> I'm sure we've been over this before, but is
> the Weber 32/36 DGV downdraft carb a worth
> while investment for a relatively stock MGB
> motor? Will it make my B more reliable, or can
> I get decent reliability out of fresh SUs. I'd
> appreciate hearing from anyone with Weber
> experience.
Haven't got that, but I have got fresh SU experience. As soon
as I got everything adjusted happily the first time after swapping
on new SUs, I came to the conclusion that 90% of the things
people complain about with SU carburetors are due to the carbs
being worn in some crucial way. No more uneven idle, no more
funny running, no more backfire and stumble, just smooth response
from a solid idle up to, well, I saw 7K once chas--uh, following a
certain Oregonian (while he was still a Californian) off a freeway
exit. And I think 90% of the rest of the problems people have with
SUs are due to not understanding some basic subtleties of them,
subtleties that are well covered in the regular SU tuning
articles that Roger Garnett and I have posted from time to time.
The last 1% is just that they're carburetors and not EFI with
real-time air-mass-sensing temperature compensated molecule-by-
molecule mixture adjustments. And neither is the Weber.
It's worth pointing out that the SUs on my '63 Volvo 122S have
*never* given me a lick of trouble. The car starts at all
temperatures, idles quite smoothly, and accelerates without a
flat spot (well, if you overlook the fact that the whole MOTOR
is a flat spot :-) from idle up to the point where the 0.2" gap
in the tappets makes more noise than I care to listen to. And the
previous owners of this car had everything done at the dealership
(except for oil changes and air filters).
"Besides," Kim would always tell me when I considered putting a
Weber on my Midget, "the SUs are part of what makes it an M.G."
Then I figured out how to make them work and never looked back.
Now, if you were talking about a 45DCOE, that'd be another story...
and unfortunately, one that probably wouldn't make much difference
on a basically stock engine. But on a ported one with a cam and
a little compression... well, let's make it make noise first, then
we'll worry about improving it.
--Scott "Man, we'd be the Grizzlies from Hell" Fisher
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