Some thoughts on centre mount carbs for T2's

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evan.fraser.274
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Some thoughts on centre mount carbs for T2's

Post by evan.fraser.274 »

Hi All

So I thought I'd share my experience with replacing my two solex's with a centre mount on my 1975 T2 (4) 2.0l...my main reason was performance (being a stock 2l she was huffy on the hills and slow to accelerate) and reliability (the old linkages were playing up, the one carb had an annoying sticky choke, and the other needed a rebuild).

Under advice I was told to get a progressive Weber...bought a 32/36 with electric choke. Took it to a really great mechanic who battled for 4 days to set it up...and it underperformed like you can't believe; I immediately regretted it and even more so once I did more research on what everyone else had to say! I realised the manifolds from the centre to the inlets were too long and the fuel vaporisation was zero by the time it hit the inlet valves... I then tried fitting a couple of electric manifold heaters and they greatly improved things, but on cold and damp days the engine coughed and sputtered under acceleration (cruising was great) because it was running too lean...

Before I reverted to the original solex's I took advice from a carb guru and opted to fit a dual carb (not progressive). After some research my guru suggested a Ford V6 dual Solex with electric choke...set the jets up, popped it onto the existing centre mount manifold...and man-oh-man it did the trick!! Checked the CO2 and she was spot on without being too rich or too lean...The only final thing we had to do was set the butterfly cam to open slower or else the accelerator pumps dumped the fuel too quickly under acceleration and choked the motor.

Sadly the fuel consumption is slightly worse now...I get about 12l/100km...but the power is amazing...I can now cruise at 100 with ease up and down even steep hills, and even push it to 120...but then it wasn't mean to go that fast IMO so I just cruise around with a smile on my face now :)

FYI, we had to make sure we had a fuel pump in there with the right pressure (the existing - although fine for the solex carbs - was putting out too much pressure). Initially the pressure pushed the needle and seat way beyond tolerance and the carb leaked like a toilet under idle.

Happy to give you guys all the details of what we did in need.

Evan


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