thanks for clarifying. interesting. I have very little experience with Q-jets, webers are what Im most familiar with and would prefer but the floor is the limit here.

FI is great but all in all, if youre familiar with carb tuning, the reliability and the amount of spare parts (both in cost and weight) to carry along and then be able to use effectively, is much less.

the E.Quad-Jet does seem like a perfect compromise between carb or FI for these though but definitely it would take some work to have something better than just a regular Q-jet.

ESC and a stock Q-jet seems to be a sound logical step up without adding too much unneeded complexity and cost. I'll keep looking into this..

the vapor lock is always tricky but Im sure it can be eliminated while keeping the Q-jet, thats not really directly related to the carb but the fuel supply system, right?


Edit to add: a GMC site about FI just came up in my 'ESC' searching : http://www.gmcws.org/Tech/efi/efi.html

its from '00 and has this tidbit "Since our distributors do not have the ability to respond to ESC, we can use something like the manual MSD spark adjustment and the MSD knock sensor. (MSD devices are used to permit electronic spark advance and retard as a means of providing appropriate timing for engine loads, altitude and similar conditions where it is desirable to be able to adjust the timing without manually rotating the distributor.)"

is this still the case? and brings me to this question, do the chevy distributors interchange? (fit into the Olds 455)