1.8l carb conv ques

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I have a 1.8l and with a 1.7l fuel system on it (thats how I got it). I would like to change it over to carb to get away from all its inheirant probs. What carb kit do you guys recommend? What about the distributor. All the catalogues say I need the bosch 009, and I have been reading in this forum that they suck. What is the best way to go about it?
And lastly Can I convert a tail shifter to a side shifter? Or am I looking at buying a new one. Whats a fair price for that?
Thanks for all your help.

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[bowlsby]

Why not just stick with the FI...it can be a lot better than the carbs and cheaper too.

Carbs can be very problematic in their own ways, and if you have a 1.8 that means it must be smog legal for street use on CA.

[pbanders]

Hmm, a 1.8 with a 1.7 FI system, maybe carbs isn't such a bad idea. There are a lot of options here as far as carbs go. If you're looking for stock-like performance, that's what you're likely to get unless you change the cam. I would think the simplest way to go would probably be the best - single carb instead of dual Webers or Delortos.

Brad Anders

[Eat-um-up]

What year is your car?? you only have to stick with FI if your car is later than a 73. but if your going over to carbs i would reccomend 40 mm Dells or 44mm duel throat webbers


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Sweet Blue 72' 914
Check it out at
http://www.geocities.com/eat_um_up/914.html

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Its a 71 so I don't have to worry about smog. I am currently concerned with getting the car to start regularly. Oddly enough with its current FI set up, it floods every time. Replacing the FI set up with a correct one is $$$.So carb is a definite. But, Something that I need to figure out immediately is this distributor question. Stick with stock and a Crane allison or get the bosch 009 and the crane allison ????

I'm not an expert by any means. But I asked this questions months ago and the answer by far was replace it with an 050 distributor or if you have a vacumn outlet on your intake manifolds then use a 205AA(I think) or a 2.0l stock dizzy.

I'm currently waiting on $$$ to finish my project but from others who have switched I've heard that the 050 is the way to go.

[Kevin@ojai.net]

Sorry this is a little long:

I have gone with FI, Single progressive Weber, and 2 dual throat Webbers...

As far as power and fuel economy I would have to say you should stick with the FI (unless you change the internals of the engine).

For reliability I have to go with the carbs (that’s why that’s what I am running on both of my 1.7L engines right now). The one in the back of my BajaBug is a single progressive Weber. It has 2 throats, a primary and a secondary that engages at 1/2 throttle. It is good on the fuel economy, and is smooth off the starts, but because it has no heat risers it doesn’t really warm up very well on cold mornings. And the top power feels a bit less then dual Webbers or the FI.

On my 914 I run dual 40 mm Webbers. They are reliable, and if you shop around you can get them pretty cheap (look in VW magazines, if you add the name Porsche to anything it costs 2x as much for the same part). They aren’t as smooth or fuel efficient as the FI, but they are reliable, and feel like it ahs a bit more top end power (seats of the pants tests here).

to sum it up:
Smog+Eficiency+Stranded= FI
Reliable+Easy set up+smoth,less pwr+cheap= 1 carb
Reliable+good power+cheaper then FI (maby)= 2 carb

I am sure alot of you guys have way different feelings on the FI being better, but those are my $.02

For Distributors: I have tried the Stock, the 009, and the 050… I didn’t like the 009 much, the advance wasn’t as much as I would like, and it retards #3’s timing. On the single carb car I custom set up some vacuum lines (1 above and 1 below the throttle) and hooked it up to the stock Dist, it works great. On my 2 carb car I used the 050, and set it at 0 deg. At 0 RPM, and find it works quite well.

Good luck,

-Kevin