Customer Reviews

How to Rebuild and Modify Rochester Quadrajet Carburetors (S-a Design)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having chatted with Cliff previously via email, I was happily surprised that he had finally put his wisdom to paper. While it's clear when reading this book that he is a Pontiac fan, he does a good job on the Chevy, Buick, and Oldsmobile Quadrajets also.

In this book you'll find practical rebuilding, repairing, and performance tips. I really like the fact that he covers the repairs that often have to be made to the venerable Quadrajet, now that the one that is on our vehicles is probably well over 30 years old! If you are wondering how to repair that stripped fuel inlet thread, or how to modify your idle air bypass, you will find that information in this book. Not only does this book do a fantastic job covering repairs and performance modifications in depth, the photo's are large, detailed, and relevant.

Discussion of operation of the various circuits is included. The various models and improvements over the years is explained. With this info you will be well prepared to select the right Q-jet for your vehicle.

This work on Rochester carbs is important because the Rochesters, especially the Quadrajet, are vastly underated. There is a very good chance that you could run a Quadrajet on your vehicle and gain fuel efficiency without sacrificing power. In this day and age, that is no small consideration. On a 327 Chevy I've run three Quadrajets (7045263, 7043250, and 7029207) against an out of the box fresh Holley 6619. The best Quadrajet, which happened to be new also, beat the Holley on an identical course by about two miles per gallon with no perceived loss of performance! One of the other Qj's was new also, the other one was rebuilt to stock specs on the primary side, and richened up on the secondary side. The bottom line is that out of the three Quadrajets tested on my vehicle, three of them beat the Holley in the mpg category. Of course, your results may differ, but my point is that you should not overlook the Quadrajet when planning your next street engine build. My motivation to run the Quadrajet came largely from Doug Roe's book, however, there are a lot of points in this work that do not appear in the book by Doug Roe. If you do a search you can find further results from my "test" online. Just type in the carburetor numbers and Holley.


Even if you already have Doug Roe's book on Quadrajets, you'll want this one too. Besides the wealth of photographs, and up to date information, you'll notice that he even covers the Edelbrock Quadrajets as well. Lot's of information for the money.

Having run and enjoyed Q-jets for many years I bought this book immediately. Even if you have the Rochester book by Doug Roe, this is a needed addition. True hands on experience shows and Ruggles is able to convey some complex procedures with success. From a simple rebuild to advanced tuning you'll find plenty of help. Pictures are good and clear, but the captions are another story. Here's where I dropped one star in my review. You can figure out the intent with a little study but it seems the publisher rushed the set-up and printing. For instance, the 'left' carburetor is sometimes the 'right' one. Picky perhaps but it is sometimes confusing. All in all a good book.

The book is great. Very detailed and loaded with great information. My only problem is that I contacted a vendor that is mentioned in the book concerning rebuild kits. The Carburetor Shop in Eldon, MO is mentioned as " a great provider of quality rebuild kits." I contacted them concerning a kit for the carburetor I am rebuilding. Horrible, I mean HORRIBLE customer service. Do not, once again DO NOT purchase anything from that company. I will keep their emails for reference for anyone who does not believe me. Sorry to stray from the book review. The book is great and I would recommend it to anyone, but buy your parts somewhere else.

Mark

Since I have a recent Quadrajet, 1986 with electronic controls, I needed to be able to rebuild my carburator without screwing it up. The performance modifications section wasn't of great value to me. The authors coverage of the APT was a bit superficial. He chose to advise the reader to count the number of turns to remove it, when in reality you need to count the number of turns til it bottoms out, then you know where to set it upon re-assembly. His advise was not to mess with it but put it back to the factory setting, assuming it was at the factory setting to begin with. Since I knew my carb was running rich to begin with, I leaned out the APT from where it was when I removed it and the authors APT test worked as described. My motor now runs nice and smooth.

Overall this was a very good book. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to understand how the Quadrajet works before taking one apart.

Carl King
[...]

Overall, this book is an excellent supplement to Roe's book on Q-jets. The book should have been edited better for those who actually work on their carburetor (I would give 3 stars for editing, but entered 5 for content). The technical information I needed to make modifications to my carbs was there, however, usually in at least two or more places in the book. This is only a little irritating compared to not finding the info at all. I ended up making a spreadsheet from the info scattered throughout the book for a particular application so that I could have a one page reference. Flipping through the book while trying to work proves too slow. If you're going to actually work on a Q-jet, particularly to get better performance, or use on an engine swap or modified engine, you should consider this book a must have supplement to Roe.

Great informative book, if you know nothing about Quadrajet and you wanna know. This is the book to add to your library. The things I often tried to find on the world wide web about Quadrajet, I could not find but in this book it is all spelled ou tin front of you.
Thanks again

I would urge anyone who is thinking of rebuilding a Quadrajet carburetor to get this book. This book was filled with detailed steps, photos, and facts about the build, plus lots of tips on modifying for multiple purposes.
The book was well written and easy to follow during the rebuilding process.

I have four books on Quadrajets, including the old (now out-of-print) Doug Roe book and the David Vizard book on carburetors, and this is the first book you should buy. The Vizard book is good and includes some extra information, but this one is a must. It goes into detail on every circuit, one-by-one, and explains how they work, when they need to be modified (if it's needed) to calibrate for non-stock applications, and how to make the changes. It honestly turns the voodoo into scientific, repeatable parameters you can adjust on purpose to get the results you need.

Cliff Ruggles and SA Design teamed up to create a Quadrajet book that finally makes sense! Simple text and good illustrations combine to make a reference you don't need an engineering degree to understand.

It doesn't matter if you want a stock or high performance unit. Cliff covers the steps to understanding, choosing, repairing, and modifying your Q-jet. Layman's terms are used so that you don't feel intimidated, and the project goes smoothly. I found the history chapter to be the most informative of any Q-jet publication I've read.

I recommend this book to anyone who might be considering tossing their Q-jet in favor of an aftermarket carburetor. After reading this and applying what you've learned, you may be spending that new carb money elsewhere!

This book is a must when modifying or rebuilding your quadrajet. I have a 1969 q-jet and this book gave me the bravery to dig into my carb. I came out with flying colors as my car now runs like a top. Ruggles knows his stuff, and would love to meet the man someday!! They should call him "Quadman"