Predator carb?

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jmlcolorado

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 23, 2010
Messages
1,839
Location
The flat plains of Elbert County, CO
Anyone familiar with these?
I've for one that doesn't appear to have ever been used. Not sure where I got it, but I had it on craigslist for a 'make offer' sales price.
I probably woulda been happy with $50. I went to relist it and decided to see what they were selling for.
I was surprised to see them going for anywhere from $150-$450!!!

I'm not very familiar with this type of carb, and have heard that they can be tricky. Apparently they are used in racing applications and monster trucks?

Is it a usable carb for street use?
I'm having an olds 350 built up so this might find a home on top of that it it's worth it.

Your knowledge is needed!
 
Last edited:
Hey jml I believe it would work better on my caddy 500, they can be a little tricky to setup it needs a idle circuit kit to run better on a street motor. Setup right on a built motor throttle response is excellent. Let me know if you would like to sell yours.

Jarrod
 
the idle circuit mods for the street for sure, and access to various fuel ramps is a must.

the main jet swings in an arc past a ramp to compensate for richness as throttle is opened, changing ramps and closeness of ramp to main jet allows for different fuel curves.

the 2 spring loaded "blades" at the top of the carb act as air speed regulators, in that they will only open as far as required to admit as much air as the engine can use at any given rpm. it is designed to keep the air flow at the most desired speed through the venturi for extremely smooth drivability and maximum throttle response.

many years ago I borrowed one to try on my drag car, running a well tuned and modified Holley 780 vacuum secondary carb on a 338 ci SBC, I was running consistent 12.00 at 118 mph. changing to the Predator straight out of the box, it ran 12.00 at 125 mph. while it felt very responsive while driving through the pits to staging, and jumped up on the tires during the burn out, it fell flat at full throttle right off the line, not flat on it's face flat but it wasn't pulling as hard as the Holley did until it got above 4000 rpm, and then it went nuts, pulling like a freight train to 8000 rpm shift points.

Since it picked up 8 mph on a car that had been run to it's available limit, I was impressed with the top end, and if we would have had the jetting and ramp parts required to fatten the low rpm part of the delivery curve I probably would have paid the $300 asking price for it. I returned it to it's owner and went back to my old tried and true Holley.
 
i really believe they are a great design that never got no respect. i knew a guy that had two of em on a 6-71 blown small block in a t-bucket, ran like stink.
 

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