Anyone pu Weber's on your car

Talked to my mechanic and he told me that putting Weber carburators on my car would increase performance by 20-30%. Don't believe those numbers, but was wondering if its worth the money to do it...

A lot of VW engines have "Webers" on them. They vary from single carb to 48 IDA carbs. What size is your engine and what cam, heads etc are you running? What carbs do you currently have. I have a stock 1600 engine with dual 40 Webers on it. It seems to be more powerful than a single stock Solex carb. I think that the carbs are overkill on my 1600 engine. Others on this forum have better level of knowledge than I. But big Webers alone won't make a small motor a lot more powerful. They look cool though!

As has been stated, a lot depends on your engine. For the sake of this conversation, lets say you have a 2110cc engine and have dual Kadrons. Adding (2) dual Webers will give a significant improvement over (2) singel barrel carbs. If you have a stock 1,600 cc engine, it will help but not as much as the engine can only consume so much air and fuel.

More information is needed and, 20 to 30% is totally unrealistic for example:

Lets say you have a 1600 cc engine with 53 HP. A 30 % increase would be 15.9 more HP for a total of 72HP, not likely but lets say you have a large engine with small carbs, you could concievably gain 15% assuming you currently have 100 HP it could climb to 115 or 120

Another example: I built an 1835 for a customer. Stock stroke of 69mm's with 92mm pistons: With Weber 44's it put down 100 HP at the flywheel via a dynomometer. Heads were big, polished, matching manifolds, aftermarket cam, counterweighted crank and a bunch of other goodies.

I'm running a CB Performance Ultra 2160 rated at 170HP with dual Webers. I can't tell you how they'd be without, but I sure enjoy the movement when she's running!

Keep in mind that Webers are time consuming to get jetted and tuned properly - you'll see more of your mechanic (his wallet may see the 20-30% gain). Unless its a really modified engine save the dialing in effort and go with dual Kadrons(at 1/3 the cost) . Ya might see +5HP. But if jetted/tuned wrong you'll see gas mileage go down (polution up - if your state checks) and have driveability problems.

Wolfgang has it right as far as I'm concerned. My car came to me with 2 single barrel webers and I am far from impressed. For me, drivability and reliability are the most important factors.But that's just me. Others here have far more experience in this area

My Webers (2bbl, 44IDF) came jetted and ready to go, and when they are clean, I love 'em. My only complaint is that they are uber-sensitive to any dirt or other contamination that may be located in the same zip code. If I had the coin, I'd switch to the CB Perf. EFI kit.

Lane, Most Webers are prone to dirt in the idle jets.
Many don't know that most of your dirt problems are not from your fuel or dirt from a not so clean air filter.

90% of idle jet clogs are from dirt on the inside of your aircleaners on the air cleaner base attached to the top of your carb.

Keep that clean, apply a very thin layer of grease, install "jet doctors" and in many cases, the clogged jet problem will go away.

Larry,

Do you mean coating the entire upper surface the air cleaner bottom plate with grease?

I have velocity stacks inside my air cleaners. Would grease still make a difference for me?

What are "jet doctors"?

Thanks.

Jet Doctors are a special contraption sold by CB Performance for Webers & Dellortos; fairly inexpensive and easy to install. With regards to the debate single barrel vs. dual barrel I've had both and will never go back to singles after installing my Dellortos. Easier to adjust and the car drives much much better.

"Jet doctors", huh? I may have to give them a try. Given my rain water problems before and at Carlisle, I expect it's crud inside the filter that got down into the float chamber, etc. I've since added some "rain hats" from Carey, and will be cleaning out that carbs soon. When right, the Webers are sweet.

Just checked the CB Perf. site, and it seems that when Pat built my engine, he installed some of the jet doctors. I still occassionally get some crud in there, apparently from some opening into the float chamber from the top of the carb. When I got full of rain water, it washed all of the crud up there into the float, and I'm reaping the "benefits".

Lane, I have had problems everytime I wash my car. The car will be running perfectly, I wash it and pay attention not to force spray down the air intake. Almost every time I wash the car there is a sputtering problem. At first I thought that it was water in the distributor, plug connectors, etc. I use diaelectric grease, cleaned and dried the dist. cap and still a problem. Then I changed my fuel filter and cleaned the idle jets. Solved the problem and smooth running untill the next car wash. It is now a part of washing the car that I have to pull the jets. I just got some "hats" for the carbs. Has that made a difference on yours? I am taking Larry's advise and cleaning the aircleaner bases. The good news is that after pulling the jets about 15 times I am getting pretty quick with that short screwdriver!

I haven't washed the car or had it in the rain since putting on the "hats". I'm sure I'll get to check it out next year at Carlisle ;-)

Michael, I have had great luck with spreading a """very thin"""" layer of grease on the flat surfaces of the air cleaner base. It traps dirt before it gets into the idle jet circuit. Don't get crazy with the grease and each time you clean the air cleaners, wipe off the grease and dirt and re-apply a thin layer.

I learned this years ago when running carbureted engines in dunebuggies while driving in the sand dunes. After the grease trick, I rarely if ever had to clean the idle jets.

I just got mine from Michigan last night and I was really surprised it ran with 341CT dual webers.................the prior owner had some trouble with a popping off oil tube and the air cleaners were more oil than cleaner. Still ran..............like a washing machine, but it ran. By the way, where is the cheapest place to get the replacement air cleaners. I plan to "Gunk" the heck out of the 2001, 1600 engine and use a small steam cleaner I have on it.

When washing the car and/or engine, put plastic bags on the carbs. If going crazy with a pressure washer, tape the bags to the manifolds with vinyl tape. You do not want ANY water in the float bowls. Water + aluminum + gasoline makes gooey goop that plugs jets and goes places that you can't see. Then it always clogs a jet at an inopportune time, like on a before-dinner cruise on Thursday at Carlisle! Fortunately, I have also become VERY adept at locating/pulling the offending jet, blowing it out, and getting back underway in less time than it takes to pump gas in a Speedster

Thanks Danny. I didn't know they were that touchy. Good advice. I will be environmentally sound with citrus degreaser. We won't think about all the engine oil going on the same ground.

Fred Adler
San Diego

And if you even SUSPECT that you might have some water in your gas, run a bottle or two of water remover through your tank. there are several brands. Your local auto parts place should have some.