and 870 CFM. A quick change vacuum secondary housing and included springs let you tune for performance or economy without pulling the carburetor. Four vacuum ports, a preset electric choke, built-in filters and an included fuel line kit mean it bolts on and runs. |
| Brawler | 750 and 850 CFM 4150 carburetors with mechanical secondaries for a street car that wants the secondaries to open on command. |
| Double Pumper | 700, 750, 800 and 850 CFM with dual accelerator pumps, dual feed inlets, mechanical secondaries and a manual choke. Holley intends these for light cars with a manual transmission or an automatic with a high stall converter and low gears. On a heavy car with a stock converter, a vacuum secondary carb drives better. |
| Ultra Double Pumper | The 850 CFM aluminum version, in several finishes, for people who want the Double Pumper behavior with less weight on the manifold. |
5. Holley Race Carburetors
These are the carburetors for an engine that lives at wide open throttle, and they assume you are willing to tune.
| Ultra XP | 750, 850 and 950 CFM. All aluminum construction saves 4.5 lbs, a 38 percent saving over the original HP, with 20 percent more fuel capacity, billet metering blocks, dual 30cc pumps and clear sight windows. The integrated idle bypass valve lets you set idle without drilling the throttle plates, which keeps the plate to transfer slot relationship correct with a radical cam. These require the matching -6 or -8 inlet line. |
| HP | 750, 950 and 1000 CFM with a contoured venturi inlet, screw-in air bleeds, 30cc primary and 50cc secondary pumps, four corner idle, progressive secondaries, stainless throttle plates and notched floats with jet extensions. |
| Dominator | 750 through 1250 CFM in single and dual four barrel configurations, with annular boosters, dual 50cc pumps, four corner idle and race only calibration. A Dominator flange needs its own manifold, and standard 5-1/8" air cleaners will not fit it. |
6. Sizing and Flange Fitment
Two decisions trip people up more than CFM does: which flange and which secondary.
| Square bore versus spread bore | A Quadrajet is a spread bore and a Holley or Edelbrock square flange carburetor is not. An Edelbrock square-bore to spread-bore adapter plate lets a square flange carburetor sit on a Q-jet manifold when swapping the manifold is not practical. |
| 4150 versus 4500 | Most Pontiac street manifolds are 4150 square flange. The 4500 Dominator flange is a different pattern and a different manifold. The Edelbrock VRS is unusual in fitting both without an adapter. |
| Vacuum or mechanical secondaries | Vacuum secondaries suit a heavier car, a stock or mild converter and highway driving. Mechanical secondaries suit a light car, a loose converter and low gears. Weight and converter decide this, not displacement. |
| Choke | An electric choke is the easier street answer. A manual choke is one more cable to run but gives you control over a cold engine that does not want to idle. |
7. Carb Accessories
The parts that finish the install, and the ones that fix hood clearance or heat soak.
| Spacers | Aluminum carburetor and air cleaner spacers with an O-ring seal in 1/4", 1/2", 3/4", 1" and 1-1/4", most with a recessed lip for the air cleaner flange to drop into. Watch hood clearance on shaker cars, where the drop base units only allow up to 7/8". |
| Fuel lines | Dual inlet carburetor fuel line kits for 4150 carburetors from Russell and Holley with or without a gauge, billet fuel lines for 4150 and 4500 in -6 and -8, and the dedicated Ultra XP lines. |
| Linkage and cable | Throttle return spring brackets and kits, universal throttle cable assemblies in 24" and 36", and dual quad progressive throttle linkage for Edelbrock dual-quad manifolds. |
| Studs and fasteners | Carburetor studs in 5/16 from 1.700" to 3", Butler's 1-1/2" stud kit with 5/16-24 carb and 5/16-18 intake threads for Edelbrock and Holley carbs, EFI throttle bodies and air valves, and Quadrajet specific kits. |
| Heat and adapters | A 1/2" carburetor heat dissipator for Holley four barrels on Ram manifolds, carb caps for 4150 carburetors, replacement 50cc diaphragms, sight plugs, and a FiTech to 1966 Tri-Power intake adapter with gaskets and hardware. |
Tell us the displacement, cam, heads, converter, gear and car weight and we will tell you which carburetor to buy. The right answer is usually smaller than people expect, and it drives better for it.
Holley Carburetors Quadrajet Carburetors Edelbrock Carburetors
Not sure what your Pontiac needs?
Email our tech team at tech@butlerperformance.com. Tell us your engine, heads, car, and power goal, and we will put the parts together as one combination that works.