My question is this; wat is the dif/ benefits of a 4 barrel vs. a quadrajet and what is better for mileage to power ratio?i feel like an idiot askin this, but im kinda new to this stuff, so any help would be awesum.  

Well a Q-jet is a 4 barrel. Or are you talking about a Holley or Edelbrock compared to the Q-jet.

Some believe that the Q-Jet gets better mpg because of it's tiny primaries. I am not one of those people. Holley's and Edelbrocks do just as well in my experience. It's just a matter of tuning them so they do.  

Quadrajet is a four barrel, hence the word "quad" in the title.

Yes, Holleys and Edelbrock AFB carbs can get good mileage like the Quadrajets, but they require more tunign for the same result a basically stock, factory tune Quadrajet will give you. Edelbrock also makes and sells Quadrajets.  

If you want the best of both worlds, Holly spread bore is your ticket. It will bolt on the original Quadrajet manifold with little or no fuss, and give you all the tunability of a Holly and the vacuum secondaries that are as big as garbage cans for max power. On interstate 80, running 5 over the limit in a '69 malibu, I've regularly pulled down 23   miles per gallon on a 340 mile round trip.  

Q-jets though have small primaries, tend to do better milage wise because their jets are load/vacuum sensitive. And since most are un-modified they retain the factory lean springs for the metering rods on the primaries.  Then the secondaries are so massive (750-800cfm carbs) that they have no problem adding enough fuel and air to most engines that only need around 600cfm.  If you can't tell I'm a Q-jet fan.

Holley's and Edelbrocks are easier to tune for max power, and take a bit more for mpg tuning.  In any case they all can be tuned to do what you want, each just tunes a bit differently to accomplish the same thing.  

The other key is to keep your foot out of it with the Q-jet...you'll quickly cancel out any of the benefits of those small primaries  

True, my Firebird I could choose between 8mpg and 25mpg by playing with the right pedal  

hi I am a new member to *** forum.I am an old car guy also old school[no lectronics] hei is the best I know.I lost my ability to drive 10 years ago because of diabetes,LAST year my wife prmitted me to buy afiero as anew toy.I have many quest. about using a262 chev v6 with qjet ,t125c trans.I do not know how to post new thead.thanks for any help you give an on old blind geezer.phil the geezer