I'm thinking of building another small block (meaning paying someone to) and am very interested in using a spread bore carb and intake. Mild performing 360 street engine. I REALLY miss that sound of a Qjet or TQ. I realize tuning one isn't the easiest, and parts sourcing can be difficult but if there's not a big dropoff in performance due to the intake and carb itself versus something like an edelbrock performer air airgap with Holley 3310 than I'd love to have that sound again.
Problem is I don't know if there are good intakes available, especially aluminum to accommodate a spread bore carb and if I'm sacrificing lots of power.
Also not a fan of any carb adapters but what do I know? Not much.
Factory 340/360 spread bore intakes are at least equal to eddy performer. RPM and Air Gap are a different story. Step up from stock intake if justified would be a holley street dominator spread bore intake. If you are going to run AC with a sanden style compressor, you will need a late 70's 360 intake that has the thermostat offset for it.
That said, how often will you be above 5000 rpm on the street? Not very much I suspect. A properly tuned thermoquad will give better gas mileage than any other, followed by the quadrajet. Both are excellent street carbs.
Dont be put off by others telling you how hard they are to tune or get parts for. Rebuild kits are available, and parts are available from the thousands of tq's being used for door stops or paper weights.
