Dear Chris,

Just curious, I used to have dual Weber side-drafts on my old BMW 2002ti and I was very pleased with them. Great performance and great gas mileage (unless I floored it!).

So my question: how is the performance of your newly-carbureted van:

- Same as the old FI?

- Slighlty better?

- Slightly worse?

Also, do you think you'll have any problems passing emissions?

(Did you keep your Cat?)

Cheers,

MJS

At 07:28 AM 10/26/98 -0600, Chris Smith wrote:

>Have you ever noticed that there is no greater grin than the one on the

>face of a Vanagon owner who just got their bus running right?

>

>Yes it's true.  After a couple of weeks of playing with the new carb,

>jetting, timing, vacume advance, and other related systems, Turd is now

>running better that she ever has.  The FI to Carb conversion is now done.

>There were a few issues with the carb tuning (new emulsion tube solved the

>worst problem) and the fact that the carbs' throttle clip is about 6 inches

>farther back than the FI was.  The van used to get almost 20mpg with me

>driving when the FI was in good shape.  Now with the carb I'm getting

>almost 25mpg (it was close to 30 but was running dangerously lean) all

>highway driving.

>

>For those that are considering the swap here are a few of my experiences:

>

>1) It takes way longer than expected.  2 of us spent all day doing the swap

>with one person under the car taking care of the fuel pump, and all the

>lower lines that have to be re-routed.  This included repairing the exaust

>to the gas heater, and installing new filters and drilling new mount

>locations for the new pump.

>

>2) Be quite sure that the engine has a good tune-up before trying to start.

> Too high of a dwell angle can sure look like a fuel supply problem.

>

>3) The throttle cable will need to be longer.  Our solution was to head

>down to the local performance shop and pick up a cable extender.  I'm not

>sure if a 6 inch is still available since the owner there couldn't find a

>second in the same diamater in his books.  But looking for webber parts for

>a VW is always fun around a bunch of chevy lovers.

>

>4) If you get the kit that 'The Parts Place' in Michigan sells, trust the

>initial tuning.  The carb was so very close that it could have run for a

>long time without us playing with it and messing it up.

>

>

>All in all, this was one of the best modifications I've made to the van so

>far, plus that giant webber sponsor sticker looks great on the van now.

>

>Chris

>

<bold>Michael J. Sullivan

</bold><italic>Director of Catalog Design

Open Market, Inc.

</italic>

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