Whats your opinions here on Edelbrock carbs, looking at the Performer 600cfm carb for my 318 engine

I like them. Simple, easy to tune, reliable. I've owned ne sinc the late 80's and currently have three.

fine for your 318

Thunder Series AOK! Great out of the box no issues Others--ugh..not so much
A well tune Holley will run circles around one in any case

Edlebrocks work fine, the performers are AFB's which were stock on many cars in the 60's.

Any carb will run about the same if it's tuned properly, I know someone thats good with thermoquads and runs one on his 5.70(1/8) W5 motor, lots of people throw those away because they're stock and must be junk.

I've picked up a few "bad" holleys and demons because someone has messed with them that had no business touching a carb.

The AVS is a little friendlier than the AFB and you can tune the AVS carb smoother. TQuads are better than a holley in most respects. Even a Q jet can be better than a holley. Holleys are all performance, and do what they do, how they do it.

A Edelbrock Thunder AVS 800, beats the heck out of a Holley street avenger 770.

They run fine with the correct fuel pressure and float level. I really wish they had sight plugs and adjustable floats like a Holley.

If you have not tuned one before, use edelbrocks tuning guide. It is easy to just swap rods around, but if you are not careful you can install rods that will really mess up the fuel curve (usually if the step size changes alot from the stock rods step size (difference between the two sections if the metering rod.)

500. 600 great, what happened to the 750? JUNK! AVS 800, heard good things. AFB's are like roaches, hard to kill.

Yeah... GREAT carbs until your filter allows some junk through, then all sorts of stuff happens.

Lot of cranking required to top off the float bowl. Until then it's no pump shot, no start.

They seem to run very good on mild engines.

Your engine is small in displacement- I would not go larger than 600cfm no matter which brand you buy. It will be tempting to run a 750 but really your warmed 318 will be fed just fine with a 600. You may even consider one of the Summit brand carbs. (They are an improved Autolite then Holley design)

never had a bad one yet. I would not use a Holley even if it were free.
better yet is a TQ. I wonder why Eddy never started re making them along with the AFB's.

My experience with Edelbrock AFBs is that they work fine for stock engines..
Once you throw in a different cam and the vacuum drops they are difficult to get adjusted rite..

Just my $0.01..