Experience & Opinions on Brawler Carbs
 

Wondering what people have experienced with the Brawler Carb. I have one on a 496 engine. It is a 850 CFM with mechanical secondary. Works very well for me.

I have the 950 with mechanical secondaries. When I first installed the carb it was flooding and I couldn't find the cause so I sent it back to Holley and they went through it and it has worked perfectly since then. I will say that the Brawler series is very sensitive to fuel pressure.

Can't speak to Brawler specifically but had a few cheaper Holley and Quick fuel carbs that were lacking in quality control, and found that trading those for more expensive holley/qf carbs did not exhibit the same issues. My impression is that the quality control is stricter on the more expensive carbs.

Bought and installed a Brawler 850 double pumper and had trouble setting idle initially. Adjusted bottom slot correctly and ran pretty well but am changing out to go with Cliff rebuilt Quadrajet.

I have had at least 1/2 dozen students buy and use them in various configurations in my class. We ran all of them on the engine dyno. For the money, they are a decent carburetor IMO. They do take some tuning as all carbs do to optimize on the dyno. We had one that had weird cross threading of the fuel inlet nut as delivered and leaked fuel like crazy. Called Holley and asked for a replacement fuel bowl. They said just keep it and sent another complete carburetor. So that tells you they probably have less than $50.00 in the whole thing. Certainly not the worst carburetor out there and way, way better than the Edelbrock AFB knock offs. BTW, the Brawlers are a great buy on the Holley refurbished web page. There are usually quite a few available for around three hundred dollars.

Hey Napster! This is a bit off topic. I hope you don’t mind and I hope this helps someone. When I bought my Red ‘73, the engine had been re-built and topped with a true Holley 750HP. Car flick started, idled clean, and ran like a top. Over time, I encountered a few drivability issues with Big Red, and my local mechanic did a simple rebuild of the carb with a new Holley gasket and O-ring set. Car returned to driving like it had fuel injection.

I didn’t know anyone locally familiar with Q-Jets, so when the time came for a new carb on my Green car, I went with a Holley ‘Street’ HP-750. I wan’t trying to pinch pennies by any means. But the car always ran pig rich and fouled plugs like crazy. My mechanic was more than willing to re-jet the ‘Street’ HP and swap the Power Valve to match the specs of the true OG ‘HP’ but instead, he said: ‘if you like the way your Red car runs, just get a real HP-750 for the Green car.’ I did and never looked back. Set the 4-corner and idle speed and the Green car ran like it had fuel injection. Flick started, ran strong and clean, plugs looked perfect.

If your Brawler ever starts bucking or surging or otherwise disappointing you, I wouldn’t hesitate to go with the OG ‘HP’ series Holley in whatever CFM your mill requires.

I love my new Black Car - but FWIW, you really DON’T know what you have til it’s gone. I didn’t know how much I loved my Green and Red ‘73s till they were gone. That said, I don’t have Jay Leno’s garage space or $$, so my various car experiences are enjoyed 1 or 2 (max) at a time!!!

Mine took some setup but runs great. 750 DP gets about 15 mpg with the TKO and has great tip in and part throttle cruise.

PDC,

That is great advice. The Brawler right now is working fine. If it acts up I will go with the advice.

One of my other cars, a 1970 T/A, has a hard to get Holley 780 cfm with vacuum secondaries on a reproduction Ram Air IV intake manifold that was on the car when bought. However, I am now running into major problems with the intake creating 2 major vacuum leaks. When the leaks are not there the engine runs great. Got sick of the problems it created and had to buy the real deal Ram Air IV intake.

Jim

I bought a reman/return Brawler direct from Holley. 750cfm
just another take on an old 4779 DP, with a facelift, IMHO.
never used it. sold to a friend at cost, he put it on a 6.0 LS in a truck,
it ran great, instant response, boiled the tires viciously.
then he sold the truck. that's all I can say about that.
for the money ? I'd rather put a kit in a decent core 4779 DP 750
the name and the gaudiness of the Brawler is not my style or image
take the Brawler name off it, not a bad carb, but then it's just a 4779-whatever
lol it's all marketing...the modern car parts names just sounds juvenile and silly to me.