My 1970 350 hasn't been run for more than an hour, a few minutes at a time, for the past 5 years. When it wouldn't start recently I decided it was time for a new carb, so I blithely phoned in an order for a new Edelbrock 500cfm. When I told my mechanic what I had done, he was kind, but The look on his face declared that it was my money, and I could spend it as foolishly as I like. I subsequently searched the archives on this site, and found that the preponderance of opinion is that Holleys are for hi-performance, Edelbrocks are good, but for street use on a stock motor, nothing beats a Rochester quadrajet. I have Rochester 4-bbl, but I don't know if it's a quadrajet. I searched several Q-jet sites on the web, and am still uncertain.
My carb is embossed with 'Rochester 4 jet' in two places on the bowl cover. There is a triangular tag on the front with the number 7024122. In a recess on the underside of the bowl section is the number 7028823. On the top of the base is the number 11644. It is manual choke, and inside, the carb doesn't appear very complex- there are two sets of double floats. The hole in the bottom of the air cleaner is about 4 3/16". The intake manifold has four round holes under the carb.
After thoroughly cleaning it and blowing out all the passages, the truck started, I timed it, and it seems to run fine around the yard. I believe it is the original carb, but I'm not sure. Block and head casting numbers tell me this is a 1970-71 truck engine. My question is -- do I have a quadrajet? If not, what is it, and is it worth rebuilding? I'm looking for good mileage and keep-up-with-traffic performance.
Thanks in advance for the help.
