Cali,68,L-79

Well after much debate and several 6-packs I decided that I will attempt bringing the car back to stock as posted above however with a $$$ limit.
If getting a period correct Q-Jet means paying $600 or above for something that looks like it was pulled off the H.M.S. TITANTIC



versus for $449

Now the cure may be going all stock except the carb but having a period correct one on the workbench for when I'm ready for sale. I'm going home to look at the old Performer in my storage and see what I have to do if I want to make it look stock, i.e. grind off Eldebrock Performer, however the shape of the runners and no oil filler will be a dead giveaway even to the most unknowledgeable of Vette fanatics. LARS suggests the Demon with a Peformer if I cannot find a Q-Jet to my liking. Wonder what HP losses would be with a stock intake versus the Performer?


[Modified by Cali,68,L-79, 3:54 PM 3/10/2004]

1Bad69

David...if you want to bring your vette back to stock why ask these questions..it should be irrelavant...if you want performance from your car, forget the stock stuff and mod it...sounds like you want it to "look" stock but perform with big *****....

Cali,68,L-79

:yesnod:

verskel

I'm with 1bad69 on this one......keep the stock look but don't worry about #'s :thumbs:

Leave the #'s game to the NCRS guys. :chevy

Paul L

I thought you were offered a nice selection of ...219 Q-Jets?

68shark

Ditto what they both said. I've got the "oil filler" intake, but seeing I don't have headers, I'm not maximizing the exhaust flow so probably no big deal. I know I should probably do both, but I do like the more or less stock look and what the heck, it's cheaper!

My carb is a Rochester QJ (about '77 vintage) that has been set up (metering rods etc) to better match my engine. It's covered by the totally stock air cleaner so nobody sees it! It performs perfectly! Agree I wouldn't part with $500 or more for the POS carb pictured at the top of the post!

sb69coupe

Why not pick up a good used Qjet on ebay, and send it off to Lars for a full rebuild to the factory specs of your car? There are quite a few service dated 7029207 carbs out there for reasonable cost. That was the carb orignally used on the '69 L-46 350hp smallblock.

This is exactly what I did for my car. Paid $41 on ebay for the carb, and had it sent it directly to Lars for a rebuild. When I got it back all I had to do was set up the fast idle and idle speed and it has run like a champ ever since. Less than $200 invested and I've got a correctly configured carb that runs like a dream.

Of course, now that I've typed all this up, there is not a single 7029207 carb on ebay right now :confused:

Cali,68,L-79

LARS tells me do not use 68 Q-Jets due to some sort of defect that year. I am looking for a 69 carb but not having much luck (let me paraphrase "not much luck finding one for decent money)

David

Corey_68

I agree 100%.

To have the car 100% stock you are going to leave a LARGE amout of power on the table, but it will be correct matching numbers. The stock 327 with the 350hp cam was a runner, but nothing to really write home about.

It's hard to have your cake and eat it to being 100% numbers correct.

my .02

NOTHIN'LIKE'A'69'

I picked up a correct # and correctg date stamp q-jet on ebay for 100 bucks.... cost me another 95 for a rebuild and gasket...... got to be patient and search it out! :cheers:

killervette666

I think you should build it to be YOUR car, so if you want it to be factory correct go right ahead, but i personally belive that these cars are made to be customized, and truly express the owners personality, not the personality of the GM engineers who built.
My .02
:chevy

I appoligize if i offend any NCRS members, that wasnt my intention :)


[Modified by killervette666, 6:49 PM 3/10/2004]

sb69coupe

Hey, I'm an NCRS member, and I'm not taking offense. :D However, I will disagree a bit with your "cars are meant to be customized to truly express the owners personality" statement. This particular thread is in relation to Cali, and the driveability problems that are occurring due to a previous owners "true personality". Evidently a prior owner of this '68 decided that a huge cam would express his personality. He personally liked the fact that the car had very little low end torque before reaching 2300 rpm. He also liked a big carb, single plane intake, and other mods that are not friendly for normal city stoplight driving patterns and do not deliver good off-idle response.

By all means, customize your car to your hearts desire. Just realize the tradeoffs you're making, and be prepared to live with the final result.

:cheers:

Shannon

LAWTON54

I have a couple of rebuilt carbs that you might be intersted in looking at. Let me know if you are interested.

Cali,68,L-79

Shannon your absolutely right. Note that I have got several IM's stating that other L-79 owners had the same experience and coupled with a Torquer-1 intake that operates after 4000RPM it may not be the cam at all but a huge blunder of intake selection on the previous owner's part. I also want to apologize if I seem wishy washy going NCRS one day to MOD the next but Signguy's post really got my attention and I do not want to spend $1000 every 6-months buying and testing out carb/ intake combos unless one of you will sponsor me..... :lol:
Anyway thanks all for your advice.

:cheers: