I can think of very few times to run a VS carb. A Carter/ Edelbrock, Q-jet to TQ is still a mechanical secondary carb, it just doesn't use an accelerator pump. So those are mechanical secondary carbs.


The bad thing about the DP carb that got the bat rep during the 80-90's was that those carbs were almost all calibrated for long cams and race applications. They have emulsion and bleed jetting for more race oriented stuff. Most of them were only 2 corner idle. All of this lends itself to being bad for general use.

All that said, today's carbs are much better calibrated and with a little work, a guy with a reasonable understanding of how to take a simple carb like a Holley apart and put it back together should be able to tune the idle and cruise circuits to make the modern carb about as good as you can anything else.

You can tune the idle fuel jet and the idle air bleed. You can easily install T-slot restricters to clean up the cruise. You can use smaller main jets to clean up the cruise and then open up the power valve channel restricters to correct for WOT. It's surprising how many guys don't realize that on the primary side the main jet is what you change to alter the fuel curve at a cruse and the power valve open timing and power valve channel restrictions are what you tune for WOT.


I say get a tuneable DP and go have fun.