need to replace carburetor on a 1974 monte carlo, need suggestions

A 600cfm with vacuum secondaries would be a good choice.

For more performance I would look at pairing up that new carb with an Edelbrock aluminum intake manifold.

There is nothing wrong with a Quadrajet provided you have the skill to rebuild it or know a good shop that can. They also can be warped, rendering them useless.

my friend insists the carb is bad, i traded it in for a rebuilt one and paid 125.00 and still have the same problem. car takes a long time to start, like 20sec of nonstop cranking before it starts. It also randomly stalls on me, will run fine for a few blocks, then randomly will stall when i step on the gas after being stopped at a stop sign, then i gotta pump the gas to get it started again. I've already replaced fuel pump, ignition control module, spark plug wires, new distributer cap, coil, choke spring, alternator. At this point im playing the change and hope game and wasting money, this carb is the last thing im gonna try changing, my friend insists it has to be the carb even though i have my doubts, but im gonna buy it just to see, and even if its not the problem i'll have a new carb.

Well your carb is old so it can't hurt to try and replace it. $125 is not that bad. If your original carb is a Quadrajet you may need an adapter.

The stalling at lights is probably the accelerator pump on the carb.

jthx for the responses, gonna look into the adapter.