The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Cheap new universal carburetors

There have been a number of threads about the replacement Chinese carburetors. While not a single barrel, here is an in-depth analysis of one of the Chinese knock-off Rochester Q-Jets by one of the most respected of all Q-Jet specialists:

Chinese Q-Jets

Those who believe in the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, or the cheap Chinese carburetors should read this article in its entirety!

Jon.

carbking After years of Q-jet service whatever came in the door,if you put in a kit, a float,be sure base is flat,tune the pump and it will run ! Of course gotta have valves and a good cam seal the well plugs and so forth ! However glad that is over,now for hollys LOL LOL!!

carbking Oh I forgot that trusshead screw that can get down it's throat drat !!

Good info, Jon. BTW, thanks to our resident shade tree specialist for his words of wisdom!
LOL!
Jerry

Aren’t there enough rebuildable real Q Jets laying around to last us a few decades?

I don’t understand what the market need is here. There’s a bit more scarcity with the usable one barrels and I can understand the perceived need for the bad Zenith copies. Bad as they may be.

JW - there are plenty of both available, one simply has to look. Sometimes instant gratification is not an option, one needs a wee bit of patience.

As to the Chinese knock-offs: if one has thousands of dollars of test equipment, and more thousands of dollars in spare parts, a lifetime of experience DESIGNING and repairing carburetors, and figures their time is worth absolutely NOTHING, then the Chinese knock-offs are cheap!

I linked Lars' post, as, along with Cliff Ruggles, they are the two most knowledgeble men of whom I am aware with Rochester Q-Jets.

Guessing someone that specializes in Zeniths could find about the same issues with the knock-offs.

But to each their own.

Jon

Thanks for sharing! I recently bought one of these thinking it was an Edelbrock Q-jet. I admittedly don't keep up on every single tiny detail of every manufacturer, so I was unaware that edelbrock hadn't made a q-jet in years. Theirs may have been better, but who knows. Anyhow, I bought a new M4MC for my '81 C20. It looked nice. I sent it back. I couldn't bring myself to install an inferior product on my truck. I like to work on it and have it run well, not tinker on it all the time to get it running well, and I had a feeling the chinesium c**p sitting atop my engine would be nothing but problems. So I opted to get a rebuilt Rochester instead. Reading the article I am glad I used my logic and sent it back. Just wish I had not bought it in the first place. But, we live and learn, well, most of us learn from our mistakes...lol... At least I got my money back sans restocking fee.

DD - the edelbrock imitation Q-Jet wasn't a whole lot better, just like their imitation AFB's.

Jon.

Yeah, I’m in no way defending the Chinese Zenith look-alike or suggesting that it’s impossible to find a good one barrel for your 235. But it’s easier for me to understand how someone could get tired of dealing with Rochester B’s, and impatient looking for a reasonably priced YF, Zenith, Stromberg etc. And out of that frustration take a chance on the offshore Zenith look-alike.

Q-Jets practically grow on trees by comparison. If one feels uncomfortable rebuilding oneself, it’s not hard to buy a rebuilt unit either. Or one from a running engine that is being removed for an LS swap, aftermarket EFI, etc.

I had a feeling they wouldn't be, as the engineers that built the q-jets for specific applications knew what each one needed to run properly, not a one-sized-fits-all. Or as Jerry says it, one-size-fits-none...lol... I just finished reading the "Jebby" article, didn't see it last night. Now getting back into the "Lars" article. Interesting reading thus far from each article.

My favorite is this one (which to some might seem a comic book without words): https://tinyurl.com/2p8h4hre

A good example of "hope springs eternal"? Maybe. At any rate it makes me laugh every time I see it. A puzzling Communist copy of one of GMs most mediocre carburetors. Could they have made it worse? Hoo boy did they. Once you get past the charming two-tone air horn/float bowl, understand there are still only 4 screws holding it together (seem smaller than the original ones...maybe they used M4 screws). And if you look at the 6th image, you'll see one screw hasn't been tightened and is lacking a lock washer...but in their defense they did find some sort of a washer for the image. How many connections for the choke stove tube? I count 3. But with this carburetor, you may need all 3. Probably helps with power and gas mileage and reduces hair loss and cholesterol...and the vacuum loss from the 2 unused ones might make it run slightly leaner. But it does look interesting sitting on that Fenton manifold, lacking the auto-choke cover. Great marketing! And that throttle body? Aluminum? Magnesium? Lead? Pig iron? Remember there are only 17 shopping days until Christmas. Hurry and get yours. In fact I'd suggest buying all 12 the seller has available. One for every month, and I think you'll need all of them. The Rochester of The Month Club.

You can't rely on the ebay "rebuild's" either. My friend bought one for his 72 truck w/400 Big Block. It looked brand new, they machined off the stamping and assigned their own number. We installed it and messed with it for a half day and it would not run. The best we could do was a little above idle for a few minutes. We took it to a friend that has 50+ years rebuilding carburetors. He disassembled it and only thing he could find visually is that it had a Buick base but couldn't see any obvious reason it wouldn't work.
He ultimately obtained another Q-jet and it started right up and runs great. The ebay special is available if someone wants it for a door stop.
Fred

Spent Uranium, I reckon. Nothing goes to waste.

My '78 Vette has the original Q-Jet, I put a kit in it several years ago and have zero issues with it even though I use pump gas with ethanal, and the car doesn't see many miles per year. I wouldn't even think of buying a new Chinese carb for anything. Great write-up. Oh, my '57 truck has a number's correct 2G on the 283, a kit in that 3-4 years ago and it works very well.

I think Q-Jets are pretty cool, overall.