There is just something sinister about knowing that the monster under your hood is packing more than one carburetor. The terms are now legendary: Dual quads. Tri-Power. Six Pack. Say those phrases, then lift the hood and prepare for the looky-loos to start hovering around your raised hood like vultures over a carcass. But is multi-carbing worth the looks and mythos of having, or are you better off running a stout single four-barrel and a good intake manifold? Freiburger, Brule and Dulcich get to work testing out the theories at Westech’s dyno on the Blueprint Engines 383 dyno mule that you’ve seen before on Engine Masters. Prior to the test, the 383 stumped out 476 horsepower, but that’s with a Holley XP carb and a generic hi-rise intake manifold. The three deuces are a combination of Holley carbs and a Weiand intake versus Edelbrock’s dual-quad carb and intake combination. Which system works best, and compared to the single four, is the cost even worth the effort? Click play below to find out!
Cool video! Maybe they’ve done it elsewhere, but I’d like to have seen what a skosh bigger or smaller single 4-barrel carb would have done on the same engine…
Why test a big carb setup on a small low compression motor? I would like to see the same thing on a 12.5:1 big block then on a BIG BLOCK. What they are really showing is that both of these setups are too much carb for this motor.
For that kind of money I’ll go straight to EFI and be done with it. Performance tuning of multicarb systems is not worth the effort unless you race in a class that demands N/A.
And concur with above, that 383 isn’t hungry enough for what those top ends deliver.
Thanks for the comparison! I’d like to see how a Dual Quad Tunnel Ram stacks up against the Air Gap shorter one. Logic says it would have less torque and power at low RPM, then overcome at higher, but at what point and by how much?
The first episode tests the tunnel ram on a blueprint 400 SBC. See episode with “50 HP with one bolt-on”
I’d like to see the same kind of test with block huggers, long tube, speedway ramshorns, Sanderson square cast manifolds. Everyone I know that builds a streetrod questions which of these to use
It would be an interesting thing to see a long term reliability test over say 40,000 miles and which one needed to have the changes made to it, I have found that the Holly standard 4 barrel needs more attention that any of the others. Unless Holley have addressed this it would be interesting. Personally I have an FE to build for my basic street road, (Model A roadster) and have been thinking of a tri power set up just for looks etc and have been wondering over the dual carb set up. So thanks guys this was very interesting to me anyway.