Trojan Boat Forum

Any advice on replacement carbs for my twin 383 engines? They currently have 4 barrel Carter AFB carbs...which I am not happy with. I have rebuilt them once already and both still seem to act up no matter how much "tuning" I have tried. I've been looking at the Edelbrock 600 and 750cfm marine carbs...seem like they might fit my needs. Just curious if anyone else has had any experience with them or otherwise.

Thanks!

Changed out the old AFB's on our 250 HP engines to the edelbrock 1409's ( 600 cfm), better metering and idle qualities and a very easy swap out....I don't think you will regret it...just some fitting for the flame arrestor and dealing with the PCV if you have it...IMO you will never need the 750 cfm, much better carb signal with the 600cfm, more than adequate for your 383's....

mikeandanne wrote:Changed out the old AFB's on our 250 HP engines to the edelbrock 1409's ( 600 cfm), better metering and idle qualities and a very easy swap out....I don't think you will regret it...just some fitting for the flame arrestor and dealing with the PCV if you have it...IMO you will never need the 750 cfm, much better carb signal with the 600cfm, more than adequate for your 383's....

+1

Perfect, thank you both so much! Two more quick questions:

1. Will the spark arrestors from my old carter afbs work with the edelbrocks? In other words...some "fitting" means?

2. Where did you find the best price on the edelbrocks you purchased?

Thanks!!!

By the way, while trying to "tune" my carters this last time my father asked what "afb" stands for. His wise friend who was helping us said, "add fuel backfire"! Pretty funny stuff.

All I did was cut the rim on the flame arrestor to fit the eddy because depending on which AFB you have the sizes don't match, that being said yours might match correctly ( easy with metal snips)....honestly it will be obvious if you do this..to your second question,...actually beacon marine here has them in the catalogue ......one more thing, as with all " bolt on stuff" there is always some fitting whether they tell you or not.

Perfect, thank you for the information. I assume that I need to buy an adapter plate (for each motor) to fit the edelbrock to the manifold where the carters were bolted up?

The diameter of the bottom of the spark arrestor is not correct for the new carbs and you need to either cut some metal away or replace them.

I bought 600cfm Edelbrock 1409's for our 440 engines and think I might go with K&N marine approved air filters. I am still making final measurements as the top of the existing spark arrestors are just about touching the bottom of the floor boards. My carbs came from Amazon as everybody had the same online pricing and Amazon had them in stock.

Also, if your AFB has a PCV system connected, you need to drill and tap the 1409 to use it: http://api.ning.com/files/pip6g4jx0scEi ... apping.pdf

The Edelbrock 1409 and 1410 are copies of the Carter AFB and should not need an adapter to fit your intake manifold.

The 1409s are installed and have made a HUGE difference in the performance of my boat, no more backfiring (really front firing), much smoother and drastic increase in power. All of those things make for a happy fella, however...I still don't think I am getting full performance. I widened the openings in the plates that the carbs sit on, so that the secondary butterflies wouldn't hit them when trying to open. I also made sure that I have full movement of the throttle from idle to wide open. My issue is that with both throttles wide open I am still only able to achieve about 2500 rpm on either motor. I have been told numerous times by numerous people that these motors should be capable of much more than that. The motors are 383 Chryslers, one is freshly rebuilt and the other doesn't have all that many hours either...both run VERY strong up to the 2500 rpm mark. I have also checked timing, dwell, new points, caps, rotors, wires, etc.. Any thoughts?