Need help/guidance with carbs

[otif]

Hey guys,

I have a set of Zenith 40 TIN's. They are pretty rough and need to be refurbished. My questions are as follows:

1. How much are they worth as-is?
2. What's the cost (approx.) to rebuild them?
3. What they are worth when refinished?
4. Would I be better off cleaning them up and using them as "art"?

Thanks in advance!

[otif]

Sorry, forgot to add the pics.

Here you go...

[otif]

As you can see, one of them is pretty much in pieces. They came with a package of cars that I bought some time ago. Looks like the PO was going to rebuild them at one point, just like he was going to restore the cars I bought from him... That sat for 20 years!

[Bob Kontak]

Just sent a note to DanielT asking him to take a look at your thread. He has Zeniths and has a reasonable idea of what the cost, best direction may be.

He loves them to a (favorable) fault!

[otif]

Thanks, Bob!

[VFR750]

Good used, unrestored, Zeniths seem to sell for ~$500-600. But the market is small.

The current market is for 3.0 conversions, but they require new venturis, idle jets, mains, and air correction jets, plus rebuild kits. The math works out to be less than used Webers and less than new PMO for a set of 40mm carbs.

You say one set, but you actually show at least three throttle bodies. One is really bad. The one in post #3 looks pretty good. Post #2 has some pretty scary pictures. Some of those look unrecoverable due to corrosion. After cleaning they may be too pitted to re-establish flat sealing surfaces.

Paul Abbott, at Performance Oriented, provides full restoration services. He might chime in and comment. Go look at his website; he offers all levels of service. Mine are on the way for a throttle body L2.

[Trackrash]

My experience with Zeniths is they will give you good performance and economy on a stock 2,2 T. Rebuilding what you have looks like quite a project however.

[1QuickS]

Well...I think general consensus is that Zeniths are great on 2.2 911T engines and can be made to work on 2.7 and 3.0 CIS motors. They have limitations for engines with stronger cams due to their idle and progression circuit design and lack of available main venturis and more importantly the lack of emulsion tube selections.

Zeniths have good aspects such as throttle shaft air leakage due to wear is less an issue than for Webers.

[daniel911T]

Otif,
I've totally reconditioned a set of Zeniths from worse condition than yours. I LOVE the way they run!

They take quite a bit of work to get in shape, but they're totally worth it when complete. I have a stable idle at 900, instant acceleration, and absolutely no dead spots in the whole throttle range. They're simply wonderful.

That said... they did take a lot of tinkering. You'll also need to up the idle jets a bit... 50 is probably reasonable for a stock motor, I have E cams and am running 52.5s that run great.

You'll want to disable the aux enrichment system... it's simply not necessary and is quite difficult to get working properly. The electrical part of the system and he normal (extreme) wear condition of the vacuum solenoid is a very good reason to do away with it.

I may be willing to recondition them for you... and I work cheap, but I'm a grad student at the moment and it won't be quick.

Paul, 1QuickS, has a full machine shop and lots of experience. He can make those sing as soon as he gets a chance to work you in.

I think they are amazing carbs for a 2.0 to 2.4, and can be great up to 2.7 with a lot of fiddling. I happen to love the accelerator pump system and solid bronze bushings used on the throttle shafts as opposed to the teflon (seal, bushing?) used by the Webbers.

Depending on what kind of engine you have, they are almost definitely worth fixing up.

[daniel911T]

... and I'd probably be willing to buy them if you want to part with them...

I enjoy working on them and wouldn't mind upgrading what's installed in mine. I have a little bit of shaft wear allowing a tiny bit of fore-aft motion. The great thing about Zeniths is that there still isn't any significant horizontal play. (a major problem with Webbers)

[otif]

Originally Posted by daniel911T

... and I'd probably be willing to buy them if you want to part with them...

I enjoy working on them and wouldn't mind upgrading what's installed in mine. I have a little bit of shaft wear allowing a tiny bit of fore-aft motion. The great thing about Zeniths is that there still isn't any significant horizontal play. (a major problem with Webbers)

PM sent