Lawdy, Lawdy, AA pushing carburetors Options

[damnfiknow]

Times must be hard or George has seen the light and converted. AutoAtlanta sending out sales flyers with a carb conversion kit. I ordered one with the assurance that AA would stand behind the quality even if they are "China junk". I told them that I would come towing my 914 up to their door if they didn't perform.

[Jake Raby]

I've been using the EMPI carbs on my engines for 3 years now.. I also used to sell a kit with them, until I got sick of supporting ignition issues that were being blamed on the carbs.

The EMPI carbs aren't without their issues.. every set that we apply need alterations to the accelerator pump circuit and the float heights need to be properly set along with a small grocery list of variable gripes that change from batch to batch.

When we sold them in kit form we ran EVERY set on the Dyno on a test engine and we still had a few complaints, all of which were related to another sub-system or engine misconfiguration. I don't have time to spend holding hands so I eliminated them from the catalog.

Off idle and low speed transition hesitations are the primary gripes from these units, but they can be tuned away.

Even though they are Chinese they still perform better than the USA made Webers, my last experience with 20 pair of those resulted in a 70% failure rate right out of the box.

BTW- Differences in fuel characteristics impact carbs and EFI as well. I sell engines globally and have done enough to create a flow chart for the various optimum jetting changes that should be made from sea level to high elevation, this includes states with oxygenated fuels and higher levels of ethanol... Even the summer/ winter fuel blend changes make a big impact.

Even with vast experience and effort with trend data gathered the jetting of any engine applied in a different area with unknown fuel is nothing more than a scientific wild ass guess.

I am beginning a study on differences of ethanol rich fuels on the ACVW engine soon, we are getting the old Bluebonic Plague back into action with an expanded data logging system to bust some myths.

I like carbs because I favor simplicity and because I can take one apart on the side of the road and repair it with a pocket knife, in the dark without a flash light...



This post has been edited by Jake Raby: Oct 20 2010, 01:29 PM