It’s been almost 30 years since passenger cars came with a carburetor, but the hundred years before that was nearly all carburetors. From 1965 to 1990, the standard-issue 4-barrel carburetor on all GM products was the Rochester Quadrajet. We have set out on an adventure with a 3-part series around a Rochester Quadrajet Carburetor rebuild off our 1971 Oldsmobile 442 project car.

Part 2 – Reassembly

How To Quadrajet Carburetor Reassembly Part 2 Video

Part 3 – Tuning

How to Tune a Carburetor Video – Part 3 Quadrajet Rebuild Series

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Rochester Quadrajet Carburetor Rebuild History

Let the sneering, name calling and hatred fly, so we can get it out of the way. Everyone has their favorites: Holley, Carter, Quadrajet, Edelbrock and more. Truth is, they all have the drawbacks and their benefits. For the sake of time, we’re just going to get on with the facts. The four barrel carb known as the Quadrajet, manufactured by the Rochester Products Division of GM, appeared first on a 1965 Chevy 396ci big block. The Quadrajet lasted 35 years, hence the last car to receive the Quadrajet was the 1990 Oldsmobile 307 V8, which was used in the Cadillac Brougham and station wagons from Chevy, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick.

While many other branded 4 barrel carburetors had vast differences across models, not so with the Quadrajet. There were really only two (2) different sizes manufactured, one that flowed about 730-750 cfm and the other that flowed about 800 cfm. So, for the most part, these Quadrajet carbs were all the same. As we venture into the Quadrajet Carburetor Rebuild, our segments should be 5-6 minutes and still cover everything needed.

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Part 1 – Disassembly

This first part of the Quadrajet Carburetor rebuild covers removal and disassembly of the Rochester Quadrajet. We removed the carb by removing the four bolts, throttle cable linkage and a vacuum hose. Raw fuel pooling on the floor of the intake manifold substantiates concerns that the carb has issues. Once on the workbench, the Quadrajet caburetor rebuild quickly started, hence our carb was disassembled within 15 minutes and the parts soaking in cleaning solution.

Stay tuned here while we provide complete coverage of all three parts of this rebuild, and more.