i'd go with the barry grant 625 vac sec / elec choke / ford kickdown
http://www.barrygrant.com/demon/default.aspx?page=8

they are like getting a hopped up holley out of the box.

and intake - yeah a edelbrock performer RPM airgap would prolly be best

 

For a trouble free set-up that will give you the most power gain would be the weiand stealth intake and the autolite 4100. I would not even consider a Holley or a Weber carb.

 

makes me wonder why ford was still using holley 4160 600's into the 80's and not the autolites (any of you autolite carb guys have the answer?) not trying to bash the other carbs its just i really would like to know.

I know i had a holley 600 on my II i yanked from a freshly junked early 80's e-150 van along with a factory aluminum intake off a 83 GT (which has 255 V8 sized intake runners btw... yuk for high end power but awsome off the line)

oh yeah and if anyone is looking i think i have a 302 or 351w 4bbl factory cast iron intake from late 60s in storage, are they worth anything (getting hard to find maybe?)

 

I don't want to open up a can of worms...but,
why not Holley?
Webber I can understand. As some very wise person stated earlier, it's like tuning a harp. Well said!

I don't know much about Autolites. Once again, time to read up

Edit:
I just looked up the price of the Autolite carbs...yikes!
Almost double of a Holley 600cfm.
Now, i'm sure i'm not comparing apples to apples which would
probably explain the price difference.
I saw the Holley 4160's are under $250. Not bad.

 

Holley 600 or smaller, or the 4100 carb would be my sugestion. The RPM is a bit much for a stock engine with manifolds, just find a dual plane intake of your choosing, Weiand, Edelbrock, Offenhauser all make great manifolds, Offy is more exepnsive though. Summit even has one for $124, havent seen one yet, I was thinking about picking one up for my 84 4x4 F150.

Doing a carb/intake swap is easy and can result in some great improvements, provided you use parts that fit your intended use and operating range. A few things to know about doing the swap, drain the water before you start, and disconnect the battery. When you are putting it back together after getting it all super clean, use Ultra Black RTV for the end seals on the block between the heads, the cork gaskets dont work very well and often they pop out and leak oil everywhere. A 1/4" bead down the block is all you need. You shouldnt need to put any on the manifold gaskets or the heads, other than a little dab in the bottom corners where the block makes a gap. Figure 4 hours to complete your first swap. It gets much faster after you do a few of them..

 

very good advice - if your a mechanical noobie please take it..... my .02 says use a *little* RTV sealer around the water jackets on the intake gaskets too... better safe than sorry.

 

i know what expensive is, i'm from new zealand, but now live in the states. still the price now compared to what the price was kinda kills the fun of driving fast, because I got used to the cheap gas. now gas in new zealand is somewhere between 8-9 dollars a gallon after you convert from liters and new zealand dollar.

 

jesus you kiwi's pay alot for gas we pay $7 a gallon US and you used to get all the rubbish car that wouldn't sell in uk!!! morris ital, austin allegro anybody?

 

omg you have no idea those morris were the worst back in the day, my dad worked on them as his first job. but things are diffferent in kiwiland now lol, we have better cars than you haha, well acutally nah, but we're on par now. i miss beign able to have TVR's in new zealand, they aren't alowed in the states. all the ford australia/new zealand cars are insane, they go like a raped ape. go to fpv.co.nz. btw, the gas quality in new zealand is absolute scheisse, eats through gas lines, because it all has to be shipped to us, we have no oil reserves.

 

yeah even though it's GM (general maschism) the holden v8 is getting good review in the UKmind you I am a Saab fan which GM is slowly ruining so they can make saabs in germany and caddy in sweden, I hate Caddys they are rubbish and now really ugly only a few people want them in europe and they keep trying to sell them sorry rant over