TOPIC: Anybody on the west coast?

I'm new here, haven't purchased bits or had a mod done yet. I'm wondering if there's somebody within a few hours of southern oregon that wants to do a mod on my edelbrock carb? I've watched plenty of the videos and could probably do one just fine but I would have a major learning curve trying to tune it! Has anybody had any experience with anything similar?
85 Suburban with a younger 454 engine, msd ignition, edelbrock carb.

12 mpg has a lot of room for improvement
I'm also considering some type of hho kit, fuel magnetizers, and pulstar plugs or a similar spark amperage increase.
Has anyone had good mpg increase with any upgrades like these?

Hey Geronimo! We can help! Check your email, I've sent you some contact information and some links to help you out. I hope southern Oregon has managed to escape all the heavy smoke from all the fires in the west. We're just dying for some fresh air here in western Montana, we're socked in.....

Thx, I'll call him. I will ask him this, and would like to know your opinion :
Is cutting the groove the easiest part of the process? I watched the video of Ron working on a four barrel edelbrock, it seems pretty simple.
If I do get Tracey to do the mod, I will be taking the carb off myself, reinstalling it, maybe moving a vacuum line, then tuning the carb, right? That would cost me around 2-500$ depending on what Tracey charges.
Or I buy the licence for $500? And do almost the same amount of work and have the bits, vids, and license for a similar price.
The latter option seems to make more sense to me, unless the groove is hard to get right. .

You are exactly right, you are really doing most of it all yourself. You sound mechanically inclined and you're really grasping the concept here, so I would say you could really be doing the Groove yourself. I recommend picking up a couple of junk pieces for you to practice on, and after you're feeling steady and confident, go for it! I think Tracy would agree, and he's due to be off work any time now, so there's a good chance he'll let us know....! He can let you know what he's charging for a carb like yours and you can weigh in on each.

I would usually charge $300.00 plus ship/handling to Groove an Edelbrock 4 BBL, or a Holley. But I always recommend to anyone savvy about engines and cars to get the PL kit and learn it themselves.

By itself the Groove has shown substantial improvements to carb's. But anything Carbureted can definitely take advantage of other improvements and mods. Edelbrock Performer 4 BBL's are easy to tune, jets/rods are available for 'em, they are my favorite 4 BBL carb. FAR more forgiving than a Holley, IMHO. Performer/AFB carb's tolerate dirt, heat/cold, in other words-the Real World- FAR better than a Holley. They are much easier to tune and service than a Holley. Now, there is a newer design Holley, that is sort of like a Ford/Motorcraft carb, in that the top comes off to expose the fuel bowls instead of the old style Holley w/bowls and metering blocks at each end. No one has ever posted here about Grooving this newer Holley, I have never worked w/ one. The one advantage Holley old style carbs have over the AFB/Performer is the Choke. Holley's have the best Choke designs around in my experience. For smaller engines, stock type one and two barrel Carb's are a Crapshoot, many of these are un-suitable to Groove, and tuning parts are often non-existent. BUT- Weber carbs, at least the DGV, DGEV, DGAV ones ARE Groove-able, I have a Grooved DGEV on my 85 Subaru (Subie). Subie is my Avatar pic. Converting to a Weber is it's own topic, there are many different Websites to address this. Details....

In response to your question on potential improvements to MPG- well, it depends...

Last summer, one night in perfect conditions, I achieved over 70 MPG w/ my Subaru, that is equipped w/ a Grooved Weber DGEV 32/36, and several other mods. I don't get anywhere near that in day to day driving of course. In the ReaL World, it's difficult to get over 10% increase using standard techniques, excluding the Groove. I claim that my Subie is the only one like it around- and I stand behind that claim. NO-Body has done the combo of stuff I have to a Subaru like mine. Not to be egotistical, it's simply that I've done things most never would. (Plasma Ignition...)

Look in the Index for Heysoundude's posts re: Pre-Groove Vehicle Prep for some solid ideas. IT's about killing gremlins, and reducing parasitic losses too. Just eliminating manifold vacuum leaks can do wonders. To get real good gains it's often about how much effort research and $$ you can invest. Gremlins are like insects, they're everywhere in cars! I'd say get rid of problems and try to make the vehicle a solid unit, then go for the trick stuff.

Tracy G

Thanks for that Tracy!

It just makes sense to me to have everything as optimal as possible before Grooving so you don't end up chasing red herrings to resolve any problems/codes that may arise. In my truck, that was a solid tune up including O2 sensor replacement, and RVS treatment of the powertrain, then the MPG remedy in E5 89-octane fuel. I even needed to replace my fuel pump due to age, and that restored my fuel pressure at the injectors so that they could atomize properly; that improved my mileage as well, believe it or not. There was a vehicle-specific tweak I found on a forum that improved things also; there are a few other general mods they suggest that I'm considering, budget permitting, but they make sense to me as well from an efficiency point of view. One thing I still have yet to get to is the grounding/charging system.

While some of the boards out there are chasing Horsepower and torque improvements, This one is more general and broad in scope in that we're chasing after fuel savings; regardless, we all want to make our engines as efficient as possible, which takes a holistic approach. That itself is a process of research and application.

Cool, thx guys! I'm going to order the license and start tuning things up while I'm waiting for the bits.