weber carbs

[morfirst]

I know this is not the first time this question has been asked. Does anyone have an opinion on a $740.00 investment to purchase the weber dual DGV carb kit for the 240? I have been told that the horsepower output can be increased by 10 to 15%. Also, what about winter driving since the carb input air will no longer be pre-heated over the exhaust manifold?

[Phred]

More on the order of 5 to 7%, and only if properly jetted on a dyno.

Phred

[LanceM]

Here's my $.02 for what it's worth.

If all you are doing is carbs your in for a $700 disapointment, if you are doing carbs, cam, head, exaust then spend another $300 and go tripple webbers. I really like mine and don't have any of the "problems" others complain about, perhaps I'm just lucky but they run good and I never have to mess with them. The choke works great for cold starts.

[kmack]

morfirst,

Our current club president had a set of DGV's on his 240 when he got it last year. Those were all he talked about. How great they were....

During last years National Convention, he couldn't drive any faster than 60 mph, and he could never get them to lean out, they were way too rich. Possible jetting problems, yes, but he ended up selling them for $100 and went for a set of SU's.

All he does now is rave about the SU's and complain about what a piece of junk the DGV's are.

My personal opinion: any carb that makes the fuel charge go down, turn 90 degrees, then go back up just to reach the intake, isn't very well designed in my book. And if you're planning to spend $700 for a set of these, either fork out the extra couple hundred for a set of triples, or spend about $600 for a set of Z Therapy SU's. You won't regret either choice.

[morfirst]

Balancing triple weber carbs isn't a challenge not requiring constant adjustment? What kind of horsepower increase could I expect from this conversion, if at all?

[kmack]

The debate on how easy Webers are to maintain goes both ways. Those that know and understand them well, claim it's very easy and they are very reliable. But there are those that just don't get 'em and give the triples bad reviews. On the same note, there are the same arguments about the SU's! I've never had a set of triples on my Z, but I have had the chance to work on Weber carbs on an old Fiat. They're really not that tough, you just need a good understanding of how a carburator works. Then the pieces just fall into place.

As for benefits, on a stock motor you won't be able to "feel" any difference going from, say, SU's to triple Webers. Now if you added a cam, headers, a little port and polish, then the triples will really wake up an L series motor.

I'm currently very happy with the SU's I have on my L24. I just had my car dyno-ed and got 126 hp at the wheels. All on an oil burning, stock L24 with over 200k+ miles. And it was running rich to boot!

Yes, the SU's are a simpler carb when compared to the triples. The triples just give more tuning capabilities when making mods to the engine. But you had mentioned you planned to spend $700 on the DGV's. For that money you have two options: SU's or triples. The best set of SU's from Z Therapy will run a little over $600. A good set of SU's can run anywhere from $100-$200. A brand new set of triples are over $1000, but a good set can be had for around $700 if you look for them.

The ultimate choice lies with you. But you're in the right spot (this website) for informing yourself in order to make that decision. Do a search around here and you should find some good info on both set-ups. And by all means, keep asking questions. Good luck.

[LanceM]

What Kmack said!

As a tripple webber owner I can say that I never mess with mine unless I feel like tinkering with them. They stay in sync and stay adjusted just fine. I think the real trick is getting them dialed in right the first time, and as was mentioned above knowing and understanding how they work. They are not your everyday carb. But by the same token they work almost exactly like a carb on a 2 stroke weedeater does, now that statement is enough to scare just about anybody off!!

On Webbers the idle jets run all the time and the idle mixture adjustments are critical for smooth transion from idle to full throttle, they really should be called low speed jets. On most "typical" carbs the idle circut cuts out once the main jet takes over, typically once you hit 1500 rpm or so.

The thing to remember when adjusting webbers is to idle the engine down so that it just runs, and expect it to die a couple of times during the adjustment, this can be tough with a big cam. If your idle speed is too high you are already into the main jets and the idle mixture adjustments will seem to make little to no difference causing you to set them too lean. If they are too lean you will have problems with starting, throttle transision, throttle response, and in general will make you blame them for all of the troubles of the world. Really, if they were crappy carbs, formula I cars wouldn't have used them in the days before FI or any of the $200K Italian sports cars

The thing to remember when you build an engine, it is a system, if you only inprove one part of the system you may not see the gain that you expected, worse yet you may see a decrease in performance.