Carburetors are still king under the hood in many of today's high-performance cars. Whether it's for traditional looks, the ease of tuning, or the great performance, these conventional fuel mixers live on. Like all parts, though, years of service and mileage can diminish performance, power, and miles. Inside your carburetor the gaskets may seep fuel from warped components, the throttle bores may wear, or the factory plating can fade and turn downright ugly. These kinds of carb problems generally cannot be repaired by a standard rebuild and require a specialized shop. For more serious performance levels, you may want proven modification to your Holley or Quadrajet.
But whether you're looking for a total carburetor restoration or a modified carb to slash your e.t., there's good news. JET Performance Products has an in-house operation to perfectly fill your needs. To see how well this works we followed along as Johnnie at JET walked through the process of refurbishing a '67 Malibu's Quadrajet carburetor. Our carburetor is the original core that came fitted to the 275-horse 327ci small-block, so a factory restoration was preferred. If you elect to buy a carburetor outright from JET Performance, you'll be happy to know they usually have many on hand. Either way, you can have a carb catered for a mild to wild combination just a phone call away.
Here's a quick rundown of the basic stages offered on the Quadrajet. If you're utilizing a Holley carburetor, there are more choices. To learn more, log onto www.jetchip.com and check out the Performance Carburetors section.
Jet's Three Levels Of Performance
The Stage 1 Quadrajet begins with a complete disassembly, cleaning, and inspection. With the carburetor apart, all the casting plugs are sealed with a special epoxy to prevent fuel leak-down into the intake manifold. Next, all the carb circuits are checked for proper sizing, and the calibration is verified for correct jets and primary and secondary metering rods. Then the carburetor is reassembled with the highest-quality components including a new float, a choke pull-off, and bronze bushed throttle shafts. This stage is designed to restore your Q-jet to a factory-stock performance level.
The original Q-jet on this...
The original Q-jet on this '67 327 Malibu provided decades of great service and had been rebuilt a couple of times. Recently, the fuel-filter fitting began to leak, the main body's soft plugs leaked fuel from previous epoxy repairs, and the carburetor had extensive wear. Yes, the Q-Jet needed a thorough going-through. Since this project is largely a restoration, it received the Stage 1 build.
Johnnie at JET Performance...
Johnnie at JET Performance Products in Huntington Beach, CA, began the restoration by disassembling and inspecting the carburetor. As mentioned, JET offers the option to restore or modify Quadrajet and Holley carburetors for added performance. If you don't have a core, JET also sells Quadrajets and other carburetors outright. For the Q-Jet, most of the carburetors are based on cores from the mid-'70s up. For the Quadrajet carburetor series, JET offers three stages, depending on the vehicle's intended use and your budget.