Why Ed Says Stop Messing With Your Quadrajet | Ask Ed 23 | Ed Smith with Barry T

Why does Ed Smith still think the Rochester Quadrajet is an excellent carburetor—and why does he warn people not to get “tinkeritis” and start changing things they don't understand? In Ask Ed 23, Ed explains how Quadrajets use metering rods and secondary airflow, why larger Pontiac and Cadillac versions were valuable for performance use, and how racers modified and tuned them. He also discusses progressive multi-carburetor setups and why too much carburetor can hurt an engine rather than help it. Ed and Barry T also get into racing transmissions, transmission-fluid differences, an unusual automatic transmission that used a dry clutch instead of a torque converter, engine load and fuel economy, cooling-system bypasses, camshaft regrinding, camshaft flex and Ed's procedure for bringing a fresh engine to life. CHAPTERS 0:00 Ask Ed 23 0:59 Transmission Fluids and Additives 1:17 Mercon vs. Dexron Transmission Fluid 2:29 Why Ford and GM Fluids Shift Differently 3:35 Modern Multi-Speed Transmission Complexity 4:24 Lockup Torque Converters 5:19 Alcohol, Water and Winter Fuel Additives 6:24 Why Ed Likes the Turbo 350 and Turbo 400 7:07 Powerglide vs. Turbo 350 8:09 How Much Horsepower Does a Transmission Consume? 8:29 Ford C4 Transmission Advantages 9:18 Chrysler Torqueflite Transmissions 10:01 The Push-Button Transmission Racing Story 11:05 Switch-Pitch Torque Converters 12:24 Using Vega and Monza Converters for Higher Stall 13:35 Why High-Stall Converters Hurt Mileage 14:03 The Racing Automatic With a Dry Clutch 14:39 How the Dry-Clutch Automatic Worked 16:06 A Ford Racing Transmission With No Converter 17:10 Can a Lockup Converter Be Adapted for Racing? 17:39 How Much Power Does a Turbo 400 Use? 18:06 Why Racers Remove First Gear 19:12 Rochester Quadrajet Tuning 19:28 Adjusting Quadrajet Secondary Air Doors 20:01 Modifying Quadrajets for Racing 20:28 Why Some Quadrajets Flow More Air 21:58 Adding an External Metering-Rod Adjustment 22:17 How Quadrajet Metering Rods Work 22:53 What Happens When the Secondaries Open 23:12 Idle Mixture vs. Main-Metering Adjustments 23:47 Why Ed Warns Against Over-Tuning a Quadrajet 24:15 Circle-Track Quadrajet Modifications 24:34 Vacuum Secondary Questions 25:00 Why an Oversized Carburetor Can Bog 25:21 Two-Barrel vs. Four-Barrel Street Performance 25:58 Altitude, Hills and Carburetor Load 27:08 Water Injection and Cooling Under Load 28:01 How to Tune Dual Carburetors 28:19 Progressive Dual-Carburetor Linkage 29:29 Synchronizing Dual Carburetors at Part Throttle 30:09 Why Ed Says Not to Chase Idle Adjustments 30:42 Don’t Get “Tinkeritis” 31:08 Cooling-System Questions 31:18 Ford 302 Cooling Bypass 31:48 Is Blocking the Bypass Only for Racing? 32:26 Thermostat Temperature and Engine Efficiency 33:14 Chevrolet and Ford Bypass Differences 33:33 Why Ed Plugs the 351M Bypass 34:01 Radiator Flushing and Cooling-System Problems 34:38 Cooling-System Pressure and Boiling Point 35:20 Windsor Engine Cooling and Fan Shrouds 36:15 Factory Airflow and Grille Problems 36:49 Exhaust Restrictions That Cause Overheating 37:06 Camshaft and Valvetrain Questions 37:16 How Many Times Can a Camshaft Be Reground? 38:21 Camshaft Regrinding and Base-Circle Size 38:48 How Camshaft Regrinding Changes Geometry 39:25 Camshaft Hardness and Material 40:03 Reground vs. New Camshafts 40:12 Steel Roller Camshafts 40:48 Does a Roller Cam Need Break-In? 41:02 How Ed Runs a Fresh Engine 41:27 Why Ed Avoids Long Idle Time 42:06 How RPM Improves Oil Splash 42:40 Timing-Chain Lubrication at Break-In 43:11 Why 2,000 RPM Is Common During Break-In 43:37 Running a Fresh Engine Without Water 44:05 Setting Initial Fast Idle 44:50 Checking Oil Pressure Immediately 45:10 Feeling Valve Covers for Problems 45:27 Restarting and Rechecking a Fresh Engine 46:12 Final Thoughts Have a question for Ed? Email: AskEd@BarryTsGarage.com Videos, Garage Store & Newsletter: www.BarryTsGarage.com Join this channel to support BarryT’s Garage:    / @barrytsgarage   #BarryTsGarage #AskEd #Quadrajet