Ford FE Braswell carb

[fordracing65]

Any of you FE guys run with a Braswell carb, they are pricey and most NHRA guys use them, just want your opinion of them??? any better than a Quick fuel or Holley??? they cost twice as much...

[Gaz64]

Braswell has been around for a while, still are the pinnacle in the carburettor world.

But others have come on the market and QFT (Quick Fuel Technology) leads the pack for range, adjustability, etc.

I like the early Barry Grant RS carbs as well, hard to find though.

[Hotfingrs]

I run a Pro-System on my EM and QFT on my ERA. I think both are equally as good and each very tune-able. With each new carb I get I have the car put on a dyno to tune the carb, so there is no guessing about if the adjustment is right or not.

[blykins]

Spend your money on better heads.

[fordracing65]

Originally Posted by blykins

spend your money on better heads.

ok:3dsmile:

[blykins]

There's a point of diminishing returns with carburetors.

You want them to: 1. be infinitely tunable 2. make horsepower

You have base level carbs such as your Edelbrocks, Street Avengers, etc., that are pretty bland as far as points 1 and 2 go. Then you have upgrades, such as your Quick Fuels, HP Holleys, AED's, etc. After you get to that point, it takes a tuner and an engine dyno/chassis dyno to make sure you're getting what you need to get and to see if you can squeeze some more out if necessary.

None of them are going to be dead-on without tinkering, especially when sending carbs or engines across different climate zones, with different qualities of pump gas, etc.

We've had Braswell send carbs here, then we gained 20 hp on an engine dyno by making corrections. Gotta have a savvy carb guy in your vacinity, reading numbers, reading plugs, to get the best results.

[Barry_R]

Nobody can nail calibration on every carb, every application, every time without being on site with the engine.

But Braswell has been at the absolute top of the carburetor universe with NASCAR (until they recently went EFI) and Pro Stock for decades while others have come and gone. You do not achieve that level of continuous success without being very, very good.

Whether his stuff will show a significant gain - or any - on normal engines is an open question. The value versus the cost lies in the eyes of the beholder. But the talent behind the product is undeniable.

[blykins]

True statements and I wasn't trying to dog Mr. Braswell. However, my points were aimed at stating that just because it's a $$$ carb with lots of brainpower behind it, doesn't mean that it's gonna turn the average street engine into an NHRA SS engine.

[lippy]

I have a Braswell carb on my FE, so I can speak first hand. Before the Braswell, I had a Holley HP Ultra and a QuickFuel. Both very nice carbs and could have been adjusted to do the job well, in retrospect. The problem was that, with my big cam, the car was very hard to tune. I spoke with a ton of people, including some very well-respected carb guys, tech support at Qft and Holley, and a local carb tuner/hot rod guy who is very well respected. None of them fixed the problem, and I was fuel fouling plugs. I then went to Braswell, and Dave Braswell himself helped me. As Brent and Barry say, none of these carbs will be spot on out of the box. But Dave had me iterate a couple of times, call him back each time, and the problem is now solved. Yes, $1300 is a lot for a carb, but this was the only way I could get the car running right. So the main advantage of a Braswell carb is having access to Dave, who BTW is a really nice guy and very willing to help.

But there are other advantages too:
(1) The overall precision, construction, and fit/finish are clearly better than a Holley or QFT. And they do things like include teflon gaskets, which are far far better than non-stick gaskets, etc.
(2) Braswell carbs are not modified Hollies. They are 100% Braswell made, and have some neat features. For example, the floats have a fine line on them. You adjust the float level by removing the bowl and using a caliper. This does make a difference, and you cannot get that close by eyeballing the float glass like you do with the Holley and QFT. They also use a proprietary and patented float bowl design, and flow test each carb.
(3) Braswell carbs look like carb porn. However, they do not come in "colors." They are a very nicely applied old-school yellow zinc chromate color.

If I had to do it again, I'd buy a Braswell, and I'd do it sooner.

[fordracing65]

I love the old school carb color, it looks vintage...

[Karl Bebout]

A tad off subject but I can attest to the quality of Braswells. 'Way back in the very early 70s I ran one of his 2bblcarbs on my 427 AT Nova in IHRA and AHRA's "formula stock" class. Made the car get into the 11.80s when the records were in the 12.20s. At that time, they hogged out the Holley 500CFM two barrel carbs, installed oversized venturi tubes and butterflies and routed the acccelerator pump shot through tiny holes all around the venturi tubes. Sweet response! Pretty sure John Kaase also ran one on his horrendous 428 Mustang that got into the 10.80s with a 4spd. (was SO glad to not be in his class!)
With all this, I'm just saying, Braswell knows carbs!

[Bernica]

Pro Systems here and no issues. Patrick was great to work with and custom built it for my engine.

[kanuck]

The best carb I ever had was a Kendig, I must have transferred that carb to 12 different cars I owned over the years.

Dean