I am late to this discussion buy I just found it when researching my 361.
I found it interesting about how most cars have too much carb, but I have a question.
When I was reading on the historical specs of the 361, there were some years where they put two 4 barrels from the factory and the horsepower went up.
The hp only went up I think 5 hp, so nothing huge, but isn’t this even more over carbed?
When that engine had dual 4 barrels they were probably Carter WCFBs rated 385 cfm each. Or 770 cfm. About as much as you want to put on that engine.
The alternate choice was one carb with only 385 cfm which is a bit small.
The Edelbrock the OP had was close enough, in my opinion, that I wouldn’t spend the money on a 625. If I had no carb, I’d choose the 625 or even a bit smaller if it was a heavy car.
Thank you for the reply. Right after I posted this, I thought to myself I bet they were smaller carbs.
I am not familiar with the older carbs stats.
The 361 had it’s best horsepower at 330, it’s first year in 1958 with fuel injection.
Going from a factory 2 bbl to a factory 4bbl back in the day usually meant you got a higher compression ratio and more cam, ie more duration and/or lift. You usually cannot get the performance of the factory 4 bbl just by changing the carb and intake.
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