1972 F-250 Carburetor upgrade help

[LGreen72F]

I have a 1972 F-250 Camper Special with a stock 360FE and a 2150(hope i got that right) 2 barrel carb, Automatic transmission, and heat based automatic choke. I am looking to upgrade to a 4 barrel carb and am having a hard time deciding between a Holley or an Edelbrock. I have researched some and asked friends, half recommend Holley and half recommend Edelbrock. From what I understand, and I could be wrong, Edelbrocks tend to be easier to install and tune and are more reliable and are mostly ready with minor adjustments, while Holleys are more performance based and stronger but are less reliable and harder to install and tune, and may need some extra adjustments such as jets or other things that do not come ready with the carb. I'm looking for one that is more of a daily-driver, is reliable, and easier to deal with and am currently leaning toward Edelbrock. I'm not super experienced with carburetors or how to match them up to an engine either. So if opinions and suggestions could be left, that would be great. It would be great to know if they have kickdown lever support, which vacuum ports are available, any modification I may have to do(my heater/water hose runs to a spacer plate beneath the carb), and all other specs that are involved, etc. Any suggestions on a specific model would be appreciated too. So far I have been recommended a Holley street avenger or an Edelbrock 1406 Performer. I know that some, if not most of it is opinion and preference and I will not know what I like until I actually experience them, but a base to start the decision is what I'm looking for. Thank you!

[DuckRyder]

This is very nearly a "Chevy vs Ford" or "Ginger vs MaryAnn" argument. - Ford and MaryAnn BTW...

I think may of the problems people have with Holley are because they pick the wrong Holley, there are a lot of them so picking wrong is easy.

Since you mention no modifications, I assume we are talking about a stock 360, ~570-600 CFM should be more then enough, you want Vac secondaries. and a Ford Kickdown (this comes on certain Holley, I think you buy it separately on a E-Brock). You'll need a Ford trans hardware kit and probably a kick down rod extender with the Holley too, maybe a throttle ball kit.

Edelbrock comes with better tuning instructions, Holley tuning instructions are all over the internet.

I'd probably be looking a long the lines of: PART# 0-83570 570 CFM Street Avenger - Aluminum Carburetor Electric Choke Vacuum Secondaries

Actually that is not entirely true, I'd probably put fuel injection on it... but If I was looking at Carbs...

You'll have to bypass the carb water plate unless you want to buy one for a 4V carb, the mustang places should have them but you'll probably have to run a spacer to clear the butterfly, so easiest to just bypass it...

[Ranchero50]

On an aging truck comp (low) '72 360, I'd leave well enough alone. The cam and valve train run out of steam at 4000 rpm and the compression really won't support much more of a cam so a stock 2bbl actually supplies plenty of air for a stock engine. I wouldn't go headers as they are hard on starters and again, the headache value is just too high for the performance increase. Maybe find a true 390 2100 with the big throats and run that.

Now, if the engine is healthy I'd look into a 390 crank and rods with 9.5-1 pistons and some aluminum Edelbrocks, Performer or RPM intake and your choice of 4bbl and headers along with a geared starter to fire it off.

E-brock seem to run better out of the box but if memory serves from another thread, they do not have a Ford kickdown provision available. Holley has always been the standard in 4bbl but they have suffered a lot over the years. I really liked the Demon street carbs. Holley design that actually performed well out of the box. Sadly I think they stopped making them a while back.

[idaho_cowboy]

I'm going to agree with Ranchero on this one.

The stock carb really is plenty for this engine. I've done the swap myself. It opens things up even on the 360. But I wished I would have stayed with the 2v Autolite.

But consider, Intake + Carb on that motor is going to cost you $500. Good headers another $200.

That kind of money would be better spent on a head / valve job...and then reuse the stock carb/intake.

When you have a 2k budget, you can upgrade the whole engine.

- Joseph

[DuckRyder]

I put a 4bbl, headers and a cam (not all at the same time) in/on my old 360 before upgrading it to a 390...

But it bears mentioning you can buy a new Holley 2100 2bbl that will bold right on to the manifold too...