Barry Grant demon carbs..anyone using?

pazcarguy · Apr 12, 2005

Am going to put either a speed demon 650 or mighty demon 650 on my heavily modded 289. Wanted to know if anyone is using these and any likes/dislikes. Brian

Gud T.B. Blown · Apr 12, 2005

i inheirited (spelling) a speed demon 750 when i got my car and i had all sorts of driveability problems. i adjusted it to the factory settings and had even more problems. so i bought a holley and bolted it on. bingo, smooth idle right out of the box. it will most likely need some more adjusting but the driveability is night and day. from what i've gathered on another forum a demon is a much better race carb than a street carb. lots of reports of stumbling off of the line and other reports of poor quality control and poor customer service. however i've seen some good customer service responses. i guess it all comes down to what you plan on using the car for.

84convertablegt · Apr 12, 2005

hey, if you get a md650 you can upgrade to a paxton supercharger someday, thats about the only reason id buy one, but then again, if i was gonna get the supercharger, id buy the holley 4150

Oldskool · Apr 12, 2005

I tried several Holley's and was never happy with the way the car ran, even after extensive tweaking. Put a Speed Demon 650 on and all the drivability problems disappeared.

Blown4.6 · Apr 12, 2005

Oldskool said:
I tried several Holley's and was never happy with the way the car ran, even after extensive tweaking. Put a Speed Demon 650 on and all the drivability problems disappeared.

Barry Grant / Demon IS a Holly (well at least until you get up to the Race Demon line). That's right, they come out of the exact same factory.....different names are stamped on them. They are totally different companies that source most of their stuff from the same place.

Save the money and buy whatever's cheaper. I have Demons on both my 351w powered vehicles and both run very poorly (out of the box at least). The best carb I've ever had, and in my opinion IS THE best, is the original Carter (not to be confused with the new ones made by Edelbrock or whoever). The original Carter was just so sweet and stayed that way.

Gud T.B. Blown · Apr 12, 2005

Blown4.6 said:
The best carb I've ever had, and in my opinion IS THE best, is the original Carter (not to be confused with the new ones made by Edelbrock or whoever). The original Carter was just so sweet and stayed that way.

not to hijack the thread but i agree about the old carters. back in the early eighties i put a holley on my mustang and spent about a week tweaking it to get it right. my sister had a cougar and bought a carter because of boyfriend and i got to put it on. it ran great straight from the box and i don't remember ever having to tune it at all.

1969mach1351 · Apr 12, 2005

I have a Demon and I like it. I've also had Holleys and I like both. Seems like they both like to be retuned about twice a year. The Demon is the only one I've had new and it worked perfect out of the box. I've since changed the jets and played with it here and there and it is still good. I wouldn't get a Demon unless you plan on taking it to the track.

bnickel · Apr 12, 2005

Blown4.6 said:
Barry Grant / Demon IS a Holly (well at least until you get up to the Race Demon line). That's right, they come out of the exact same factory.....different names are stamped on them. They are totally different companies that source most of their stuff from the same place.

Save the money and buy whatever's cheaper. I have Demons on both my 351w powered vehicles and both run very poorly (out of the box at least). The best carb I've ever had, and in my opinion IS THE best, is the original Carter (not to be confused with the new ones made by Edelbrock or whoever). The original Carter was just so sweet and stayed that way.

where did you get that info? whoever toild you that is way wrong, holley actually tried to sure barry grant over the demon line of carbs, they did sue him over the claw line of carbs which is why grant started making the demon carbs. the demon is loosely based on the holley and some of the basic parts like jets, boosters, power valves, etc. are interchangeable but a demon carb is NOT a holley carb nor is it made by holley.

65mistress · Apr 12, 2005

I have to agree with Blown 4.6, I have a Edelbrock 600 cfm carb on top of a mildly juiced 289 and my buddies mostly stock 289 with the 480 Carter walked away from me.

The Edelbrocks and Holleys are made for the engine, the engine was designed with the Carter. Go figure.

HuKares · Apr 13, 2005

I ran a speed demon 650 mech. sec. on a mild to medium modified 289. The 289 ran just fine, I never even adjusted a thing besides the idle. Although it did run rich when on the secondaries. Also, being the size of the carb on the engine, you couldn't just put your foot down to the floor until your rpm's climbed some or it did bog. I'm happy with it and I picked up a 750 mighty demon (boost ref.) to use on a 331 stroker with Paxton. The speed demon is for sale if your interested in a lower price. Used about 3K miles or 1 year.
-Brian

I just noticed you're from Pittsburgh. I'll be in Pittsburgh the end of this week and the beginning of next.

jasonn · Apr 13, 2005

Demons are great carbs. Before a friend bought one, I heard lot's of people having drivability problems. After my friend bought one, I can see why. I tore it apart and the thing was F.U.L.L. FULL of aluminum chips from the machining processes. Cleaned it out before we even bolted it to the car. Car runs awesome! I wouldn't be afraid to buy one at all, but I would just take it apart and clean it out Real good before trying it.

84convertablegt · Apr 13, 2005

jasonn said:
Demons are great carbs. Before a friend bought one, I heard lot's of people having drivability problems. After my friend bought one, I can see why. I tore it apart and the thing was F.U.L.L. FULL of aluminum chips from the machining processes. Cleaned it out before we even bolted it to the car. Car runs awesome! I wouldn't be afraid to buy one at all, but I would just take it apart and clean it out Real good before trying it.

But what does that say about the manufacturer and quality control. should you have to tear down a brand new carb? shouldnt you just be able to bolt it on and maybe make a few adjustments here and there?

tweet66 · Apr 13, 2005

I'm on the fence on this one. I have a Road Demon 650 on theStang and have had little if any problems with it in two years. So, I bought a 525 Demon (supposedly for stock to mildly modified vehicles) for my 69 Falocn wagon and that's a P.O.S. I can't get a good idle, surging, REALLY BAD of idle stumble, and occasional flooding. Every time I've called to explain my problems I've found the customer service sucks too. After the first time I called they told me to rebuild it . WHY it's brand new!!!! I've been "dealing with it" since then.

jasonn · Apr 13, 2005

84convertablegt said:
But what does that say about the manufacturer and quality control. should you have to tear down a brand new carb? shouldnt you just be able to bolt it on and maybe make a few adjustments here and there?

That is true. It does suck, you shouldn't have to touch anything. But on the other hand, it only took like 1/2 can of carb cleaner, and 1/2 hour to do and after that it it a great carb. So if you don't like to tinker with anything - buy something different. If you like tinkering with things, it's not a GREAT big deal just to clean it out. My friend also called B.G. One thing that kind of ticks me off is they say this is the first one they've ever heard of with that problem. Yea right, I've seen all kinds of posts where people have found the same thing and called. Again, on the other hand, they seemed nice about it and they sent him a whole new rebuild kit with all new jets, p.v.'s, and gaskets.

pazcarguy · Apr 13, 2005

Am interetsed. Please e-mail me at ryank@libcom.com so we can discuss. Brian

tweet66 · Apr 13, 2005

jasonn, I love to tinker on my toys, but I bought this thing last thing last August and I still can't get it to run right or consistanly and this is my daily driver so I need some reliability. I've rebuilt it 3 times now with the same results..runs well for a couple days, still has the off idle stumble, then goes nuts . They didn't even offer me a rebuild kit :damnit:

84convertablegt · Apr 13, 2005

tweet66 said:
jasonn, I love to tinker on my toys, but I bought this thing last thing last August and I still can't get it to run right or consistanly and this is my daily driver so I need some reliability. I've rebuilt it 3 times now with the same results..runs well for a couple days, still has the off idle stumble, then goes nuts . They didn't even offer me a rebuild kit :damnit:

See if you can find a used or buy a new Holley 4160, which is calibrated for sb fords of the 60's. bolt it on, set idle, and your done. problem solved. use the bg as a paper weight j/k im sure someone would want it. ive just had very good luck with holleys, ive never had to do anything but bolt one on and really thats it. the most ive ever had to adjust was the idle set screw. OK, im done now, sorry

blown65 · Apr 13, 2005

Got a demon on our GT350 and works perfectly. Also have one on the Pantera with zero issues.

Never had issues with Holley either, but you cant give me an Edelbrock carb. I had nothing but probs with 3 of them. Bought one, flooded, bought a second couldnt get it tuned right, got a third, yup, another flooding carb. Gave up, threw a holley on, worked perfect.

jasonn · Apr 13, 2005

tweet66 said:
jasonn, I love to tinker on my toys, but I bought this thing last thing last August and I still can't get it to run right or consistanly and this is my daily driver so I need some reliability. I've rebuilt it 3 times now with the same results..runs well for a couple days, still has the off idle stumble, then goes nuts . They didn't even offer me a rebuild kit :damnit:

Yea, tell me about it. I know all about having the same (reocurring?) problems. They suck!! I was just wondering, do you have an in-line fuel filter? How old is your tank? Maybe your carb is just picking up junk from one of these?? Just a thought.

dodgestang · Apr 13, 2005

I love my BIGS

Barry Grant demon carbs..anyone using?

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