Hi; I have a question about what would be the best carborator for my corvette. It doesn't have the original engine in it. the guy I bought if from put a 350 small block in it; and it has like no power.. I want to have a lot of power, yet get some pretty good gas milage as well. Please let me know! Thanks! And, if there is anything else I can do to make that engine a little bit more 'zippie', I would like to know. But I don't want to hurt the engine. I was talking with some guys and they said that if you do too much 'tweeking', you could hurt the crank shaft and other stuff. I don't want to put in another engine.... Thanks!
~Wade

 

A small block at 5500 RPM with incredibly good volumetric efficiency (performance cam and valves) will move less than 600 CFM, so anything more "beefy" is a waste of time. My recommendation is to start with breathing. Get air in, and let exhaust out. I went with a Holley Street Avenger 650 CFM (because it was cheap) with an Edelbrock hi-flo air cleaner, got rid of the AIR smog stuff, added headers, decent flow mufflers, and fast flow cats, and did a good tune up and timing. Amazing how much life that will put into an engine for a reasonable effort.

 

how do you get rid of the air smog stuff? is it something a newb could do?

 

The best carb for your vette is the one that works well with whatever mods (or lack of) that have been done to the engine. "Power" and "economy" probably should not be used in the same sentence,it takes fuel to make power. If you are mechanically inclined,have tools,a place to work and another car to drive you can start making mods to the engine. Better breathing is a good place to start,do research to find a group of parts (carb,manifold,exhaust system) that will work well together and get busy. If you have money left,look into cams with the associated kits and put together another group of parts that will work well together and get busy again. Keep changing parts(and spending money) until you achieve your goal.
If you are not the person described above,but still want more performance,follow these steps:
1. Visit your friendly hardware store and buy a large contractor's wheel barrow
2. Take the wheel barrow to your bank and fill it with money.
3. Take the car and the wheel barrow to your local reputable speed shop,tell them
what you want,give them your phone number,go home and wait. If you have a
credit card with a limit of,say,$25,000 and there's no balance on it you might
substitute it for the wheel barrow.
Power costs money,more power costs more money and power with economy costs even MORE money! The best bang for the buck in this area(if you are not the person in the first paragraph) is a new Z06. Or ZR1 if you have $125 K laying around.
I'm pretty sure this is not the answer you were looking for but there really is no carburetor that will do what you ask. If there were,it would probably be an Edelbrock 600 CFM with some careful tuning by someone who has the equipment and the knowledge to set the carb up for your application. Counting the price of the carb,it'll probably run you about a grand!
Good Luck!
Ron

 

Even a properly tuned Q-jet will produce a lot of power if the rest of the engine is up to it.