Dual Quads (Holley) on a Small Block Questions

[Jim Doak]

I'm pondering putting a dual quad setup from Carl's Ford Parts on my 302 crate engine and have a question or two for anyone who's installed a similar setup on their small block.

I called Carl this morning - and surprising to me - he recommended his 450 cfm mechanical secondary carb setup, not the setup using the 465 cfm vacuum secondary carbs. He said that the mechanical secondary carbs would provide better performance while the vacuum secondary carbs would result in a bog/dead spot.

I'm afraid that ~900 cfm of mechanical secondary carb on my 345 horse Ford Racing engine would not be optimum and I'd be way over-carbed. (I've currently got 10,000+ miles on my engine with zero problems and am using an Edelbrock Performer RPM intake and Holley 600 cfm vac. secondary carb. It's just that the dual Holleys look so COOL...)

Seems to me that for a street engine like mine, the vacuum secondary carbs would be the way to go.

Any comments, experience or recommendations?

And although they might perform great, I'm not crazy about the Edelbrock (intake and carb) dual quad setups. To me, for the look I'm going for, it'd have to be dual Holleys if I go down the 8 barrel path.

Thanks in advance.