Rochester Quadrajet Rebuild with Ultrasonic Cleaning!

One of my all-time favourite carbs! Tunable for idle! Tunable for part-throttle! Tunable for full throttle! Probably the closest thing to fuel injection precison, in a carb! Today we're cleaning one up, and making a few mods!
Free Curriculum:
www.gwellwood.com/subjects/
Quadrajet Book:
cliffshighperformance.com/pro...
Quadrajet Kits & Parts:
quadrajetparts.com/quadrajet-...
Ultrasonic Cleaner:
CA ultrasonic cleaner - s.vevor.com/bfQjuk
US ultrasonic cleaner - s.vevor.com/bfQjt6
Discount code VVS10 to save 10$

[@rockyota785]

Wait. Curiosity, why didn't you reinstall the spring and cup on top of the accelerator pump? It was on the one you took out. Was that done on purpose?

[@GregWellwood]

Holy carp! Good catch! Dang it. That's the "duration" spring. Thankfully, that carb is still on one of the motors at work. I'll fix that! You get an "A!"

[@rockyota785]

@GregWellwood Ha! Thanks! And Thank you for the video!

[@jimdean7335]

Thanks for doing this. As knowledgable mechanics get older and the move to fuel injection, there are fewer and fewer folks that can work on these carbs. I think your video will be a good reference for years to come. Or when we are all forced to go electric 😂.

[@glenns5627]

Had a '79 'Vette years - decades - ago that I fought with a mid-range bog. As I cursed it one day, this old guy from across the street offered up the Q-jet off his dead Cadillac. It wasn't the right Q-Jet for the 'Vette, obviously, but I rigged a manual choke cable to replace the manifold-spring setup. That Cad carburetor ran like a top and got Hella better mileage than the old Q-Jet ever did. That rare case of dumb luck working out well. I never did put the original Q-Jet back on.

[@jjohnson2553]

Being a licensed teen driver at the height of the muscle car era was a blast. I always thought the quadra-jet got a bad rap in those days. I ran one for a while and was very satisfied with the way it performed. But Holley had just come out with a 1050 cfm 3 barrel carb when I was building a new engine for my Camaro and I never went back to Rochester after that.

[@dannywilsher4165]

Back in the 70's and 80's, I rebuilt hundreds of Q-jet carbs. In my experience, I could make one out perform a Holley. I think Holley's are much better now days but back then, a Q-jet could be tuned to perform awesome.

[@larrykittell726]

Thanks for the video. I had a Quadrajet that wouldn't run because it was full of emerald green mold. With a can of carb cleaner and a roll of paper towels, I had it running great in about an hour.

[@jpackard2723]

When searching for a Quadrajet in a parts yard you might find one from the mid to late 80's that you will need to drill out the plugs to be able to adjust the idle screws as well. The one Glen showed either already had that done or was another variation. Nice video Glen, thanks for putting it out there, The youth of today will need it at some point to use as viable references have virtually disappeared on these.

[@GregWellwood]

Correct - many carbs have the mixture screwed capped. This one had already had the plugs removed.

[@SchysCraftCo.]

Very nice Job. Hopefully that helps you out with your problem. Can't wait to see more videos soon my friend. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friend. Keep up the great craftsmanship and hard work my friend. Fab On. Weld On. Keep Fixing. Keep Making. God Bless.

[@swamprat69er]

The only carb I ever ran on a GM V8 was a Rochester. Mine I shaved down all the casting marks and hogged out almost too much for the primary bores and made dam sure that the secondaries ONLY opened to 90°. If you go over the 90 degrees then you are essentially closing the secondaries and you wont get as much go out of it as you should. The throttle plates I made both of the knife edged on the sealing side, no air turbulence there. I also shaved and applied shellac to the gaskets to conform with the new barrel diameters. The more air you get into the engine the faster you will go. Don't forget the exhaust! Ya gotta get the exhaust out just as quick. If you can get away with it, then straight pipes work good. The lower the restrictions the better with a finely tuned Rochester.

[@andrewromain7756]

On my motorcycle carbs i use simple green D Pro3 cut 50/50 with distilled water in my ultrasonic cleaner. Rinse thoroughly afterwards... It has not hurt any finish, or bare aluminum parts. I did a lot of research before hand, and this was the only simple green i found that was "safe" for aluminum, but its recommended to dilute.

[@gazza116]

one of the best carbs around,people didnt understand them so put a holly or weber on.ive taken many a holley off and put a good quadrajet on and they were amazed,especially on boats.

[@goptools]

A lot of guys hate them but those old Rochesters were good carbs if you got them tuned rigjht. I don't know if you still can but back in the day there was a large selection of metering rods and jets so you could get the air/fuel ratio exactly to what you needed for your application. My friend and I had a big block Chevelle that we replaced the Holley double pumper that was on it when we bought it, with a Quadrajet. Once you got it dialed-in, it worked perfectly. Thanks for the video!

[@GregWellwood]

I put a link in the description on places where one can get parts and more information.

[@goptools]

@@GregWellwood Thanks!

[@luisbatista1103]

Cleaned a 2barrel from my 1958 buick special in Pinesol cheap n it worked

[@GregWellwood]

Cleans your sinuses too.

[@thewolfin]

The captions did surprisingly well at 0:14

[@GregWellwood]

KZbin got a little help with that. (grin)

[@truthboomertruthbomber5125]

On my 68 GTO I had the cam for the secondary metering rods self destruct. I found a carb with stripped fuel inlet threads and cannibalized the cam out of it.

[@MichaelJohnson-cm4wp]

next time, try the soda blaster..Take the carb apart, then soda blast inside and out on the 3 main body parts..The soda will not wear down the metal..HF blue tank soda blaster is what I use..Really does a great job..Then use the ultra sonic cleaner to clean all the small passages..

[@wombat211192]

Great video. What was the sealer you used to seal the lead plugs.

[@GregWellwood]

In this case I used JB Weld. I don't believe these were leaking, but it's common practice to seal them.

[@bobweiram6321]

Ultrasonic cleaners are awesome, but for the best results you need the right procedure and cleaning solution. A 1 hour duty cycle seems awfully long and can burn out you transducers. For heavy caked on grease, you want a mildly caustic solution with some heat. Trisodium Phosphate (TSP) is an excellent degreaser. Mix a 1/8 cup per gallon of TSP with some dishwasher detergent. Let the part soak for about 15 minutes in the tank with temperatures between 80C to 90C. Run the ultrasonic cleaner for 15 minutes. If the solution becomes very dirty, as shown in your tank, dump it out and rerun the cleaning cycle with a new batch of cleaning solution. You can repeat the process until the part is either clean or until the water is clear. In general, a saturated solution becomes less effective because the suspended particulates absorb energy from the cavitation process. Moreover, too much cleaning agents added to the solution can have an opposite effect.

[@user-vl8sw7kg7y]

Quadajet is the best street carburetor.

[@jimclarke1108]

Great job bud, iv watched a few others videos, all a bit messed up

[@tech270154]

Very nice video,well done .Could you tell me how many liters is your ultra sound machine ? thank you !

[@GregWellwood]

I believe it is 10L.

[@tech270154]

thank you very much

[@The_Performance_Laboratory]

What solution did you end up using in the ultrasonic cleaner?

[@GregWellwood]

Just a squirt of dish soap.

[@dbc105]

How about a video on how you made the tool to bore for the throttle shaft bushings? That would be handy.

[@GregWellwood]

Oh! That _would_ be cool!

[@2525miche]

I have a Camaro Z28 - 1984 - Trans. manual. T5 Question: When choosing a new and same Quadrajet 4BB carburetor, is it important to know if it is for a trans. auto. or manual??

[@GregWellwood]

I don't think so. Just make sure it has (or you can get) the parts to run your transmission.

[@2steelshells]

I want to buy a ultra sonic machine,what size is this one? I like that the carb fits pretty good.

[@GregWellwood]

I think it's 10L. Buy the biggest you can afford,

[@vin9114]

I was told to always use the basket. Never put the part directly on the bottom of the ultrasonic cleaner. I'm not sure why.

[@GregWellwood]

Might just be easier to get the parts out? I would have used the basket if the carb had fit. This thing worked AWESOME at freeing up hydraulic lash adjusters on the last cylinder head I did (I used the basket).

[@vin9114]

​@GregWellwood I think its got something to do with the parts vibrating on the bottom of the ultrasonic cleaner. I'm told it can damage the machine.

[@GregWellwood]

@@vin9114 That would make sense.

[@georgekalafatis7286]

Yeah I don't do nothing about that bowl leaking and you'll see

[@Richar602]

The intro put me off

[@lukenichols3233]

Worst piece of crap I've ever had! Runs rich no mater what I do, idell jets don't work at all. Oh did I say it's new!