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faster-laster Tue Jun 08, 2004 5:44 am

Well while doing a lot of searching on some of my favorite VW sites I ran across lots of people wondering about these carbs, but not a lot of solid reviews and/or comments. Because I like to futz with something that already works (single carb) I decided to see what some duals would do for my bus.

So this is what I'm working with:
New Mexican 1600 long block (now has 30k miles)
merged header into BugPac
Flyer tranny w/ 4.12 R&P
Aircooled.net SVDA Distributor
Camper w/ lots of crap (including family)

The kit comes complete with pretty much everything needed to swap over. I spend a late night taking off the DP manifold and carb and started installing the duals. It comes with all the bolds and nuts needed. The nuts it comes with for installing are the ones that are 12mm instead of 13mm. So if you misplace any of them, you will have to get to a bolts house to get the correct size, there isn't enough clearance for a 13mm wrench to get there. The manifolds were actually pretty decent as well. I should have taken some pics, but didn't. The flange mountings were flat and the interior of them were reasonably smooth. If so inclined you could easily have gone in to polish them a bit. The carbs themselves are quite simply a throttle stop and mixture screw (1). That's the only adjustments for them.

The big plus of this carb is the choke. I will really get to test it out this winter, but so far so good. My biggest complaint is the really crappy kadron style linkage. I haven't used this style before so I can't compare it with the others, but the money for the kit is definately in the carbs and not the linkage. The largest problem is that the center pivot section has a lot of freeplay which makes for syncing the carbs a lot more trouble than it has to be. Jetting wise it has 50 idle and 130 main, I'll have to double check the air jet, since I didn't write these down.

Enough about the actual kit, right? right. So I got the carbs installed and started messing with the linkage getting it set. Finally got them synced as well as could be. Later I took the center pivot apart and installed a few nylon washers as spacers, this helped some, but still not great. I adjusted the mixture screw a bit, and was mostly pleased with intital setup.

I drive my bus 80 miles every day and since Memorial day weekend when I installed have driven to two camping weekends one at 300 miles the other near 1200. Also I've got a chance to take it down some small winding mtn roads, so for whatever reason I got a good mixture of driving styles in the past few weeks, so this might be helpful for some people.

First off the chokes work great! Single pump w/ accel turn key, fires up. Settles to nice 900 rpm idle in 20 seconds. Head temps seem decent for my bus (340 F average/300-375 F range) fully loaded traveling 65 on Tennessee interstates. I don't run an oil temp gauge, but dipstick test seems in line with the single I had on there before. The gas mileage has dropped from 20ish to 19ish for normal driving, although this could simply be a jetting issue. I'll report back in if jetting changes help/hurt. If you keep your foot in it I quickly see a drop to 16mpg, however I took many of the large hills in East Tn at 65 full throttle without the engine breaking much of a sweat, I normally don't drive this way, but wanted to see how the carbs affected my power/mileage on those long hills.

Generally I've been pleased with the conversion. The duals are very responsive with NO flat spot. I got exactly what I wanted from them. I now have the power to run up hills (if I choose to) on bus trips without slowing down to 40 in third gear. All the hills I usually have to downshift, these trips I didn't. Enjoy.

(1) I am assuming this, since CB seems to be selective in anwering tech emails.

Mr. Electric Wizard Tue Jun 08, 2004 6:06 am

Thanks for the post...
are we talking dual 34PICT3's?...

TimB Tue Jun 08, 2004 6:51 am

Great post! I like reading stories like this.

Nate M. Tue Jun 08, 2004 7:22 am

I've installed a couple sets of these on customer's cars and have been very happy with the results as well. Yeah that Kadron style linkage does suck, but I guess, what can you expect for $299 :lol: They are very easy to tune and like he said, no flat spot. I like 'em as well.

faster-laster Tue Jun 08, 2004 7:31 am

Mr. Electric Wizard wrote: Thanks for the post...
are we talking dual 34PICT3's?...

Actually the are not quite. 34PDSI. they are (what I am told) similar to the duals on the late busses (but without that crazy idle circuit)

splitpile Tue Jun 08, 2004 8:29 am

I have installed a few sets of CB's carbs with good results. I have found the air to be to small on most applications and the pilot needed to be raised to 55 with the main going down. We made more power with these carbs on the dyno then with Kadrons.
The linkage is is factory OE Brazil duel carb linkage. NOTHING like Kadron linkage , nothing new, custom etc. They are standerd issue Brazilian carbs that come on turn key Brazilian engines.
We have also played with the venturi's steping those up to the 28mm that CB makes for them.
Now SCAT has come out with their own version of the SOLEX duel carb set up. Theirs are 35 mm carbs and can be ordered with or with out chokes. I have a set of these coming in tomorrow for testing and evaluation. SCATS linkage is also known as being one of the best in the industry for that style. They are also working on getting bigger butterflys and venturis made for their carbs for bigger engines.
All in all I have had excellent results using CB's Solex kits and looking forward to trying SCATS out. If I have time I will install them on a Kadron carbed engine that's going in the bus I'm taking to the CLASSIC weekend.
1800 with CB's carbs 24 mpg on the highway at 68 mph, 3.88 r/p

ps. Nate, Jerry Jess is looking for you

faster-laster Tue Jun 08, 2004 11:30 am

so Ronnie, have you put these on any stockers? if you got something that worked well on the jets I'll just start there.

Friedpotatoes Tue Jun 08, 2004 2:26 pm

Csp make a linkage thats like $75. (cheep) The center pivoit bolts the crankcase (not some flimsy plates or fanshroud) With a arm going out to each carb. It dosnt put any kinks in the throttle cabl,e its smooth and works with gen or alt setup. Its a very stable set up it right and forget it.



As for those carbs I seem very intrested I think I might spend some money in getting these insted of kads.

Links to linkage :lol: :D

http://www.csp-shop.de/shop2/frame_nachladen.php?f...0594a&pn=0

http://www.csp-shop.de/shop2/frame_nachladen.php?f...0601a&pn=0

Uniballer Tue Jun 08, 2004 4:53 pm

I am currently running the dual solex kit in my bus with 1776cc freeway flyer with 15 inch rims, loaded with a camper inteior it runs pretty damn good. acceleration is slow (well it is a bus) but it climbs hills better than my 63 bug and has a higher top speed.

[email protected] Tue Jun 15, 2004 12:37 pm

I've been running the dual solexs from CB Perf. for about a year now on my 67 dlx, with a 1600 and 009 dizzy. I've been pleased overall but have wondered now and again about jetting issues. First, although it is great to have no flat spot starting up, it seems to hit some sluggish points at highway speed (I get about 18-19 mpg at best right now). Second, the build-up on my plugs seems a bit too rich (at least in comparison with with my Ghia with a Solex H30/31 on a 1600 sp). Unfortunately I'm a bit of a novice with jetting, but it sounds like from what spitpile says I could try moving the pilot up to a 55 and the main down, say to a 125. What do you all think?

faster-laster Wed Jun 16, 2004 5:34 pm

I'm gonna try something similar to those settings as well. Just haven't got around to ordering any jets. I was just gonna move the idle to 55 & try 127.5 first, but who knows :)

mskeen Wed Apr 13, 2005 8:55 am

I'm thinking about getting a dual carb setup for my 1600sp. Any more updates or thoughts on this kit?

faster-laster Wed Apr 13, 2005 9:50 am

these carbs are still holding up very well. solid idle and haven't had to touch them. I spent some time messing around with the jets, but in the end went back to the size they were shipped with. The only other thing I have done is buy a scat linkage to replace the POS that came with it. Works well enough. The only other project for them is to see if it's possible to form some air ducts and hook up the stock oil-bath filter. I am not a big fan of the "hi-po" style filters that come with the kit.

mskeen Wed Apr 13, 2005 9:58 am

faster-laster wrote: these carbs are still holding up very well. solid idle and haven't had to touch them. I spent some time messing around with the jets, but in the end went back to the size they were shipped with. The only other thing I have done is buy a scat linkage to replace the POS that came with it. Works well enough. The only other project for them is to see if it's possible to form some air ducts and hook up the stock oil-bath filter. I am not a big fan of the "hi-po" style filters that come with the kit.

Sounds good. Do you have a link for site to buy the SCAT linkage? I guess you don't have any clearance issues with the new air filters and the stock oil-bath filter bracket? Also, what kind of MPG are you getting?

splitpile Wed Apr 13, 2005 10:31 am

I started with the CB duel 34's and have since changed to the SCAT 35 PDSIT's, they come with a much better linkage but shitty manifods that will not work with a stock shroud. Their linkage is 10 times better then CB;'s, but the carbs are about the same (they do make a little more power then CB's). I have started putting together custom kits with aluminum manifolds that fit right. You can get bigger venturis for the SCAT's and they also have a custom bored 38mm body.
On another note EMPI is coming out with Kaduds with chokes and also a 44 mm kadud verses the 40 mm.
The options are growing. EMPI is also coming out with their own version of the WEBER IDF series carbs which will be about half the cost of a set of Weber IDF's in todays market.
I have dynoed the exact same engines with Kaduds, CB's and SCAT carbs and the SCAT made the best power

Ragman Wed Apr 13, 2005 10:53 am

mskeen wrote: Sounds good. Do you have a link for site to buy the SCAT linkage? I guess you don't have any clearance issues with the new air filters and the stock oil-bath filter bracket? Also, what kind of MPG are you getting?

I think that they are refering to the basic Scat Universal linkage...

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=C15%2D30050

Andrew Wed Apr 13, 2005 2:10 pm

Ragman wrote: mskeen wrote: Sounds good. Do you have a link for site to buy the SCAT linkage? I guess you don't have any clearance issues with the new air filters and the stock oil-bath filter bracket? Also, what kind of MPG are you getting?

I think that they are refering to the basic Scat Universal linkage...

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=C15%2D30050

I used this linkage when I started to put kads on my 1600 sp. I ran into a problem that the throttle cable has to make a pretty sharp turn downward after it comes out of the fan shroud to fit into the linkage. Anybody else have this problem? I'm planning on putting the kads back on when I get the time, but will have to do something about this.

60freak Wed Apr 13, 2005 2:28 pm

FWIW--my 1776 w/kad's is bustin' about 30mpg!! :shock:

No joke 8)

edit--oops, thought mskeen was referring to mpg on kad's, not the scats or??...ahhh, nevermind ignore me :roll:

mskeen Tue Apr 19, 2005 10:49 am

splitsecond wrote: FWIW--my 1776 w/kad's is bustin' about 30mpg!! :shock:

No joke 8)

edit--oops, thought mskeen was referring to mpg on kad's, not the scats or??...ahhh, nevermind ignore me :roll:

What size tires are you running?

mskeen Tue Apr 19, 2005 10:50 am

Andrew wrote: Ragman wrote: mskeen wrote: Sounds good. Do you have a link for site to buy the SCAT linkage? I guess you don't have any clearance issues with the new air filters and the stock oil-bath filter bracket? Also, what kind of MPG are you getting?

I think that they are refering to the basic Scat Universal linkage...

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=C15%2D30050

I used this linkage when I started to put kads on my 1600 sp. I ran into a problem that the throttle cable has to make a pretty sharp turn downward after it comes out of the fan shroud to fit into the linkage. Anybody else have this problem? I'm planning on putting the kads back on when I get the time, but will have to do something about this.

I just got the SCAT linkage from aircooled.net. I don't have the carbs yet but I'm hoping to have them this week so I can do the install over the weekend. I'll let you know how the linkage works out.



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