Holley Ultra ready out of the box!!!!!

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The carb was waaaaaaaaaaayyyyy off.

I'm not expecting the carb to be perfect but this carb was so bad the motor would not run!!!

Just venting!! It's all set now after being on and off 2 times..

I'm not buying the " this carb has been wet folwed by Holley "

OOTB,,,,,,,,,LOL

Same experience here....Bought a G3 and the air bleeds were all reversed right out of the box. Then I get it on the car, and same experience.

Mine OTB had sticking throttle, back it went.

Custom will fix your problem...

The ONLY way a carb really will work OOTB is if it comes out of a ThumperDart box.

What model of carb, and what changes were needed to the OOB settings?

Nice endorsement, but I doubt even Dom would make that claim...

Highly appreciated and my best claims are that it will be closer to what you need, more tuneable and fully hand built leaving nothing that hasn't been looked at under a microscope. They mass produce, I don`t but they ALL still need some love although several have not even turned a screw w/great results. THIS needs to be said though; In Dragulas case where the carb I did was bad azz on a DYNO motor and made more power that the others, in HIS car things went south because of crap in the fuel system. Got another call w/similar issues, carb was good here then on HIS car fuel creeping issues w/an efi fuel system and N&S`s sticking for whatever reason...........nothing or no one is perfect along w/efi...........

I haven't had any issues with any of the carbs I've gotten recently. The 950 Gen 3 Dominator worked just fine out of the box as did the 1050 Gen 3. My 850 Ultra XP worked fine out of the box as did the 1050 AN carb from Quick Fuel. The 950 Ultra was a bit doggy so I sent it to Mark and had him convert it over to annular boosters. That was a more advanced fix for that carb.

Most of the Holley stuff these days is a little rich down low out of the box but they run just fine and will pull hard on the top end. About the most tuning we end up doing is a slightly smaller idle feed jet and maybe plug one of the emulsion holes. Takes about 20 minutes to do that kind of stuff.

Andy, are you getting the carbs direct from Holley, or doing it like the "every-man" and buying them from a place like Summit?

I haven't bought a new Holley carb for myself in a very long time, but the ones I've gotten for customers seem to have worked pretty well.......with the exception of the part throttle A/F ratios on 4500 carbs, which are just ridiculously rich(haven't tried a Gen 3 yet).

The only carbs I consistently found to have a multitude of issues were the BG Claw carbs, and the subsequent Demons.
We were on the BG program, and at the time, they were about the only thing a shop like us could buy and sell for the same price as Summit, and still make some money on them.
so, we sold quite a few. In the end, it just took so much extra time on the dyno to get them sorted out(and then often times, several phone calls from unhappy customers about issues they were having in the car) that we just went back to using Holleys.
Of all the BG and Demon carbs we installed/sold, I only remember one that actually worked fine ootb.

I didn't say it would be perfect, I said it would work OOTB. Ask his customers if they would agree.

About 50/50. Sometimes I buy from Summit, sometimes Holley ships to me direct. The QF carb came direct from QF.

At the engine shop they have a little more problems with carbs out of the box. Typically the problem is with carbs that someone else has returned. Seems like Summit just tapes up the box and ships them back out. Last carb had the center hole stripped out which is a bad deal since the main body needs to be replaced. No way to fix that carb. But whoever took the return at Summit didn't flag the carb so it got shipped to the next guy.

The carb I picked for my street 505 is the Holley Double Pumper Ultra 850. The problem was the secondaries were adjusted waaaaaay out of range of the transfer slots. After 2 adjustments to the secondaries along with a idle mixture adjustment for the new throttle position the carb is great!!!! Just need to weld in the bungs for some fine tuning...

All this because you didn't check & correct the throttle plate / transfer slot adjustment and mixture screw baseline settings before you bolted down the new carb?

Nice backpedaling.

Nice BS.

I thought my 1050 ultra worked pretty good OOTB, until I bolted one of Thumperdart's 1050's on. He took a old 1050, with multiple issues, and made it perform wonderful. I haven't had a chance to properly back to back the two carburetors, but it will be close to 3 tenths, and 5 mph quicker. As soon as I can do a little testing, the new ultra is heading Thumperdart's way.

The BS was / is the absurdity of your original statement. As if Dom is the ONLY (your word, not mine) person capable of providing a carb with a usable OOB tune.

Quality control is one thing, ridiculous tune ups are another and I see both more often than ever. I REALLY appreciate the kind words and as I`ve said many times; When I go for something I go all the way and have delved into carbs 110% and have given up most of my regular social life to do so. No more drumming in bars, hardly race (been 2 years) INSTEAD, I dig deep, read/study every single day and learn all I can from the smartest carb guys on the planet and let`s just say that MOST of them are not big carb companies............ Brad, it`s ok to get compliments................

My gen 3 ultra is on it's way back from thumper's shop as I type. Going on the 540. He had to change a bunch of stuff.

Anybody want a pair of new Holley gen 3 blocks and bowls? Shiney alum color. $75 shipped via post office.

Brad,

Your right, I should have checked the secondary throttle blade position out of the box. From now on I will run everything I do on my car through you to make sure I don't forget things.

Thanks for your help as always.

Absolutely, and it sure sounds like you're getting a lot of positive feedback here from your work.

Your sources of carb tuning information and my sources of carb information overlap significantly, so I understand why you take the approach you do for your customers' carbs. I take the same basic approach w/ my own stuff, which I've had a couple of other people on here test for me while my junk's still apart.

However, there's a herd mentality on here some fall into that "their guy" is the ONLY guy who can do the job right. I see it happen w/ references to engine builders, trans builders, cylinder head porters... and carb tuners.

My direct manner (ask my wife... or even my ex-wife) is to call bogus on those sort of claims. So, when I saw the statement that you are the ONLY guy who can deliver a carb w/ a usable OOB tune, my gut reaction was "Gimme a freakin' break."

Not intending to take away from the positive feedback & results you're receiving, but those sort of statements trigger my "reality check response". So, I said what I said.

Happy trails, carb dude! And don't ignore the for too long. I've had to put them aside, too, for a while as I've been recovering from shoulder surgery earlier this year, but am now back to making wood chips from drum sticks when the chance comes up.

Yep. 'Cuz NOTHING can be assumed to be a true bolt-on these days... which I'm sure you already knew, right?

And, sorry, I don't have time to double-check the obvious for your stuff when I'm not making enough progress on my own.

But I understand your request for assistance and appreciate the vote of confidence!

I hear what you`re saying and my drive is to provide the "best that I can" service to anyone willing to give me a shot cos it damn sure isn't the money if you saw what I go through and the hrs. involved.........As far as drumming, zero desire at least for now and already sold a bad ass Gretsch Catalina Maple kit to a friend for $400.............

Well, I'd say my work is done here...

Dom - I'll be PM-ing you at some point to discuss emulsion tuning w/ 4-hole & 5-hole metering blocks.

Your work is NEVER done here Brad................. Call me anytime..............

Sadly that is typical for Summit , I bought a set of main bearings that someone had returned after removing them from the shrink wrap and just sticking back loose in the box, so they bounced around shipping back to summit, then sent to me. The were all dinged up and had fingerprints on them.

I cringe everytime I get a box from Summit.

Anyone that expects an OOTB mass produced carb to be perfect for each and every engine you choose to bolt it on...........well that's quite a reach. Most of our Dominators will be close OOTB box on most 500" and larger motors, because that is what they are tested on.

As far as ridiculous tune ups.........that's strictly a matter of opinion. The Holley production carbs performed VERY well against full custom rigs every year at the carb shootout. We used a production carb for a reason at those competitions, instead of a custom hand built unit. Our contest carbs were off the shelf, with only changes to brass as needed

Brad, no problem, I know how busy you are. Keep up the good work. You are the best. We are very proud of you!!!

I'll agree on two circuit carbs. I've bolted a fair number of two circuit Dominators on race engines right out of the box and had them work just fine. (The dyno shop I work with is near sea level so we rarely need to even change jets)

Three circuit Dominator carbs are a different issue! Every one I've ever had was super rich right out of the box at part throttle. Either you can't run the engine at part throttle or you have to take a ton of jet out of them. No idea what the calibration folks at Holley are thinking on those carbs. I'm guessing they think those carbs are only used by guys who get towed to the starting line and leave on a 5500 stall?

I`m sure cars come to you done by a "known" builder that MAY be close but you do what YOU know that needs to be done to make it better. No different for me and carbs and the "wacky" yes, wacky over emulsified garbage and I`m sure you've even said, "What the hell were they thinking"..........Don`t lie, you've said it cos we ALL have at one point or another................

I agree. Seen nothing but problems with 3 circuit dominators.

Back in the late 90's we bolted an ootb 1150 2 circuit Dominator onto a 'so called of a pig' 509' hydraulic cammed, stock rockered, 11.4:1 CR rebuilt 446ci big block, with 'too big' 2 1/8 headers, hogged out 452 heads, MSD 7Al-2, torker intake, running on proper avgas... It didn't even have a big stall converter in it, fmrvb 727, no engine braking (dumb), with only a 2500 rpm converter.

I kid you all not, that above car ran in every rpm range as sweet as an EFI chevy LS1/2/3! It would start first click, idle somewhat like a roller head/cam 346ci LS1, and pull harder than one, could drive anywhere, the torque was insane and it would black track 295 street rubber from any speed under 60mph in 3rd gear! It was even somewhat fuel efficient at light cruising throttle, and would drain the fuel cell in no time at WOT!

I remember that 1150 carb so well that I just bought a new one recently the same, a 2 circuit 1150 (1x4). Im hoping that Holley has kept the basic design on this carb the same as back then and I don't have to go to EFI to get good driveability. That might be like hoping for a politician actually being 'for the people', but we'll see...

Just for comparison sake.

I bought a pair of 1150 ultras for a tunnel ram 572 hemi. They were spot on perfect saving going 2 numbers leaner on the mains, even though it ran fine on the 96's, it picked up a touch on 94's. Crisp throttle, nice idle, and clean to 8400rpm.