Chinese carbs now?
 

I've been looking at different carbs ever since we got out LeMans. The engine in it has an Edelbrock Performer intake with an unknown Quadrajet, apparently from an early Seventies Chev truck.
When I watch items on Ebay, such as a carburetor, it highlights other products available at the bottom of the web page. This one popped uo today.
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/284422522037...Cclp%3A2060778

Incredibley cheap. And maybe not the best quality. But who knows? I just don't know when this started, these cheap Pontiac carbs from China. Shocking.

they copy everthing! Its junk! Maybe someone saw 1 for sale on flebay for $2000.00 bucks ans said we can make big money and scew people over if we send 1 to china to copy.

They are cheap Rochester Qjet knock offs.
No name or numbers on them
The one I reworked and repaired was a marine unit on a ski boat.. owner paid a Marina $1,000. USD
Throttle blades were all CNC machined and no deburring, had razor sharp edges that would not allow the throttle plates to seat properly
Proper calibration did not exist.
Avoid these.....Original units far out weight these knock offs

Not surprising at all. They make copies of replacement carbs for small engines such as Honda, for under $20 in most cases, it doesn't surprise me that they have started making the rare high priced Q Jet rare replacement parts at all. If there is a niche market in the collector car market parts, they'll be there to fill it.

This is the same scenario where china started making offshore crankshafts for Pontiac engines in cast, and forged applications. The cast cranks weren't as good as GM castings, but there are a lot of Pontiacs running chinese forged cranks today.

The quality may be suspect, but they won't give you any type of a warranty, and it's buyer beware, same as Harbor Freight tools are. They, HF, only warranty their tools for 90 days unless you purchase their "extended warranty" over and above the regular warranty. They haven't set themselves up to loose money in their venture, but I would be suspect of the quality control of one of these carbs, :2cents:.

Probably millions of Quads being run in third world countries where GM dumped all their stamping dies and tooling after a model run was over.

If they were made in Taiwan maybe, China no way.

These Holley knock-offs have been floating around for a while too.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/27359345321...cAAOSwGwlZ~CHw

never knew they were making q-jets, i dont see any value in a china made repop carb of a certain designation like that ram air since its not & will never be what it claims. buythe real thing used if you need it or spend a couple hundred more & get another year of a real qjet & have it rebuilt by one of the q-jet builders out there, it wont be numbers matching correct but neither will a china made qjet.

regarding the HF tools warranty, HF has lifetime warranty on all their hand tools & while they arent snap on or mac, most of them are decent tools for excellent prices & will work perfectly fine for the average backyard mechanic, if one breaks they replace it. for a professional mechanic using them every day or needing absolute precision tools there are obviously better tools, but i have beat the snot out of some harbor freight tools & they are as good as most craftsman or other house brand tools out there for half the price. their other stuff like power or air tools dont have a lifetime warranty but then again neither do any of the bigger brands like dewalt or milwaukee etc, but i wouldn't buy any HF power tools, some of the air tools are decent for lighter duty use.

A guy on the Corvette Forum bought one and did a full tear down and inspection on it. It was pretty interesting.

Saw the listing the other day in one of my evilBay searches. Thank goodness no RP casting on back of the floatbowl. No recessed groove for accel pump boot.

Amusing choice of marketing. Real deal SR 7028276's aren't that hard to find, I've had several new from RP in the box. As washed out looking mediocre cores have typically have avoided the Service Replacement '68 RA q-jets.

same bunch that decided to copy, then market this thing must have gone to the same temple as those 20 plus years ago decided to make the repro GTO hoods with '68 style bracing in front... DUMB!

I remember when "Made in Japan" meant it was junk. Now they make some of the best products in the world. We keep feeding trillions to China the same will happen there.

dataway, not saying you are wrong with the post above.
For easy math lets say the USA kicked the Japanese Military's butt and the Japanese were starting to rebuild in 1951. So 1951 to 2021 is 70 years. Japanese build nice stuff.

So by 2091 the Chinese will have it figured out on how to make "Japanese Quality" parts
in China. I am not waiting around ANOTHER 70 years to find out.

Right now there are a FEW Global company plants building decent stuff in China with cheap Chinese labor. Most were based in the British Controlled sectors and cities.
Chinese Communists are rapidly destroying that capability. I would not bet my sheckles
in my 401K on that timeline.

Tom V.

Bear in mind Japan was building very good stuff by the 1980's far as electronics, optics, electronics, motorcycles, machine tools. Sony, Panasonic, Nikon, Mitsubishi heavy equipment, Honda etc. Only 29 years later.

One big difference is since we destroyed their manufacturing capability in the war, part of our rebuilding program for Japan, Germany and Italy involved tons of the latest machine tools and precision equipment. By 1960 all three of these countries were typically using more modern equipment than our own US factories!

China doesn't have that "leg up" that we gave Japan, so could take a bit longer but I think it will happen in the next 20 years (assuming we keep buying their products instead of our own). Look at South Korea, they now make some of the best cars and electronics in the world.

But yes .. Communism is the big wrench in the gears ... After all, the Soviets with all their advanced science can't build a reliable car. Rockets yes, military planes yes ... but they can't build a freakin car :)

If we keep letting China steal our industrial secrets it's going to help them tremendously in the long run. China wants Taiwan badly for one reason. Taiwan has some of the absolute latest US technology that can only be found two places in the world, Taiwan and the US. And specifically there is one manufacturing plant that has the most advanced chip making machine in the world. I think there are only four of them, three in the US, one in Taiwan ... and a US design that experts think it would take 15 years for China to replicate on their own.

Super interesting subject. Course I'll be dead before the final outcome :)

I have not seen the Chinese Q-Jets, thus no comment

I have seen the Chinese Ford tractors carbs. Horrible

I have seen the Chinese Willys Jeep carbs. Also horrible.

As to "Made in Japan" quality.

I was in country in 1969 and 1970; and made many Japanese friends. To a person, they ALL asked "Why do Americans want our junk???? We make quality items as well." Tried to explain about the low-ball importers, and the discount houses, and always buy the lowest price; but it was not an acceptable concept to them.

When I left Japan in 1970, I had purchased a complete line of Canon camera equipment; plus stereo equipment by Teac, Sony, JVC, NiViCo, Sansui, and others. EVERY PIECE IS STILL WORKING TODAY; but to use use the Canon I have to dig into the deep freeze for film, and develop it myself.

Anyone got a 50 year old Polaroid or Kodak that still works???

Anyone have a 50 year old component stereo where every single component still works.

Junk? I think not!

Jon.

The one thing China excelled at was making is AKs. Norinco and Polytechs are highly regarded.

I guess they just can't apply the same enthusiasm to other stuff. lol

Jon, Tom,
I read somewhere not too many years ago. Writer said to thank yourself if you bought a Japanese car, in the late 70’s or well into the80’s. It unfortunately forced American auto makers to step up the quality of their products!! Can anyone name an American car, made in the 80’s that was worth hoot? May the 89 TA....those 82-92 F bodies were junk!!!

The motorcycle market is flooded with cheap Chinese stuff as well, especially carburetors and big bore kits. The metallurgy on Chinese stuff is terrible.
The best bet is buying NOS stuff off e-bay or rebuilding your original parts.

I’d say the GM RWD full size cars with the Olds or Chevy 5.0s were still pretty good cars.
Ford and Mercury full sized cars were good as well.
The old school 318 Diplomats proved to be tough in police car applications.

China syndrome!

I hate to admit. I've bought quite a few Chinese small engine carbs. So far they have worked great. You can't buy the parts to rebuild them for what a whole carb costs. Won't be buying anymore 4-barrels probably. Have three 800 cfm Q-jets, 800 cfm Holley spreadbore double pumper, mint 2 barrel, etc. Will be converting most everything to fuel injection.

I’d say the GM RWD full size cars with the Olds or Chevy 5.0s were still pretty good cars.
Ford and Mercury full sized cars were good as well.
The old school 318 Diplomats proved to be tough in police car applications.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I forgot about those. Had a Olds dealer in the town where I lived in late 80's. I worked in a parts store. The Delta 88 and 98's with 307's did pretty well, till the end of their RWD run. My Dad had a 85 Impala with 305. That thing ran great and got 26 MPG.

China doesnt seem to have a W. Edwards Deming, so thats good for a while.