I have a 351 cleveland 2V with edelbrock intake dual plane and hooker headers. It has just a little bit bigger cam than stock. What size carb do you recommend I put on it.
Depends on how it is going to be used. If just a daily driver and you want good gas mileage I would go with a Holley 4bbl, 600 cfm with vac. secondaries.
I would HIGHLY recomend the edlebrock carburetor, 600cfm.
Go ahead and buy the tuning kit with the carb, and follow the instructions.
It will be more reliable and consistant than a holley, and will NOT leak, since there are no gaskets below fuel level. They are also not prone to power valve failures from the occasional backfire as the holleys are.
I've rebuilt tons of holleys, and they are easy to work on, but, can be tempermental and always seem to leak eventually. My friends that have gone with the edlebrock are very happy with the reliability and performance, especially on a daily driver type vehicle.
Some carbs will work good for your particular application out of the box, but most will need some tuning, that is why I say to get the tuning kit and go through the manual step by step. They make it easy to trouble shoot problems and get the carb to perform at it's best.
It's not rocket science, just take your time and be methodical about it.
I was thinking of going with an edelbrock but was not sure of what cfm I should get. I beleive it has a holley 780 on it now. It leaks and I think that is why I am getting gas in my oil also.
650 would be okay and give you room to grow. It is a toss up between the two. The 600 would work fine, I would rather go with the 650 so if you do some minor things, it won't bottleneck it. Edelbrocks are good carbs for the street, however, I think a holley can be made to run just as well as an edelbrock on the street and pull more power out of the engine. You just need to know how to work with them.
if you are planning to keep the engine like it is, then i say get a 600cfm edelbrock carb. it will do real nice on a mild street motor. if on the other hand you are planning to upgrade the cam or heads, or otherwise mod this motor for more power, then use a 750 edelbrock carb. this carb will handle most anything you can throw at it on the street.
I might do something in the future to the motor. This is what it has in it now for a cam .260/.276 .493/.502 not much more than stock. Would it handle a new 750 edelbrock now or should I get a 600-650cfm for now. It seems like the big holley I have on it now might be to much as it loads up.