Allow me start off by saying this is not a Holley Vs Edelbrock thread. Both are great carbs and
they both accept their attributes and drawbacks. So I volition simply say that I've always been a fan
of the AFB manner carb for street cars, specially with automated transmission. The Performer
has a hybrid mechanical / vacuum secondary that gives a expert seat of the pants kick when
the secondaries open on a functioning street engine.

So I've been a fan of the Carter AFB Edelbrock carb on my street cars for many years. Today I
would like to focus on the Edelbrock Performer 1406 with electric choke. This is a popular carb
for the small block Ford and is the trickiest Performer carb to tune. I've tuned a hundred Carter
AFB / Edelbrock 1405 manual choke carbs and they are a breeze. They tune easy and they proceed
their tune forever. Which got me to thinking, if the 1405 is basically the aforementioned carb with manual
choke, why does this electric choke Performer 1406 give anybody including myself a difficult time
with getting the tune right? At that place had to be a logical explanation. Well afterward tuning and studying
the Edelbrock manuals I finally figured out the problem.

The 1406 (with electric choke) is tuned by Edelbrock for fuel economy. The 1405 (manual choke)
is tuned for functioning. Simple enough. But what if I desire an electrical choke and a functioning
tune? This is what most of u.s. desire for our street cars, and then we become the 1406 and begin the process
of trying to tune information technology for a high functioning engine.

Edelbrock gives you a tuning grid chart in the transmission for your carb and I'm certain all of you that
accept tuned an Eddy before are familiar with the chart. It'due south a real handy reference guide for fine
tuning the jets and metering rods. The problem is the stock 1406 carb is jetted and then lean that you
are starting from a whacked benchmark, so fifty-fifty the nautical chart is misleading.

The 1406 has a stock melody of .098 jet and a 075 ten 047 metering rod.

That'southward extremely lean in the cruise fashion and can cause hesitation or a stumble equally it transitions
to ability mode. Nigh people do two things to try to right this (both crusade the problem to go
worse), either they richen the idle mixture or they increase the accelerator pump shot. Both of
these cause the engine to take a flat spot or a rich bog.

Next logical footstep is to adjust the metering rod mixture. Because the idle mixture is grunter rich, and the
accelerator pump is full rich (from above), some think they're running rich, then they opt for a leaner
tune and it gets worse. Long story curt, this is the wrong direction.

Looking at your 1406 chart, tune #24 is ane step rich in the prowl mode. But this doesn't solve the
problem either, welcome to the bizarre world of tuning the 1406 carb.


Hither'south the problem.........

Take that 1406 #24 tune, which is 1 stride rich in cruise mode, (1427) .098 jets (1456) 073 x 047 metering rods,

..... and allow's locate that setup on the 1405 melody chart beneath?


That equals a #28 tune on the 1405 chart; 3 steps lean in cruise mode and 1 footstep lean in ability
mode! No wonder your motor is running like crap? Your stock 1406 is jetted iv steps lean in cruise,
and is still 3 steps leaner than the 1405 fifty-fifty after going ane pace rich!

So hither'south the simple fix, toss your 1406 tuning nautical chart, and use the Performer 1405 tuning nautical chart.
For a balmy/hot 302 engine, just start with the stock Performer 1405 tuning spec as your baseline tune;
That exist, 1428 (.100) main jets, 1451 (070 x 047) metering rods, and orange springs.

Set your accelerator pump back to the stock eye position.

Fix your mixture screws to ii turns out (this is a good starting signal)

Start the machine and adjust the idle stop until y'all get information technology to idle betwixt 800-900 RPM

With the air cleaner on, accommodate the mixture screws until the RPM drops 50 (don't use a vacuum gauge).

Now take the car out for a test and tune.

The rest of your fine tuning can at present exist done accurately using the 1405 manual.

The 1406 on my congenital 302 runs like a champ now with 1405 tune #8 (1 step rich in prowl mode) with
pink springs. Which gave me confidence to share this revelation with you.

Good luck and happy tuning!