1600cc Motor Rebuild - Single vs Duel Carbs - What to do???

[thomast]

Hello - I'm a longtime Samba member and longtime Vanagon owner. My son and I just got a 1970 bus. The motor had a Kardon (??) duel carb setup on it when we got it. The engine is currently being rebuilt by my trusted shop here in Minneapolis (Further Performance). We are trying to decide if we should go back to a single carb or stay with the duel carb setup. I've heard good and bad about both setups, so thought I might get some valuable info here.

This will be my 17 year old sons bus. He'll be driving it around Minneapolis mostly with some road trips out to Colorado and up to northern Minnesota planned for the future. He's pretty good mechanically in general, but we'd like the best setup for him that will be the easiest to maintain, but also give good performance. Maybe you can't have both??

Any advise would be very much appreciated as we get this bus ready to drive!

Thanks!
Thomas

[Manfred58sc]

Kadrons ( real ones ) are good carburetors. If they are worn get 'em re-worked by the Kaddy Shack. The extra HP is nice to have on trips. If it were just local driving I would go with a single carburetor.
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[Davada66]

Do your self a favor and have the motor built up to a 1776cc you wont have to do any thing to the lower end just have the case opened up for larger piston jugs. uses the same 69mm crank. You will get 75 horse power out of that motor. I used a Weber 40 mm center mounted carburetor much simpler system don't have to balance the carb like duel carbs. It will make a large difference on how you can drive the bus. Also add a oil sump, at least a one quart if not a two quart. Don't forget to make sure you use a high ZDDP oil, like Amsoil Z-Rod or Brad Penn, The Green Oil both made for flat tappet cam engines.

[telford dorr]

It depends on what you're going to use the engine for - summer cruse, or all season travel. Unlike the stock carb, Kadrons have no chokes, which will make winter starting and warmup more interesting. Might be an issue in Minneapolis...
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[borninabus]

improved breathing--intake and exhaust--is pretty much the best (and easiest) engine upgrade you can do for your bus. if your having it fully rebuilt, consider a mild cam like an Engle 100 or similar.

the key to kadrons is to have them rebushed and buy the CSP linkage
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[Ry-dog]

I have a 70 Westy myself and had gone back and forth over whether I wanted to go to duals or stay with a stock single carb. Since I live in the northeast with cooler temps besides summer, I chose to go with a restored german stock single carb. Stayed with stock exhaust as well so the whole preheat system, thermostat, flaps, etc. all work as originally designed. Also, I figured it is always a good piece of mind to be able to follow the Bentley for any issues that come up on the road, etc if everything is stock. It might be a better starting point for a 17 year old driver who might be learning about ACVWs for the first time (assuming that is the case here). After a better understanding of the system, you can always bring the duals back at another time if you wanted.
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'70 Westy
'14 Jeep Grand Cherokee EcoDiesel

[aeromech]

Stay stock with carb and distributor. You’ll gain in smooth running and reliability. Easy maintenance. You’ll suffer a small amount of power but in my opinion it’s worth it.
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[Brian]

Kads are cool when they're setup right, but that takes some more in depth knowledge that I just flat out ignore.

I'm with Gary, stay stock have him learn on that first. Crawl, walk then run. Or walk don't run
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[AlmostHeavenWV_VW]

[TomWesty]

Dual Kaddies are dead simple to adjust and synch. If he can adjust a 34 PICT 3 he can adjust Kaddies. They are way better than any non stock center mount carb due to shorter intake runners. The down side for us cold weather types is the warm up time involved.
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[thomast]

Thanks everyone for the great info! I think we will be staying stock for now with a single carb and as my son gets more comfortable with it, he can tinker with mods down the road.

Have a great day all!

Thomas

[SGKent]

[aeromech]

[Amskeptic]

[airschooled]