I always thought it was a quadrajet, but I was reading an issue of Muscle Car by Hemmings. There's a woman on there that bought a 67 Chevelle SS 396 with the 350 hp 396 (L34) new in 67, then sold it in like 1981, and then her sons bought it back for her in 1997, both her and the mag say the car came with a 585 Holley 4 bbl when new....

So were both a Holley 585 and a Q jet were avaliable on a L34 396 engine?

See post below.

Eric

Thanx....so was that all years of the L34 engines that got the Holley? Or some?

I am aware the L78's all came with Holleys, just not sure on the L34's.

Starting in 1968 both the low horse 396's got Quadrajets. The Holley was only used on the L78 after 1968, and those were 4150 models rated at 780 cfm.

The 325 version got either the quadrajet or the holley carb. Some of the holley blocks were stamped with the letter "H" after the engine code, thus some of the 66-69 engines having a 3 letter code.

I had a new 66 325hp,came with a holly

Thomas is correct, the Holley was available on both the 325 and 350 HP versions.

A partial listing from my parts book:

1965 396:
Manual trans: 7025201 Quadrajet -OR- 3139 Holley-- 325 HP
Auto trans: 7025200 Quadrajet -OR- 3140 Holley-- 325 HP

1966 396
Manual trans: 49 state 7026201 -OR- 3139 Holley, 7036201 California 325 HP
Auto trans: 49 state 7026200 -OR- 3140 Holley, 7036200 California 325 HP

Manual trans: 49 state 7026207 -OR- 3419 Holley, 7036207 California 360 HP
Auto trans: 49 state 7026206 -OR- 3420 Holley, 7036206 California 360 HP

1967 396
Manual trans: 3837 Holley 49 state, 3839 Holley California, 325 + 350 HP
Auto trans: 3836 Holley 49 state, 3838 Holley California, 325 + 350 HP
Manual trans: 7027201 49 state
Auto trans: 7027200 49 state

1968 396
Manual trans: Camaro only--7028218, all others 7028210
Auto trans: Camaro only--7028217, all others 7028211

1969 396
Manual trans: 7029215
Auto trans: 7029204

Hopefully I got it right this time. :clonk:

Sorry for any confusion.

Eric

1970 L-34, 350 H.P. version had a Q-Jet #7040205

Sometimes you just need to be a little more specific with a year in questions like this. The L34 as well as other engines were used a number of years, inside and outside of Califoria, with and without smog stuff, etc.

If you're only asking about 67s, as I gather from the basis for the question, then yes, all (67) L34s came with a Holley.
3908956 EX; LIST 3836A - A/T, w/o A.I.R.
3908957 EJ; LIST 3837A - M/T, w/o A.I.R.
3908958 EZ; LIST 3838A - A/T, w/A.I.R.
3908959 EY; LIST 3839A - M/T, w/A.I.R.

The base L35 came with the Q-Jet in 67; 66 L35s were equipped with both Q-Jets and Holleys.

The Rochester carb plant went on strike in 1967, and it left GM scattering for carb suppliers. This is why some cars have q-jets, and some have Holleys. There are even some carbs that say Quadrajet by Carter on them. My dad bought a new 67 Impala, 327 and it had the Carter carb. He said it got such poor gas mileage they took it back a few months later and traded it back for the 64 they used to have.

There are even some carbs that say Quadrajet by Carter on them. .

I ordered a Rochester Q-Jet 7040205 with a 3499 julian date as a spare from a by some folks standard anyway " respected carb supplier" from a large northern midwest city - And thats what he sent me, some funky Carter Q-Jet with a funky julian date-- So they are out there.

All Carter-built Quadrajets have "MFG by Carter" cast into the body. Only non-A.I.R. (702xxxx) Quadrajets were built by Carter but these were used on the base L35. A shortage of Q-Jets would have just the opposite effect on the Holley equipped L34; that is the shortage wouldn't have caused Chevrolet to use the Q-Jet (Rochester or Carter) to replace the Holley. If anything, it'd have been the other way around, i.e., Holleys replacing Q-Jets on the L35.

The Rochester carb plant went on strike in 1967, and it left GM scattering for carb suppliers. This is why some cars have q-jets, and some have Holleys. There are even some carbs that say Quadrajet by Carter on them. My dad bought a new 67 Impala, 327 and it had the Carter carb. He said it got such poor gas mileage they took it back a few months later and traded it back for the 64 they used to have.

Hi,
Do not necessarily agree that a strike caused this and this would be speculation. I spoke 25 years ago to a well connected former Holley Rep who was the most knowledgeable guy on carbs I ever met. He explained it this way. Carter actually was the original designer of the q-jet. They sold the rights to Rochester, and Rochester in return, licensed Carter to make them. This made good sense for GM since two suppliers always gave you a source in the event of a strike or something else. Such a thing happened in 1972 as there was a fire at Rochester, and most 72 carbs seem to be Carter produced. When questioned about the use of Holleys on early 396 engines, this person thought that the production capabilities of q-jets were not yet up to the level where they could use them on all engines. This makes sense as you can see the use of q-jets phased in over a three year period. And the small block and lower horse big block engines were the first to get the q-jet. Again, this is just a speculation, but this person lived it every day as a Holley employee throughout the 60's and 70's. Unfortunately, he is no longer with us, and died about ten years ago.

Jeff Dotterer
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