I'm just wondering what a good sized carby to use on a fairly stock 302W would be? I'm not sure exactly what I'll fit the windsor to yet, so I guess it's a hard call (will probably end up in a Falcon though) but what do you guys think?

Gab

A 500 or 600 Holley

Maybe have a look at the Holley 470cfm carbs, or the Quick Fuel 580cfm? I would go the Quick Fuel - much better piece, similar price to the old crappy Holley. No bigger than a 600 Vac for the little 302 though. My old XW went quite well with just a 350cfm two barrel, on the factory intake...

Good luck.

Ive put many new holley 0-1850s on sbf's over the years and up until the last one on my built 351c in my bronco, they were always perfect out of the box except idle and squirter at the most.
The last one was never happy and totally crapped the bed going mega rich and only just made it home. I tried replacing everything ignition and fuel related, and went right through the carb with a million jet and squirter combinations and still couldnt get it right. I very quickly discovered that the 1850 has a built in secondary metering block, meaning changing secondary jetting becomes a very expensive and PITA job trying to source parts. After about $1000 in troubleshooting with new parts, I went with a Fitech and am now a convert on the idea of the efi carbs. If youre interested, I learnt a huge amount playing with it and driving it so can give you some pointers, otherwise, if you're after a "plug and play" solution, the 1850 holley is the go, just DONT dump your receipt. Expect to pay $500-$600 for the holley.

While I have no experience with QFT, edelbrock or BG carbs, one thing thats always scared me away is that local parts places wont have parts for them. Just my personal opinion though.