‘73 Quadrajet on a ‘76 intake-no go!?
 

I have a 525355 intake on my ‘63 LeMans, which I show as being a ‘76. I had a ‘76 Quadrajet on the car when I bought it, but it has damage to the casting, and after many tear downs and playing with it, determined it’s junk. Cliff couldn’t figure out anything either from a couple states away through emails and pictures. I was using his parts to rebuild it.
So I bought a’73 17054913 off another member here, that Cliff had rebuilt years back, so I know I won’t have another junk parts carb. I just put it on, and it appears the choke linkage is hitting the intake on the passenger side. Aren’t pretty much all Pontiac Quadrajets bolt on’s with Pontiac intakes? I know there are different choke set ups, but never knew it would interfere with actual throttle opening?

What intake manifold was the member you got it from running it on?

I’ll have to email and ask I guess. I just know he said his Pontiac 440 build

Here

Had the exact same thing happen when i tried to run a ‘74 Quadrajet on a ‘76 intake, no go. Swapped to a ‘74 intake to solve the issue.

Geez. Been driving Pontiacs since my first car in ‘82, and I never knew this was an issue. I guess I learn something new everyday. I’m kind of tired I’d screwing around with this car though. I wanna get to driving, not wrenching. On to find an intake I guess….
Thanks guys for the info.

Quadrajet seller said he ran a Northwind intake with this carb BTW.

Electric choke might be solution so Intake change not necessary.

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I guess it’s not really the linkage as much as the fast idle screw and what appears to be maybe a rear choke pull off attaching point. My carb has an electric choke already. Another pic, sorry they’re fuzzy

Can you grind on the intake to make it work?

I don’t think you could grind enough to make it work, the interference was substantial from what I remember.

I had just bead-blasted and painted my ‘76 intake and then had to do it all over again with a ‘74 intake to run the ‘74 carb I had.

One of those things you learn messing around with old cars, you don’t find out what interchanges and what won’t until you try doing it. ;)

Yes, I’d have to grind 1/4-1/2” off the outside of the area where the carb mounts, in quite a big arc.

So next question- If I find a ‘73 intake, any surprises mounting the intake to a ‘69 400 with 46 heads? I don’t want this to snowball. I remember heat crossover not lining up, or had to use different intake or head gaskets on some years,but this was WAY back, so I might be remembering incorrectly.

Well if you already had a ‘76 intake on that ‘69 engine you already knew how to deal with the exhaust crossover mismatch.

If you don’t already have the matching bathtub style valley pan that clears the huge EGR passages cast into the bottom of the ‘73 intake then you need one.

This is one instance where one of the regular Edelbrock Performer intakes would come in handy, as long as you don’t mind dealing with all the fuel line/linkage/choke/PCV hookup issues like most any other aftermarket intake presents you with. It fits both early and late crossover designs, any type of valley pan and any square bore or spread bore carb as well.

If you’re trying to source a ‘73 -‘74 factory intake you’d better find something local to avoid the incredibly expensive shipping, those things weigh a ton.

I would use a Fel-Pro 60334 1/4" flange gasket and install an electric choke element to make the -73 carb work on a -76 intake.

The car is fairly new to me, so I haven’t really done much wrenching on it. I do vaguely remember having issues with a crossover mismatch back in the 80’s with a GTO I owned. I fabricated something. So I assume there is a special gasket to use?
So since there is a ‘76 intake on it already, would a ‘73 intake work with the valley pan?
Thanks!

I’ll look into this. It doesn’t appear 1/4”gasket would clear, but I currently have Cliffs thicker than stock gasket on. That would be great if a thicker gasket would work. :)
Thanks!

those tubes (unless rusted) are sealed, and would post no vacuum leak if unused - so if you decide to go with an electric choke, you can just pull the tubes and put them aside.

If you want to hook it up, I believe that you can change the "pot" that the bimetal coil sits inside of - the hookup for the tube is on the opposite side between the two carburetors; front on one, rear on the other.
iirc both setups require the other tube be connected to a line at the rear of the carb.

The new carb already has an electric choke. The old one did too. Those air tubes were just there for decoration on the old carb. They are just sitting there in the picture because I hadn’t figured out what I was going to do with them yet. After finding the carb hanging up I pretty much turned my attention to that.

If you have the hood clearance, a 1/2" spacer will probably get everything to clear. Of course, then you'll need longer studs and hold-down bolts.