Replacing my dead 350 with a new GM 350/290HP crate engine. Would like some opinions on carb and intake manifold. The quadrajet in there nows runs good and idles smooth and sits on a factory intake. I'm thinking these came off the original 305/4bbl setup and were added to the 350 GM crate motor that is in there now.
I was thinking of using the edelbrock 2701 performer intake and 1406 600cfm carb.
But my quadrajet has an idle up solenoid plunger that kicks up the idle when the AC compressor is on. From what I can see there is no place to mount that on the edelbrock carb. So I'm thinking about using the quadrajet again. So, if I keep the quadrajet, would I notice any improvement by using an edelbrock 2101 performer intake in place of the GM intake? Both edelbrock manifolds are dual plane. The 2701 is square bore so quadrajet won't fit. The 2101 is spread bore/square bore. Other than carb mounting they seem to be identical in perforformance, idle-5,500 rpm.
On the current setup the idle up solenoid was really needed as the engine would roughen up and want to stall if it was disconnected. Aside from just turning up the idle on the edelbrock do you guys have any thoughts/ideas?
Also, future plans call for a 2" cowl hood. I also plan on adding the cowl induction air cleaner setup to make it true cowl induction. Will the edelbrock combination "fit" or will it be too high?

Edelbrock sells a idle up kit to go on their carb's. I am borrowing my son's Edelbrock Performer RPM intake and 1406 600 cfm carb till I get my Q-jet and it runs good on my all stock motor. It is on a 350.

IMHO the rochester is a better carb then the edelbrock . Intake wise I like the edelbrock airgap or the performer EPS , they do make plates which are inexpensive to adapt spreadbore carbs to square intakes. I run a 350 with a performer eps and 1406 carb with a 2 inch cowl with no clearance issues. if you are bending up your own pan for the cowl induction it is no problem to make it fit to a two inch cowl

2101's are great intakes. Something to keep in mind is that a q-jet is 750cfm and has nice small primeaires for around town. I still run a Q-jet and 2101 on my Chevelle. :nanawrench:

If you plan on keeping the Q-jet with the edelbrock intake just get an adapter for like 20 bucks, adding the adapter actually will add to the engine performance.

Is the carb you now have a Computer controlled carb? Still running the ECM? If so, to change the carb you would have to ditch the ECM, get a vacumn Distributor, and get a device to control the Torque Converter. Depending on the trans, you might also need a carb adapter for the TV cable.

The Performer intake is a good intake. I ran one on mine with no hood clearance problems.

Sorry I guess I forgot to mention this is going into a 78 with a 350 turbo trans, no ecm, no egr, etc.

So after reading the above posts I'm leaning toward the 2101 intake with my quadrajet.

What do you guys think about a new distributor? Something for say under $150 but decent.

I believe 1981 was the first year for the CCC ECM.
There's a thread on distributors here. Look for it. Lots of good deals for much less than 150 bucks.