I passed by one of the Street Demon carbs at Summit last night. It brought back memories of the TQ on my 74 Road Runner. That thing lived up to its legacy and produced that legendary sound when the back half opened up.
The Street Demon has a similar air door arrangement over a large secondary but they're not quite the same size as the original TQ or Quadrajet. Do the still produce the same induction sound or has that been lost to the ages?

IDK for sure Feets but I had the big TQ on a 440 in a 4X4 Ramcharger and it was cop car sound heaven! I doubt anything else has that tiny primary/massive secondary to reproduce that sound.

I remeber one time whe I opened up the secondaries on my TQ a lady and her kid about snapped their necks turning to look at me.

lol

Love it. No other sound like it.

Demon crabs....aghhhh!

They sound more like Rock Lobsters. LOL

They sound like angry crickets!

Well, that's what I get for Moparting from my phone.

None of the Street Demons that I have installed have had the sound that you are referring to. But there was very little left stock about the combos that I have put them on. Different cams, intakes, air cleaners, headers, timing, etc. So I don't know what the Street Demons would sound like on something closer to original stock.

i would imagine if one had those, it would be not fun.

I have a 625 Street demon on my Power Wagon. Pretty much a stock 360 except for the carb and performer intake. It does have the big air gulping sound when the secondaries open, but I do admit, it's not as loud as a TQ. Perhaps it's due to the smaller cfm?

Guys, I believe feets is talking about this carb:




Not the typical Demon crab that comes to mind:

Shoot, I had a lady grab her little boy by the collar and fling him back away from the curb. Wasn't burning rubber, wasn't speeding, just gave gave it a momentary BUH-WAH....and the kid was sent flying.

One of the best reactions I ever got.

Maybe it was the same lady?

Was it in Pflugerville?

I think I will get a TQ and put it on the Cuda just for the sound effects.

Nope not even close. Maybe a sister or relative?

I don't think I could bring myself to put FI on my wagon just because of the TQ's wail......

Dang I need to get my wagon back on the road.......

Speaking of TQ's, does anyone sell jet/rod kits for them?

A TQ thread without Doc Fiberglass? Did he get banned again?

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, feets.
2nd 340 I had was from a '71 Duster. Even after all the mods I did on it, the TQ remained. Still my favorite carb. And if I ever get around to building another hot rod, it will have a TQ on it.

Little something for those who don't know the wail of a TQ.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVDtV-uVRq0

You can hear the TQ in the background when the sheriff floors it.



Tim

you want him to appear?

Don't forget about illinois nazis.....

I hate Illinois Nazi's.

my fav spot:

https://quadrajetparts.com/carter-thermo-quad-carburetor-c-299_158.html

Yes. I've bought a number of TQ parts from them, always good parts and good service.

Beware the Demon Crabs!

not to be confused with Hermit Crabs

I've noticed that Rockauto has a bunch of remanned thermoquads available for around $225-250 each. Has anyone tried one? I haven't picked a carb yet for my roller 360.

I've never seen a reman TQ come out of the box ready to run. If ya assume wrong jets / rods, leaking fuel xfer slots, wrong float height, choke and fast idle linkage completely out of wack yer better off building one yourself because that's pretty much what your gonna end up doing. My method is grab a couple cheap basket case donors off ebay or craigs, order a few parts and go from there. No, they aren't an easy carb to learn and that's pretty much why they never come out of the box right.

I've been looking into this for the past few days. Rock Auto has rebuilds from Autoline and United Reman, and they have a wide range of part numbers based on application (not a one-size-fits-all). Summit has three TQs listed as "Summit brand" but no application data and they are 800 cfm. Classic has several listed by application but no real specs, those are remanned by Tomco.

Here's one problem: the TQ is a modular carb consisting of (3) main sections - the throttle plate, the fuel bowl and bowl cover. It's very easy to mix and match sections from different carbs and build 1,000 different combos. The fuel bowl is pretty much the same for all. The throttle plate comes in 2 different primarie sizes and it lean burn or non lean burn configs. The bowl cover comes in many different flavors with many different emission control options.

The only Carter ID number for the complete assembly is stamped on the throttle plate. There are guides that will tell you what size rods and jets should be in the carb but I've never seen anything that matches up the various bowl cover part numbers to a carb model number. IF the reman company is listing the assy by Carter model number or even their own stock number that corresponds to an application, there is no way to tell what the original core they started with was. As in: a 71 340 throttle plate with a 78 440 air horn and a jet / rod combo for 75 318.

I kinda doubt that they spend much time trying to put the pile of cores back together as originally built. It would be nice but I suspect they simply take whatever core comes down the line next, strip it, clean it and put it back together with new gaskets, seals, accel pump, etc.

I've got a 74 440 truck thermoquad. It has no emissions provisions at all so I've held onto it. Well tuned it's the next best thing to fuel injection. However well tuned was a bit of work. They're counter intuitive to a lot of guys because you have to bend linkages and play with the secondary air door spring tension. But after all was done, I could fire it up on a col morning, kick it down after 30 seconds and be on my way.

Thermoquads are okay carbs. But they can be a bear to get parts for. And not just everyone can tune one properly.

And while your TQ may be the best thing next to fuel injection for you, realistically ANY good design carb with a proper tune could give the same results you experienced with the TQ. Again, TQs are okay, but they are not anything that special in this day and age. Well, except maybe that sound..............................

Yeah, the sound is a consideration. haha I have a mostly complete 9077s and I can probably get another one from a stock 73 440. Maybe I'll get lucky and find someone local who knows how to rebuild one of these things.

Rebuild, as in rip it open and replace a few wear / tear parts is actually pretty simple. The biggest challenge there is picking a metering rod / jet combo that will work with you engine configuration. The link above sells a few and how to mix / match what you've got laying around can take a little head scratching but isn't too bad.

Tuning isn't that ugly and is pretty much like any other 4 bl carb with a few additions. One is metering rod height as the base setting impacts idle mix (see also jet / rod combo). Another is secondary air door tension.

The big ugly is the linkages for the choke, fast idle, secondary lock out, accel pump and secondaries. It's pretty tedious and a tiny misadjust can foul it up completely. It doesn't help that there's like 7 or 8 adjustments that are each dependant on the previous adjustment. Your best friend there is another TQ that is set up right so you can stare and compare.

As for finding a shop to deal with it: there are better ways to spend your time. I haven't tried lately but I think finding a carb shop is kinda like finding a radiator shop, maybe worse. If ya do find one, the odds of them having actually heard of a TQ are probably kinda slim. If ya happen across an old timer that remembers working on one, he'll probably cringe and refuse to touch it. The exception being a few of us hard core old timers. There are a couple of shops out in web land that do them right and have a good rep but they'll be pricey.

My advise has always been to roll up yer sleeves and go a few rounds with it yerself.