Which Carbs - Kadrons or Webers

Kadrons are a great, simple to use dual carb system that are a nice step up on a 1600, get great mileage and can provide a lot of performance for a smaller (< 2 liter) milder motor. You've found their Achilles heel though; by the time they're in your hands with decent linkage, throttle shaft bushings (so they run correctly), bigger venturis and a vacuum take-off added, for not much more you could have some IDF/HPMX's. With an Engle W110 (or any cam with the same or more duration) some people don't like the slightly lopey idle that they have. I'd be willing to bet that kadrons were a part of a lot of people's introduction to VW aircooled performance.

That said, dual Webers or Dellortos are a step up again. The 40mm carbs can be made to run well on a stock cammed 1600 with 28mm venturis, and with bigger vents (34's) can support over 150hp.

Hope this helps. Al

Just remember GTman...that without a cam, better heads, etc etc....dual carbs arent going to do too much just slapping them on a motor.  The rest of the engine has to be built to breathe better than stock also.

Mike

What bolt-ons (1 3/8" header, kadrons, 1.4 rocker arms) will do for a stock 1600-

http://kaddieshack.com/1600dynoresults.html

And before anyone comments that the hp gains aren't much, think percentages...stock 1600's respond very well to increases in breathing. Al

On a 1600cc engine, a set of Baby Dels are probably the best choice, if you can find them.....They're small enough (venturis) to work well and once jetted, bullet proof....

I had a set of Kads on my 1970 Beetle-loved them.  I put 60,000 miles on the Kads and had zero problems.  Even though I had a stock cam and rockers the car had decent power.

Even though I like Kads I'd second Leon's recommendation-go with a set of baby Dells. 

Yes ALB....  The stock 1600 DOES respond well to Kadrons, and I am quite fond of them.

Hello Al:

Yes, I was at Jeff's shop (The Kaddieshack) this past weekend and he shared those dyno results with me.  I just expected from his Website ads that a budget of about $500 to $600 was reasonable for a turn-key kit.  Not so.  Seems that I am crossing over into Weberland.

Honestly, after rebuiding my 34PICt3 my engine purrs like a kitten.  I just know that the engine is alittle undercarburated, and would like to extract whatever I can before taking the plunge and increasing displacement.  The dyno results also had be considering the 1.4 rockers, which means new valve springs as well.