I've read posts from you before, BillyGman, and I do respect your opinion. I'm not trying to negate your experiences, but here are mine:
1972 Cutlass 350, HEI, Rochester, stove-pipe choke -- worked flawlessly. For a time, I had this car stored for 3 months during a Chicago winter. It started immediately without any gas poured down the mouth.
1970 Olds 455, stock points, Holley, manual choke. Once set right, and keeping mindful to ease off the choke after a few minutes, worked fine.
1969 Chevy 454, cold-blooded (blocked exhaust crossovers) MSD dizzy and box, Demon carb, electric choke. Could never, never get that Demon choke to work right. I'd set it, it'd open properly five or six times, then work whenever it felt like it. My right foot became very sensitive to engine warm up with that set up. I then took out the nightmare MSD box and dizzy, put in a GM dizzy with the right curve, and that Demon still started like and warmed up like crap.
Now, I still have the 454, the HEI, the cold-bloodedness, but have switched to an Eddy 650 AVS with electric choke. Works perfectly. Starts up, and the choke lets off just as the engine is at temp (that takes a little tuning of the richness setting). I think Edelbrock has made up for it's decades-old bad carb rep with this new AVS setup.
Another thing I didn't like about the MSD dizzy is that the insides corroded very quickly. I just took the cap off the Cutlass's HEI mentioned above and with a five-year cap and rotor, it was still nice and clean. The MSD would be covered in "green fuzz" after six months.
I hope you can gain what you need from all these posts that will help you make the right decision for your car.
