Holley or Barry Grant

I still prefer the Holleys, and think a 650 is perfect for your set-up. I like the Street HP carbs as long as you don't mind no choke, it has the race main body but still has streetable features.

I doubt you could go wrong with either.

BG . . . they are flowed in average cfm vs peak of the holleys.

You do HAVE to clean them out of the box for shavings . . .

But if you know what you are doing, I think they can make more power than a comparable Holley.

57fairlane said:

BG . . . they are flowed in average cfm vs peak of the holleys.

You do HAVE to clean them out of the box for shavings . . .

But if you know what you are doing, I think they can make more power than a comparable Holley.

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That doesn't necessarily make them better. Their claim to fame was that they tested wet cfm and Holley tested dry air cfm, but Holley has switched to wet testing so they're virtually identical now. BG's are nice but they don't do anything that a properly tuned Holley can't do.

57fairlane said:

BG . . . they are flowed in average cfm vs peak of the holleys.

You do HAVE to clean them out of the box for shavings . . .

But if you know what you are doing, I think they can make more power than a comparable Holley.

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Tyler, I see you keep posting this but that problem was addressed well over a year ago and we see very few warranty returns with shavings in them now. I have addressed this on the other boards as roughly a year and a half ago we took several measures in regards to shavings. A lot of them were not even in the carburetors but were being picked up on gaskets during assembly and then sandwiched between parts during assembly at which point they couldn't even go anywhere. We changed where the gaskets were being stored and how they were used. We also installed a sonic wash process and installed suction units under the assembly benches to help.As stated above this drastically cut down on the shavings that WERE being found. We are here on the boards to help and if anyone has an issue with one of our products feel free to pm or email us and we will try and assist.

85_SS_302_Coupe said:

That doesn't necessarily make them better. Their claim to fame was that they tested wet cfm and Holley tested dry air cfm, but Holley has switched to wet testing so they're virtually identical now. BG's are nice but they don't do anything that a properly tuned Holley can't do.

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Actually our carburetors will flow more air then the same size in another brand because they have a patented air entry which is much like when we used to hand port the Holleys. We also use billet metering blocks and baseplates on the Speed series and higher . Properly matched with the application our carbs will out perform the others.Another nice feature is our clear sight glass that allows you to set the floats without spilling fuel out .

SemperFIGOD said:

my set up,
302
Roush Heads
1.6 Rockers
Z303 Cam
Air gap Intake
BBK equal length
MAC Pro Chamber
MAC Pro Dumps
and the usual stuff ex. Underdrive, no Smog etc

I currently have an old used beat up Holley 650cfm 4150. Iam looking to change the Carb I was thinking about another Holley I Guess the samething just Newer or a Barry Grant.

What do you guys think? What are the Pro and Cons of either Carb?

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We would recommend one of our 575 Speed Demons on the 302 . Depending upon transmission would determine whether we went with a mechanical or vacuum secondary.

SemperFIGOD said:

Its a 5 Speed its has stock gears now but im gonna put in some 3.90

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We recommend using the mechanical version with the 5 speed trans.

Tech @ BG said:

Actually our carburetors will flow more air then the same size in another brand because they have a patented air entry which is much like when we used to hand port the Holleys. We also use billet metering blocks and baseplates on the Speed series and higher . Properly matched with the application our carbs will out perform the others.Another nice feature is our clear sight glass that allows you to set the floats without spilling fuel out .

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Well hey since i've got you here, if you wouldn't mind can you read a thread on another forum and explain to me what the problem was? Also it seems like there was some poor customer service..not sure why.

http://www.carbdford.com/viewtopic.php?t=14008


One thing i absolutely won't stand for from a company is them telling me i'm wrong when the problem is with their product. If i'm not happy with your product, you make it right. Period. I think the guy in that thread knows what he's doing, he troubleshooted everything he could and in the end he wanted a refund and you guys left him hangin.


In the end there's nothing a BG can do that a Holley can't, especially for the price since the money i save buying a Holley can get me billet metering blocks and base plates. Also i'm not sure if the extra flow thing makes sense to me. In the end if i need more than 600cfm then i'll buy a carb rated at a higher cfm. Why would i buy a 575cfm carb if it actually flows more than that? What if i want/need 575cfm and not 600+ or whatever it flows? If it's a case of them flowing what you actually rate them at then what's the difference?

85_SS_302_Coupe said:

Well hey since i've got you here, if you wouldn't mind can you read a thread on another forum and explain to me what the problem was? Also it seems like there was some poor customer service..not sure why.

http://www.carbdford.com/viewtopic.php?t=14008


One thing i absolutely won't stand for from a company is them telling me i'm wrong when the problem is with their product. If i'm not happy with your product, you make it right. Period. I think the guy in that thread knows what he's doing, he troubleshooted everything he could and in the end he wanted a refund and you guys left him hangin.


In the end there's nothing a BG can do that a Holley can't, especially for the price since the money i save buying a Holley can get me billet metering blocks and base plates. Also i'm not sure if the extra flow thing makes sense to me. In the end if i need more than 600cfm then i'll buy a carb rated at a higher cfm. Why would i buy a 575cfm carb if it actually flows more than that? What if i want/need 575cfm and not 600+ or whatever it flows? If it's a case of them flowing what you actually rate them at then what's the difference?

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You can spin/interpret however you wish but we participated in that thread along with several others he posted on multiple sites and offered to get the carburetor back here and replace it no questions asked...... he never gave us the chance to do that and insisted on a refund . We do not offer a money back guarantee [nor do any other carburetor manufacturers] and tried to help him through both the boards and through pm's. Where are the other maufacturers on the boards when a customer has problems? We are at least here and trying to help . In regards to your question about flow then why bother porting a set of cylinder heads? CFM is not an exact science as the formula a motor needs can sometimes get you the wrong carburetor which is why we do not base our recommendations off of it. We take all of the vehicles information into consideration and then match up the proper sized carburetor.

85_SS_302_Coupe said:

That doesn't necessarily make them better. Their claim to fame was that they tested wet cfm and Holley tested dry air cfm, but Holley has switched to wet testing so they're virtually identical now. BG's are nice but they don't do anything that a properly tuned Holley can't do.

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btw, The holley rating is still a dry-flow rating . Take the dimensions on their 950 and compare it to that of their 850 and see what you come up with and then ask well how can a 950 with a smaller venturi and butterfly then their own 850 be rated to flow more? We are the only company out there that truly wet-flows our carburetors and we are not talking about putting gas in them and running them on a generic test fire motor . Our wet flow bench has 2 large motors that power it and pull air and fluid through the carburetor just like it was on an engine, with this we can scientifically log and watch both the flow percentages at idle and at wot.

Here is a little video showing how the testing is done so maybe it will help in understanding what actually occurs during a wet flow test.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XREjAZpf1kE

Actually there is in fact a Holley guy on here. There was a post about Holley going bankrupt and he joined just like you to explain things.


Why port heads? To get more power. But you of all people should know that more cfm in a carb doesn't necessarily mean more power. How often do people buy carbs that are too big?


Anyways, like i said before. Your carbs are good...and i was honestly asking if you could explain the problem that guy had but i guess not. My opinion still stands though, there's nothing a BG can do that a Holley can't.

85_SS_302_Coupe said:

Actually there is in fact a Holley guy on here. There was a post about Holley going bankrupt and he joined just like you to explain things.


Why port heads? To get more power. But you of all people should know that more cfm in a carb doesn't necessarily mean more power. How often do people buy carbs that are too big?


Anyways, like i said before. Your carbs are good...and i was honestly asking if you could explain the problem that guy had but i guess not. My opinion still stands though, there's nothing a BG can do that a Holley can't.

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You would be correct in that a lot of guys put a carb that is too large on a motor and it does not perform. Our patented air entry is not just making a carburetor larger but involves the shape of the air entry area. This allows the air to enter differently than a carburetor that has a disruptive casting line in it. Look at the flow numbers on carburetor jets and the fact that some of them have the same size orifice in them yet have different flow numbers , this can be attributed to the angled entry prior to the orifice . Same theory holds true with the entry on the carburetor. Our carburetors WILL make more power and use less fuel doing so size for size on the same motor properly tuned. Hope this helps.


From what I saw here and on the other sites they came on just long enough to spin the bankruptcy announcement and left. A lot of sites had ongoing questions to them in their own threads that went unanswered. We have been on the site before that and will continue to help as long as allowed. We have participated in many other forums for a couple of years now but with over 400 of them we try to keep an eye on sometimes dont always find all of them or some posts. We are much more active on them however and use them to help customers out wherever possible.

Now in regards to that guys issue.....from the information posted and given to us both by phone and pm's it is nearly impossible to diagnose without having it in hand. That was why we offered him a replacement up front without even looking at it because I knew we may need it longer than a couple of days to diagnose it if we couldn't make it duplicate. Think about it...... it runs great for 7-10 minutes and then runs bad . As mentioned in the thread definitely not typical nor normal as posters other than ourselves felt the same way. I still believe it was heat sink even though his holley didn't but we may never know.