Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 1 of 2 1 2
Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? #592866
01/24/10 04:45 PM
01/24/10 04:45 PM
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 253
Orange County, CA
M
Mike H Offline OP
enthusiast
Mike H  Offline OP
enthusiast
M

Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 253
Orange County, CA
Lots of people won't touch Barry Grant carbs with a ten foot pole. Are they problematic or is it just personal preference like the Steelers or a Ford pickup?

Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: Mike H] #592867
01/24/10 05:48 PM
01/24/10 05:48 PM
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 2,836
Connecticut
FurryStump Offline
master
FurryStump  Offline
master

Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 2,836
Connecticut
I had a new 825 cfm mighty demon,I had to take it apart to clean metal shavings out of it. all the slots for the air bleeds are striped out. Quality control nonexistent. After it was clean I'm very happy with the performance of the carb now.


best of 11.24 at 119 mph 1.60 60’. 68 340 S Barracuda Fastback F.A.S.T [IMG]http://i67.tinypic.com/2mnnnnt.jpg[/IMG]
Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: FurryStump] #592868
01/24/10 06:22 PM
01/24/10 06:22 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 20,203
Park Forest, IL
slantzilla Offline
Too Many Posts
slantzilla  Offline
Too Many Posts

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 20,203
Park Forest, IL
Barry himself was on here a while back in the race section defending his company and telling everyone how he is improving customer service and quality.

He was getting thrashed on quite a few boards at the time.

You will never see any BG product on my vehicles.


"Everybody funny, now you funny too."
Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: FurryStump] #592869
01/24/10 06:46 PM
01/24/10 06:46 PM
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 370
B
beedees Offline
enthusiast
beedees  Offline
enthusiast
B

Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 370
Quote:

I had a new 825 cfm mighty demon,I had to take it apart to clean metal shavings out of it. all the slots for the air bleeds are striped out. Quality control nonexistent. After it was clean I'm very happy with the performance of the carb now.


yeah, they're nice once you get 'em right

Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: beedees] #592870
01/24/10 07:41 PM
01/24/10 07:41 PM
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 5,314
Carstairs, Alberta, Canada
dave571 Offline
master
dave571  Offline
master

Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 5,314
Carstairs, Alberta, Canada
I like them. Have run on apps from my race car to my motor home.

Besides the shavings etc.. they are decent.

Important to know that BG carbs flow a little more than a holley with the same number.
Also, that the different series of them(road, speed, mighty, race, etc) are set up to respond to different camshaft durations.

I have seen lot's of posts on here in the past where there have been size and series mismatch. The results are not good.

ie... I remember a guy with a 383 with a pretty agressive cam. around 250 @ 50 duration.

He was running an 850 speed demon on it, and couldn't get it to idle.

In that situation, a 750 mighty demon would have been the correct carb. The 850 is too big, and the speed series is for smaller cam's so tuning it right was virtually impossible.

Don't buy the wrong series of carb, no matter how good of a deal it is, UNLESS going the otherway(running a mighty, where you should be using a speed)

IIRC the series are broken down like this.
Road demon-stock replacement, speed demon- up to 240 @ 50 duration, mighty demon 240- 260 @ 50, race demon - above that.

Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: dave571] #592871
01/24/10 07:59 PM
01/24/10 07:59 PM
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,250
North Carolina
4
469runner Offline
pro stock
469runner  Offline
pro stock
4

Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,250
North Carolina
I have a 650 Speed Demon on my 408 stroker. I love it. Starts easily hot or cold, runs smoothly through all rpm ranges. Gas milage down a little from the Edelbrock carb. it replaced. Still decent though.

Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: dave571] #592872
01/28/10 01:21 PM
01/28/10 01:21 PM
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 127
Dahlonega, GA
T
TechAtBG Offline
member
TechAtBG  Offline
member
T

Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 127
Dahlonega, GA
Quote:

I like them. Have run on apps from my race car to my motor home.

Besides the shavings etc.. they are decent.

Important to know that BG carbs flow a little more than a holley with the same number.
Also, that the different series of them(road, speed, mighty, race, etc) are set up to respond to different camshaft durations.

I have seen lot's of posts on here in the past where there have been size and series mismatch. The results are not good.

ie... I remember a guy with a 383 with a pretty agressive cam. around 250 @ 50 duration.

He was running an 850 speed demon on it, and couldn't get it to idle.

In that situation, a 750 mighty demon would have been the correct carb. The 850 is too big, and the speed series is for smaller cam's so tuning it right was virtually impossible.

Don't buy the wrong series of carb, no matter how good of a deal it is, UNLESS going the otherway(running a mighty, where you should be using a speed)

IIRC the series are broken down like this.
Road demon-stock replacement, speed demon- up to 240 @ 50 duration, mighty demon 240- 260 @ 50, race demon - above that.




That sums up a lot of what we see. Guys want to run too big of a carburetor and then blame us when it doesn't work.

We have had guys call in for recommendations and then call back trying to get something different recommended and even 4 or 5 times only to get the same. One guy told me he wasn't going to run a "baby" carburetor on a 302 and was intent on running one of our 750's which flows over 900 cfm.

I have even had them call back and say "the other guy" recommended so and so thinking they have someone else but thats the nice thing about caller id's . I have even had them call and change the combination to see if we would recommend soemthing else.

In regards to the shavings, that deal was several years ago and we came on many of the forums when it was brought to our attention and admitted it as well as made numerous changes to correct it.

Now I understand there is at least one other manufacturer experiencing the same currently.


Technical Support Barry Grant, Inc. www.barrygrant.com
Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: slantzilla] #592873
01/28/10 01:27 PM
01/28/10 01:27 PM
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 127
Dahlonega, GA
T
TechAtBG Offline
member
TechAtBG  Offline
member
T

Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 127
Dahlonega, GA
Quote:

Barry himself was on here a while back in the race section defending his company and telling everyone how he is improving customer service and quality.

He was getting thrashed on quite a few boards at the time.

You will never see any BG product on my vehicles.





Regardless of how good we make our product or our customer service we will always get bashed because we are here and guys know they have an ear with us.

In some cases the guys never even had our products and just wanted to look good in front of their buddies on the forums and in some of the others we were able to go back to our records and receipts and show what was posted was not even close to being factual.

There are/were guys that will have legitimate concerns and those are the reason we continue to come on the forums and try to help.


You do not see most of the other companies on any of the forums though trying to help like we do.There are many that will not even come onto the forums for the reasons above and other who have quit trying to help in this area.

Last edited by TechAtBG; 01/28/10 01:28 PM.

Technical Support Barry Grant, Inc. www.barrygrant.com
Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: TechAtBG] #592874
01/28/10 02:01 PM
01/28/10 02:01 PM
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 444
Newfoundland
C
Crocker Offline
mopar
Crocker  Offline
mopar
C

Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 444
Newfoundland
I mounted an 850 mighty demon on the 472 hemi last summer. I went through the checks listed with the instructions. Everything was dead on including the float and pump settings. No junk inside.Excellent machining and finsh. Nice Carb

Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: Mike H] #592875
01/28/10 03:35 PM
01/28/10 03:35 PM
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 199
douglasville,ga
R
ramrod Offline
member
ramrod  Offline
member
R

Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 199
douglasville,ga
I bought a BG "reaction time" carb for my drag car back around 1995. Unbelievably good carb- some of the best money I've ever spent. I think maybe at that time BG's carbs were more custom built and maybe he was more hands-on. The quality control problems seem to have crept up later when his biz moved more toward mass-production. I'd buy another BG carb.


"That Plymouth had a Hemi with a Torqueflite." -Driver
Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: ramrod] #592876
01/28/10 10:02 PM
01/28/10 10:02 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,254
Slidell, LA
Ronnman Offline
pro stock
Ronnman  Offline
pro stock

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,254
Slidell, LA
I bought a BG 750 Speed Demon VS carburetor last year. Based on all the comments floating around, I took it apart to inspect the internals. The inside was spotless. Reassembled and installed on my 71 Roadrunner. With the four corner idle and the idle-eze feature, this carburetor ran great. Only knock I have is the choke system has only gravity to pull the choke butterfly open. Holley uses a piston inside the choke housing to force open ( a better design in my opinion). The BG choke system causes too much gas to be pulled from the venturies and runs extremely rich during the first 30 seconds on the choke. The only work around was to adjust the choke housing to the extremely lean side. Once warm, no further problem.
Ron

Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: Ronnman] #592877
01/28/10 10:16 PM
01/28/10 10:16 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 931
D
dulcich Offline
super stock
dulcich  Offline
super stock
D

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 931
I've run many of the Demon carbs over the years and found that they are a bulletproof product. Ran a 750 Speed Demon on my street Dart with a 340 and it would light them up from a 25 mph roll.
-dulcich

Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: TechAtBG] #592878
01/28/10 10:20 PM
01/28/10 10:20 PM
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 5,314
Carstairs, Alberta, Canada
dave571 Offline
master
dave571  Offline
master

Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 5,314
Carstairs, Alberta, Canada
Quote:

...One guy told me he wasn't going to run a "baby" carburetor on a 302 and was intent on running one of our 750's which flows over 900 cfm.






He probably bought a 750 off ebay, and then complained that he couldn't tune it too. You just can't talk sense into some guys.

A friend of mine was having issues with his 750 speed demon, because his combo was better suited for a double pumper, and his duration was almost where he needed a mighty demon. car was a high 12 low 13 second B body.

A local shop told him an 850 speed demon they could make him a deal on, may help the problem he had. The friend of mine was ready to go for it, even though I was showing him how my car with more duration, and faster than his, only needed a 750, but a mighty, instead of speed.

He did finally buy a mighty, and it treated him well.

The size thing does get to be quite a debate. The 440 in my winni, has a 625 road demon on it. Good power, and my peak economy was 10 mp cdn g(8mp usg) towing the car over mountain passes which I thought was pretty good.

Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: TechAtBG] #592879
01/29/10 12:45 AM
01/29/10 12:45 AM
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 2,836
Connecticut
FurryStump Offline
master
FurryStump  Offline
master

Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 2,836
Connecticut
Quote:

Quote:

I like them. Have run on apps from my race car to my motor home.

Besides the shavings etc.. they are decent.

Important to know that BG carbs flow a little more than a holley with the same number.
Also, that the different series of them(road, speed, mighty, race, etc) are set up to respond to different camshaft durations.

I have seen lot's of posts on here in the past where there have been size and series mismatch. The results are not good.

ie... I remember a guy with a 383 with a pretty agressive cam. around 250 @ 50 duration.

He was running an 850 speed demon on it, and couldn't get it to idle.

In that situation, a 750 mighty demon would have been the correct carb. The 850 is too big, and the speed series is for smaller cam's so tuning it right was virtually impossible.

Don't buy the wrong series of carb, no matter how good of a deal it is, UNLESS going the otherway(running a mighty, where you should be using a speed)

IIRC the series are broken down like this.
Road demon-stock replacement, speed demon- up to 240 @ 50 duration, mighty demon 240- 260 @ 50, race demon - above that.




That sums up a lot of what we see. Guys want to run too big of a carburetor and then blame us when it doesn't work.

We have had guys call in for recommendations and then call back trying to get something different recommended and even 4 or 5 times only to get the same. One guy told me he wasn't going to run a "baby" carburetor on a 302 and was intent on running one of our 750's which flows over 900 cfm.

I have even had them call back and say "the other guy" recommended so and so thinking they have someone else but thats the nice thing about caller id's . I have even had them call and change the combination to see if we would recommend soemthing else.

In regards to the shavings, that deal was several years ago and we came on many of the forums when it was brought to our attention and admitted it as well as made numerous changes to correct it.

Now I understand there is at least one other manufacturer experiencing the same currently.


I appreciate your posting here trying to address issues with your products. I have had my carb for two years and had the shavings issue. I can't imagine how frustrating it is sell a superbly designed,but poorly assembled product. To design a product that when assembled with care and attention to detail, performs better than expected, only to be let down by a lack of QC. I have no idea when my carb was made. It could have been on a shelf for years, I don't know. For me cleaning the carb out was no big deal,but some people may not be able to tear the carb down and clean it. Again I very happy with how it performs now. For me it wasn't a tuning issue, it wasn't a mismatched carb issue,it was the person who put it together didn't care enough to make sure it was clean. :drive


best of 11.24 at 119 mph 1.60 60’. 68 340 S Barracuda Fastback F.A.S.T [IMG]http://i67.tinypic.com/2mnnnnt.jpg[/IMG]
Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: FurryStump] #592880
01/29/10 12:53 AM
01/29/10 12:53 AM
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 36,041
Lincoln Nebraska
R
RapidRobert Offline
Circle Track
RapidRobert  Offline
Circle Track
R

Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 36,041
Lincoln Nebraska
Quote:

I appreciate your posting here trying to address issues with your products. I have had my carb for two years and had the shavings issue. I can't imagine how frustrating it is sell a superbly designed,but poorly assembled product. To design a product that when assembled with care and attention to detail, performs better than expected, only to be let down by a lack of QC. it was the person who put it together didn't care enough to make sure it was clean.


very well put


live every 24 hour block of time like it's your last day on earth
Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: TechAtBG] #592881
01/29/10 12:54 AM
01/29/10 12:54 AM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,129
Somewhere near Palm Springs
ConvertiBee Offline
master
ConvertiBee  Offline
master

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,129
Somewhere near Palm Springs
Quote:

In some cases the guys never even had our products and just wanted to look good in front of their buddies on the forums and in some of the others we were able to go back to our records and receipts and show what was posted was not even close to being factual.






I put a new BG 600 on my 383 and it ran terrible. The secondaries were factory adjusted at 1/8" open, and there were shavings in the bowl and metering system. I called BG tech support and they said "well you just have to adjust it and clean it, this is normal for any new carb".
Right. This is just what I want to do on my new "upscale" carb. Summit had so many BG returns and problems that they stopped carrying BG carbs.

I listed my "new" BG on ebay along with all its problems, sold it for $112 and used that money towards an Edelbrock Thunder series carb, which fired right up and worked perfect out of the box...


[img]https://photos.google.com/search/_tra_/photo/AF1QipP622C0UgUgrRn9SDVmwoPXVW4gJ4A2UcAzWOit[/img]
'69 GTX 440 D21 A34 N96
'70 Coronet 383 'Vert
'71 Demon 340 SixPack 4-Speed
'72 Cuda 340 FE5
'74 Kawasaki Z1, and...
(12) Japanese Enduro's and SuperBikes from the 1970's! smile
Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: ConvertiBee] #592882
01/29/10 10:14 AM
01/29/10 10:14 AM
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 127
Dahlonega, GA
T
TechAtBG Offline
member
TechAtBG  Offline
member
T

Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 127
Dahlonega, GA
Quote:

Quote:

In some cases the guys never even had our products and just wanted to look good in front of their buddies on the forums and in some of the others we were able to go back to our records and receipts and show what was posted was not even close to being factual.






I put a new BG 600 on my 383 and it ran terrible. The secondaries were factory adjusted at 1/8" open, and there were shavings in the bowl and metering system. I called BG tech support and they said "well you just have to adjust it and clean it, this is normal for any new carb".
Right. This is just what I want to do on my new "upscale" carb. Summit had so many BG returns and problems that they stopped carrying BG carbs.

I listed my "new" BG on ebay along with all its problems, sold it for $112 and used that money towards an Edelbrock Thunder series carb, which fired right up and worked perfect out of the box...




To begin with we do not build a 600 but I find quite a few things in your post hard to believe but then again I have to look at the part you quoted.

I cant speak for what somebody may have or haven't told you several years ago but it would/should not be normal to have to clean a new carb out and it should have came back here had that been the case.

If it really was a new carburetor at the time then it had warranty as any new product would.

In regards to Summit that information has already been posted in this thread but you chose to ignore it and post a lie. At that point your post loses any credibility it may have had and looks more like you are just trying to stir the pot.

edit: the Summit info was in a couple of other threads on here and not in this one as I orig though. It has since been posted to clarify.

Last edited by TechAtBG; 01/29/10 12:06 PM.

Technical Support Barry Grant, Inc. www.barrygrant.com
Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: FurryStump] #592883
01/29/10 10:22 AM
01/29/10 10:22 AM
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 127
Dahlonega, GA
T
TechAtBG Offline
member
TechAtBG  Offline
member
T

Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 127
Dahlonega, GA
Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

I like them. Have run on apps from my race car to my motor home.

Besides the shavings etc.. they are decent.

Important to know that BG carbs flow a little more than a holley with the same number.
Also, that the different series of them(road, speed, mighty, race, etc) are set up to respond to different camshaft durations.

I have seen lot's of posts on here in the past where there have been size and series mismatch. The results are not good.

ie... I remember a guy with a 383 with a pretty agressive cam. around 250 @ 50 duration.

He was running an 850 speed demon on it, and couldn't get it to idle.

In that situation, a 750 mighty demon would have been the correct carb. The 850 is too big, and the speed series is for smaller cam's so tuning it right was virtually impossible.

Don't buy the wrong series of carb, no matter how good of a deal it is, UNLESS going the otherway(running a mighty, where you should be using a speed)

IIRC the series are broken down like this.
Road demon-stock replacement, speed demon- up to 240 @ 50 duration, mighty demon 240- 260 @ 50, race demon - above that.




That sums up a lot of what we see. Guys want to run too big of a carburetor and then blame us when it doesn't work.

We have had guys call in for recommendations and then call back trying to get something different recommended and even 4 or 5 times only to get the same. One guy told me he wasn't going to run a "baby" carburetor on a 302 and was intent on running one of our 750's which flows over 900 cfm.

I have even had them call back and say "the other guy" recommended so and so thinking they have someone else but thats the nice thing about caller id's . I have even had them call and change the combination to see if we would recommend soemthing else.

In regards to the shavings, that deal was several years ago and we came on many of the forums when it was brought to our attention and admitted it as well as made numerous changes to correct it.

Now I understand there is at least one other manufacturer experiencing the same currently.


I appreciate your posting here trying to address issues with your products. I have had my carb for two years and had the shavings issue. I can't imagine how frustrating it is sell a superbly designed,but poorly assembled product. To design a product that when assembled with care and attention to detail, performs better than expected, only to be let down by a lack of QC. I have no idea when my carb was made. It could have been on a shelf for years, I don't know. For me cleaning the carb out was no big deal,but some people may not be able to tear the carb down and clean it. Again I very happy with how it performs now. For me it wasn't a tuning issue, it wasn't a mismatched carb issue,it was the person who put it together didn't care enough to make sure it was clean. :drive




Thanks. Your carb would have prob been on the shelf for about a year based on when we had the issue and the time you had it.

As posted one should not have to take a new carburetor apart to clean it and I have been spot inspecting them now coming off the line for about 2 1/2 years and rarely see any with any shavings at all.

Some of the shaving problems were not caused by employees not caring though as we were able to track part of it back to the way we were machining parts. The tool would cut a hole in one direction and then cut the hole 90 degrees to that and it would pack the shavings in the bottom. Standard cleaning practices didn't get this stuff out nor catch it so we had to change the way some parts were machined.

Other issues had to due with the way parts were being moved and/or stored so we wnet to mesh baskets for this and moved the gaskets off the benches and into clean dispensor boxes. We also put vacuum systems under the assembly benches and installed a timed sonic wash.

Even with all of this you will still have the human factor involved as you mentioned and whether somebody just misses something or has a bad day or any number of things there will always be issues but we continue to put checks and balances into place and the qc has greatly improved over what it was a few years back.


Technical Support Barry Grant, Inc. www.barrygrant.com
Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: dave571] #592884
01/29/10 10:29 AM
01/29/10 10:29 AM
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 127
Dahlonega, GA
T
TechAtBG Offline
member
TechAtBG  Offline
member
T

Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 127
Dahlonega, GA
Quote:

Quote:

...One guy told me he wasn't going to run a "baby" carburetor on a 302 and was intent on running one of our 750's which flows over 900 cfm.






He probably bought a 750 off ebay, and then complained that he couldn't tune it too. You just can't talk sense into some guys.

A friend of mine was having issues with his 750 speed demon, because his combo was better suited for a double pumper, and his duration was almost where he needed a mighty demon. car was a high 12 low 13 second B body.

A local shop told him an 850 speed demon they could make him a deal on, may help the problem he had. The friend of mine was ready to go for it, even though I was showing him how my car with more duration, and faster than his, only needed a 750, but a mighty, instead of speed.

He did finally buy a mighty, and it treated him well.

The size thing does get to be quite a debate. The 440 in my winni, has a 625 road demon on it. Good power, and my peak economy was 10 mp cdn g(8mp usg) towing the car over mountain passes which I thought was pretty good.





Yeah some of these guys amaze me and I really don't understand why they waste their time to call us.

Yesterday we had a guy with a 650 Speed that should have had a 575 Mighty. He called me 3 times and called one of my guys 2 times so 5 times only to get told the same thing over and over. Finally on his 6th time calling in he got one of the guys and asked him what the "575 jetting" was because I told told him he needed a 575 so he was going to rejet what he had.


Technical Support Barry Grant, Inc. www.barrygrant.com
Re: Barry Grant carbs- what's the scoop? [Re: TechAtBG] #592885
01/29/10 10:44 AM
01/29/10 10:44 AM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 7,861
Witness Protection Program
Kudakidd Offline
master
Kudakidd  Offline
master

Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 7,861
Witness Protection Program
I've been a Holley guy since 1970 (yeah I'm old!). The Mighty Demon I have now is the best carb I've ever owned; hands down. The added features, quick starting ,the lack of hesitation or stumbling and the overall performance makes buying a 'custom' (Holley) based carb a waste of money.

Page 1 of 2 1 2






Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.1