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Rhansen · Joined: 01 May 2010 Posts: 4 Location: Davenport, Iowa

Looking for some help setting up my edelbrock 1406 carb for E30. Found lots of info on holleys but not so much for the edelbrock carb.

Motor is a 350 chevy, 10:1 CR, comp xe274 cam, 487X heads, rpm air gap intake, MSD hei etc...

I just got this motor together and am planning on running E30, ordered .104 jets for primary and secondary along with .070 x .042 rods as a baseline setting until I can do some tuning.

Am I in the ballpark for a baseline setup?
Would a narrowband O2 sensor be of any help? (not willing to $pend on a wideband setup)

murphinator · Joined: 08 Jan 2010 Posts: 93

dont know your carb answers but give it a couple hours we have a few carb specialists on here that always answer those questions pretty quickly Cool

a narrowband sensor will help with idle and cruise tuning as it only reads accurately in a narrowband from stoich ( perfect burn rate) once you get into wide open or heavy throttle where you want to add enrichment fuel it takes a wideband to measure accurately that far from stoich on the rich side

if its any help last I knew a guy on a local forum to me had a afx/ntk listed new in box for $150 , its a very good wideband
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PB's 1/4 mi 12.209, 117.75 trap ,1/8 mi 7.76 ,93.99 trap , 1.949 short time 4.53 0-60

I tune with HP Tuners software

Alcohol · Joined: 17 Apr 2007 Posts: 634 Location: Central Wisconsin

I am not a carb guy Rhansen- but I (and likely others who are carb guys) am wondering-- why E30? I can only guess you are going to use this car for street and are not looking for the performance of full E85 and also may be running this year around so you do not have to rejet for seasonal blends? I run E20 and E30 in my unmodified EFI stuff but I do this so I do not need to run premium and/or like using more ethanol than I get with E10.

Perhaps a bit of how you are planning to use the car and your goals might be helpful for others to jump in.

Rhansen · Joined: 01 May 2010 Posts: 4 Location: Davenport, Iowa

I could just run it on premium but the E30 is cheaper and a higher octane rating. I don't think this motor combo would see much benefit from an E85 conversion. I don't recall the DCR off hand (and I'm working out of town right now) but it was a little on the low side for a performance motor.
It's an 83 ex. cab S10, 350 chevy, 700r4 trans, work in progress...
Re-jetting is not an issue and it won't be driven much (if at all) in the winter months. Will be doing some bracket racing after I get a few more things done (new rear end, drive shaft loop, etc...) and it will see some use on the street; drive to work, move furniture, harass ricers, etc...
Again, the E30 is more of a convenience than necessity. Was thinking about Installing an o2 sensor and using a digital multimeter to read it - at least to get the part throttle A/F dialed in. Can do the WOT tuning at the dragstrip.
I get the feeling nobody has tried an edelbrock conversion yet but that's okay, lots of guys don't like them. I have a holley 3310 sitting on the shelf and I just sold an 1830 but I prefer the edelbrock on a street driver (and double pumpers on drag cars). If I was feeling brave I'd do a quadrajet but they can be a bit tedious to work on.

Eric68 · Joined: 01 Nov 2007 Posts: 331

The Edelbrock part isn't that hard, its the E30 part. I don't know exactly how much fuel you will need to add for proper mixture.

It would probably be safer to start with fattening it up 3 or 4 jet sizes in back and go to a primary metering rod with a bigger step so it has about the same area at cruise as on straight gasoline, then adds 3 or 4 jet sizes worth of fuel at WOT. In other words, look for a metering rod with the same thick diameter and a thinner small diameter.

That is just a guess though -- you are venturing into uncharted water (for me anyways) so I'm sorry I couldn't be more specific.
_________________
E85 racer and E85 carb builder
www.horsepowerinnovations.com

E85 powered 68 Camaro street car
Best ET on motor 9.96 @ 133 MPH, 5.92 on N2O in the 1/8th

Rhansen · Joined: 01 May 2010 Posts: 4 Location: Davenport, Iowa

Thanks for the input.
What I've done so far was go 12% rich (across the board), from the 1405 base calibration. I got the new jets/rods installed yesterday and have had a chance to drive it and read the plugs, which look pretty good. Think I'm going to wait for some track time and maybe an O2 sensor before I make many more changes.
I'd be willing to bet I can go leaner on the part throttle/cruise metering but I think it's safer to be a little rich for now.

Rhansen · Joined: 01 May 2010 Posts: 4 Location: Davenport, Iowa

I starting comparing the areas of the jet/rod combinations available and it seems that the edelbrock calibration charts are a little skewed, especially in relation to the cruise settings. Some of their recommended combos sacrifice cruise economy for power enrichment but it isn't indicated on their charts. Sad

Guess I'll just have to run the numbers once I get started tuning.
The largest step rod is a .075 x .037 (none bigger than .075 and none smaller than .037) and I'm guessing I don't want any smaller than a .100 jet (primary side). Hmm, a wideband setup just keeps sounding better....

Eric68 · Joined: 01 Nov 2007 Posts: 331

Yeah, the wideband really helps.

The bigger the difference in size the more "cruise-friendly" that metering rod can be. It will allow a leaner cruise and more fuel at WOT. You can mess with the hanger springs to set the enrichment point.
_________________
E85 racer and E85 carb builder
www.horsepowerinnovations.com

E85 powered 68 Camaro street car
Best ET on motor 9.96 @ 133 MPH, 5.92 on N2O in the 1/8th