Trust me, I KNOW Edelbrock carbs VERY well, and they are great carbs for a mild engine like this or any other mild performance engine. I am also VERY farmiliar with the upper throttle plate which is air controlled. It'sa tried and true design that works pretty darn good. I don't dispute that. I just "prefer" a Holley type of vacuum secondary carb on engines like this. Vic Edelbrock himself will tell you that his 600 cfm carb is a great choice for a 454 Chevy or a 390 / 400 / 428 cubic inch Ford for mild use and economy.
It may be a 408 but it ain't going to have THAT much velocity through the carb to bounce or splatter the fuel atomization. I mean, many 351M and 400M engines came with 2 barrels on them. 400 cubic inches flowing through a 2 barrel at WOT is nearly as bad as the fuel issues you mentioned he might have with a 4 barrel at WOT. Yes, some had larger cfm 2 barrels, but even the biggest was only 500 cfm, and those engines didn't have those on them, it was more like 350 cfm.
When you have a 70's F250 Camper Special truck pulling a steep grade in passing gear at WOT and it pulls like a mule, that has merrit, and it would take an EXTREME velocity to do what you said might happen. This also rings true with cars of the 70's gas crunch that still had large engines in them, such as LTD's or T Bird's with 460's and 2 barrel carbs. No problem there either with quite a bit more cubes than 408.
I build a LOT of blower engines (both Roots and centrifugal types) In fact, they are my specialty, and smaller carbs (whether pull through or blow through) work VERY well, and you want to talk about extreme velocities? Two 450 cfm carbs with 3,500 cfm flowing through them is some serious air volume which is traveling at extreme velocities. You ever see the 1,000+ HP BBC Pro Charger has with the 2 little 450's on it? Most blower guys will tell you smaller carbs work better. You won't see more velocity ina carb than a blower motor creates and they don't have fuel splatter problems.
When a carb or an intake manifold is too small, even on extreme race engines, you never really know unless you put a vacuum gauge on the intake manifiold and see if you begin seeing a vacuum signal at WOT. If no vacuum signal is present, then you have no restriction creating a vacuum. Even when they are a little too small, they still usually run right on out to max RPM. This dopesn't even get into what kind of boosters he has. He most likely has straight leg boosters which aren't down in the venturi to get much of a velocity signal like down leg boosters get. Most standard Holley carbs come with straight leg boosters. Only more serious carbs (HP series, etc.) come with down leg types, so I can't see him having that kind of a problem. Annular discharge boosters also have an affect. We use a lot of annular discharge booster carbs on blow through supercharged systems. It's ALL relevant.
What do I use on MY 408's, 427's and so on for street strip use? Usually 750's like Quick Fuel Technology Q750's, but what I build is quite a bit more radical than what he is running and the cars they go in are a bit more "set-up" with higher stall converters, lower rear gears, etc., so they don't have issues or bogging off the line like he would probably have.
I am not saying you are wrong, I am just saying I find what you said hard to believe with his mild combo is all
.................... And Getting the results you say with a Dominator will depend on what boosters are installed in the venturis.
) with a 750 biggs which was only slightly behind the shop carb.
