Dual carb experiment: this could work!
Had some fun taking apart the free carburetors last night. Really not too complex inside when you get down to it. Of course, at its simplest a carburetor just sprays fuel into a stream of air in the right proportions to atomize the air and make it as combustible as possible.
The rest of what the carburetor does is regulate the air and fuel mixture depending on the variety of conditions a motor encounters. There's a float chamber where the fuel initially dumps into. If too much fuel is being pumped into the carburetor than it can use the float raises up and cuts off the flow of fresh fuel. Inside that float chamber are a couple valves here and there that seem to accomodate that process.
Then there's a fuel pump injector tube that points right into the "bowl" under the butterfly valve that's part of the automatic choke. That tube's really thin and can be easily twisted up and off for cleaning and replacement.
Then there's a gasket between the top and bottom portions of the carb and a gasket at the bottom for where it fits on the manifold. Overhauling is really just goin to be a matter of completely dismantling it, cleaning each part in solvent and making sure there are no obstructions in any of the tubes and then piecing it back together again with new gaskets and parts where needed.
The complicated part will be, of course, tuning them. I read about terms like "jetting" at TheSamba.com and still have no idea what exactly that is or how to "properly adjust the jetting" of these carburetors. I think I need to add a book about VW motors and carburetors to my Xmas list. Dad? :)
A good way to test, of course, is to slap one of the rebuilt carbs onto my existing manifold in place of my current carb, turn the key in the ignition and see how well it all works. If both check out, then I'll start on putting them both in on top of Solex Kadron manifolds (there might be a pair that will work with modifications at TheSamba.com's classifieds for pretty cheap) and plot how to link them together.
My initial reaction to dual carbs was that balancing them or getting them to work as synchronously as possible would be tricky. But, the more I learn the more straightforward it seems. As long as they're both working properly you just need to make sure the throttles are being pulled equally with a linkage bar and then hook up a "balance line" between the manifolds. From what I understand, a balance line is just a vacuum tube that connects the manifolds together so any imbalance in vacuum, fuel or air can be minimized by one manifold sucking from the other via this tube if need be.
There's still a lot to learn and figure out, but I've got months to do so.
The rest of what the carburetor does is regulate the air and fuel mixture depending on the variety of conditions a motor encounters. There's a float chamber where the fuel initially dumps into. If too much fuel is being pumped into the carburetor than it can use the float raises up and cuts off the flow of fresh fuel. Inside that float chamber are a couple valves here and there that seem to accomodate that process.
Then there's a fuel pump injector tube that points right into the "bowl" under the butterfly valve that's part of the automatic choke. That tube's really thin and can be easily twisted up and off for cleaning and replacement.
Then there's a gasket between the top and bottom portions of the carb and a gasket at the bottom for where it fits on the manifold. Overhauling is really just goin to be a matter of completely dismantling it, cleaning each part in solvent and making sure there are no obstructions in any of the tubes and then piecing it back together again with new gaskets and parts where needed.
The complicated part will be, of course, tuning them. I read about terms like "jetting" at TheSamba.com and still have no idea what exactly that is or how to "properly adjust the jetting" of these carburetors. I think I need to add a book about VW motors and carburetors to my Xmas list. Dad? :)
A good way to test, of course, is to slap one of the rebuilt carbs onto my existing manifold in place of my current carb, turn the key in the ignition and see how well it all works. If both check out, then I'll start on putting them both in on top of Solex Kadron manifolds (there might be a pair that will work with modifications at TheSamba.com's classifieds for pretty cheap) and plot how to link them together.
My initial reaction to dual carbs was that balancing them or getting them to work as synchronously as possible would be tricky. But, the more I learn the more straightforward it seems. As long as they're both working properly you just need to make sure the throttles are being pulled equally with a linkage bar and then hook up a "balance line" between the manifolds. From what I understand, a balance line is just a vacuum tube that connects the manifolds together so any imbalance in vacuum, fuel or air can be minimized by one manifold sucking from the other via this tube if need be.
There's still a lot to learn and figure out, but I've got months to do so.
posted by Chris Druckenmiller at 8:01 AM
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