Alternative carb?

Discussion in 'Mech Tech' started by Molteni Mike, Jun 24, 2018.

  1. With bad press about non original carbs, are there any non VW carbs around which will give good drivability. I've no interest in going faster, just want to avoid the problems that high mileage carbs give.

    Horror stories about far-east copies put me off, but with original Solex's being almost unobtainable new, is there a non VW carb people can recommend?
     
  2. Terrordales

    Terrordales Nightshift

    I fitted Kadrons to my 2 litre about 6 years ago and have had no trouble with them and about 15000 miles of motoring.
     
  3. mikedjames

    mikedjames Supporter

    A rebuilt original 34PICT-3 carb with new bushes and generally cleaned up, provided its fitted to a 100% stock air cleaner, preheat and heat riser setup..

    A progressive plumbed into the virtually 100% stock air cleaner setup with the deluxe throttle linkage that actually gives WOT without sawing the throttle wire against things.

    Dual professionally rebuilt carbs or new duals, with the best quality linkage you can get.

    A fuel injection system. Forget about the imprecision of all but the stock type carbs, and spend all your time worrying about mapping it rather than the sudden lean followed by the rich gulp from the accelerator pump, or the sudden richness from the power valve being stupid as you lift off at 70mph..

    Carburettors have an imprecise mapping from demand to fuel feed made worse by the fact that there were only two stock carburettor types used on the VW late bays and all the others are lashups from other cars.
    Like according to the Weber book, the progressive was made for and fitted to Ford Cortina 1600 up to Ford Granada 2800 with different jets and venturi sizes...
    Neither of which was trying to push nearly 2 tons of brick with a 1600 engine.
     
    paul2590, foe and Molteni Mike like this.
  4. stirlingmoz

    stirlingmoz Supporter

    Never used one but the Holley Bug Spray was supposed to be quite good back in the day.

    You can still get service kits for them.


    Stirlingmoz
     
  5. My 1600 had a bug spray on it when I got it. I really didn’t get on with it, so swapped it for a pair of ICTs and once they were setup and jetted correctly, I have never looked back. Good power and trundles along quite happily at low rpm in top.
     
  6. mikedjames

    mikedjames Supporter

    I went down the Progressive with AFR meter route about 6 years ago.
    At the time it added up to the cost of twin carbs (about £450 then) but every day on the road is a free rolling road session if I want it to be.
    My installation evolved from what you got in the progressive kit, chrome air filter and crude linkage .. all the way to the progressive plus stock air system I described above.

    What it tells me is that this is a usable compromise, but I had better get on with sorting something that is more matched to the engine and gearbox, the AFR meter shows wild swings in mixture with a carburettor in real world driving that you would never have seen on a straight dyno pull to find max torque and power.
    Like if you back off the throttle so the second barrel shuts off, the primary barrel will run rich as the air flow rate is so fast. With both barrels open, the 1641 at 4500 rpm does not suck enough air to develop the same suction so it runs leaner for the same speed.
    The progressive is basically a slightly smaller than stock carburettor paired with a larger one. Probably would be better as say a 30/34 rather than 32/36 but the cheapest ones were the Ford ones.
     
    Last edited: Jun 26, 2018

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