Quadrajet Quandry

[magwakeenercew2jh]

The story of the '83 just keeps on rolling.

Background: I sold the beautiful '72 the day after she took 2nd in a local show. I made it almost two weeks without a truck. Craig's list turned up a clean '83. California...I hate smog stuff, but I had to back out of the '67-'72 thing for rea$ons we all know.....

So, the 305 is leaking oil and smells like gas, but passes smog inspection. I buy her. Then the bug begins. I have leather seats, new carpets before I even find out what I have to do that's *really* important.

I bit the bullet. I find a guy selling a rebuilt (86) 350. He agrees to install it in the '83. Roughly $2100. He's abandoning the '86 project and is out of work...so he has time. I quiz him. He knows what he's doing. He does the switch, using almost all my 305 stuff (which is new...alt., smog pump and various egr valves, water pump, air cond compr., etc.) . He finds some of my stuff broken (new dist and wires that were bastardized by the PO, power steering) and replaces mine with his for no add'l $$$.

He finds more PO stuff broken...and helps where he can.

The brake do-hickey diaphram "whooshes", so he's giving me one.

Down side is that he has to use the 350 headers for some reason or another. So I just got back from the exhaust tube-bender who bent the down-tube from the header to the collector and welded in a "bung" for the OX sensor). He couldn't find the wire that connects to the harness. Then he was shot in the eye from oil coming down from the block in front of the bellhousing.....BUMMER.....

The installer will fix it. But it seems all the gages...at least the oil pressure gage, speedo and odo, are at "0", and the temp gage reads 260. It moves up and down like it should, but I'm not running at 260 with the new 4-core. Absolutely not running hot.

The worst, and my question is.....The Quad that was on the '83 was leaking. Installer says "leaking down on the passenger side", whatever tghat means. He didn't want to install either of the ones (there are two) in the picture below, because he KNEW the truck ran with the orig quad. But he *did* give me the two below.

I need to stay smog-legal. I'm thinking about having one of these rebuilt. The one with the wires is cleaner. But I don't know if either of these, even if I have one rebuilt, will keep me smog safe. I'm not paranoid about buying another carb, 'cause I'll probably have just as much $$$ in a rebuild, I guess, once someone gets through boning me.....

But I really don't know whether either of these will work, or if I buy a new one, what to get that will accept all the hoses, etc. that Good 'Ol California screwed the pooch on.

Any suggestions?