Favorite aftermarket carb?

[danzo]

Before I buy one I was wondering what type of non stock carb you guys prefer. I have a chance to buy a water choke 32/36 Weber in good working shape for cheap ($50), but wasn't sure if I should hold out for an electric choke, different brand, a larger carb, etc.

Thanks for the input.

[Neu]

Do a quick search for "Weber" and you'll find what works.

[ohcanada_00]

all 4 of my carb'd Toyota projects have gotten Webers, however, depending on what you hope to accomplish, do some research and find what works for you. Mikuni makes a wicked awesome carb

[Petros]

I think by default it has to be weber, there is not much else available. YOu can make anything work, Mikunis are good too, but you would either have to make a manifold, or have to hunt a very rare JDM mikunis manifold down.

[danzo]

I agree, a weber is prolly the way to go, if for no other reason than so many good peeps here use them. Endless advice/tips! I did take a look at the water choker today, but it was pretty old looking and was actually a 32/32, i.e. both barrels were the same diameter. Also on the top of carb where the air cleaner goes only one throat had a butterfly valve (as per factory). Strange, I'd never seen this and don't really know why it would be this way. I didn' buy it for fear that I may be getting in over my head. Anyone have any feelings? Otherwise the carb search continues....

On the plus side I did score a 3a camshaft which will soon be fortified for more hp delivery.

[deejay1272]

Danzo - I'm planning on installing my Weber 32/36 in the coming weeks so if you end up going with this carb, then PM me and we can work together to answer our installation questions, etc. I'd like to make a more comprehensive step by step installation guideline for this job, so perhaps we can work together to make this the case (and serve as a good reference for other T4WD.com members)

Let me know what you think!

[SynthDesign]

Danzo,
I'm running a modified version of the 32/32 DGEV. It's been retrofitted and honed to be a 32/34. The stock weber 32/36 is a great setup but you will have to lean out the secondaries a bit for good throttle response.

As for having the cam reground, Delta Cams is the way to go.
http://www.deltacam.com/

If you're going that far. Spend the money and effort and upgrade to oversized valves and upgrade the valve springs and retainers as well. A cam wont do too much without giving more breathing room. Also a lumpy cam will knock the retainers out if the springs haven't been upgraded. I would not recommend for going for more than a street grind either. It will make it very hard to daily drive if you put in a race cam.

Also, Spatterdog's webber write up is pretty darn good.

[danzo]

Thanks for the tips, Synth. Would a mild street cam knock out the retainers? Right now I don't plan to R&R the head. If my engine had high miles, I might, but not at 118k. Kinda stinks that Delta raised their prices, plus I would have to pay shipping. I never considered a race cam, this is a station wagon for Pete's sake!

I plan to get a weber from "Carbpartsdirect", an ebay store based in the San Francisco area which sells 32/36 DGEVs for $242. Figure another $25 for an adapter. I'll use the stock mech fuel pump with regulator unless there is a problem.

[ARCHINSTL]

That's a good price for the Weber and adapter. Mine was $304 in 2008 from Carbs Direct in WA. This included the short air cleaner - be sure to have that one subbed.
Be sure to read my posts on "adapting" the RedLine adapter to the manifold and to the carb...
Tom M.

[SynthDesign]

A mild street cam should work fine with the stock valve-train as long as the duration hasn't been changed too much. I'm not an expert either, so this is probably a good question for Delta or who ever regrinds the cam for you.

[tercel4wdrules]

The last time I called Delta, which was a while back, I asked them the question whether I needed different springs. Their answer was that as long as the springs weren't binding with the cam while spinning it, it would be fine. I think they called it "coil bind", but it should be fine to use good stock springs with the street grind, which is what I'm planning on using. I've driven two cars with the Delta cam street grind and it has good drivability characteristics.

[Petros]

The delta cam regrind does not raise the power curve much higher on the rpm scale, so new springs should not be necessary. You only need stiffer springs to avoid valve float at high rpms, or if you had are really wild lift ramp and you need a stiffer spring to keep the lifter on the cam lobe. If you were foolish enough to get a cam grind for this engine where the peak power occurs at 7500-8000rpms, than you might need them. In our case I would guess float occurs somewhere well upward of 7000 rpms, perhaps more. I have hit 7200 rpms tying to get up a steep snowy road (inadvertently of course) and suffered no power loss. If our engine was an interference engine (where the valves could strike the piston), you will trash the engine if you over rev it until the valves float.

Do not use stiffer springs if you do not need them, it would only put more wear and tear on the valve train. The factory springs are pretty decent in terms of quality. I happen to have the valves springs from three different used engines, I set up a simple test jig with a digital bathroom scale and my drill press, compressing each spring the same amount and measuring the compression force. And I selected the best 8 out of the 24 springs I had. It is not a bad idea to check your springs this way just so to make sure you do not have a weak one, which is the only reason to replace them. Some day I might write up a repair guide with pictures showing how to do this, but it is nothing complicated: you set the scale on the drill press table, put either a large headed bolt, or an old valve in the drill chuck, set the depth on the drill press, and compress each spring in turn (the same amount) and write down the value shown on the scale. The FSM gives a min value at a given compression height.

coil bind is a different issue, partly related to the springs, but also to the spring seat depth, retainer clearance and a few other issues, which also only occurs with very large lift cam shafts. Something that drives decent on the street usually will not change the lift enough to cause that, and I have used the Delta cam grind in several different engines with the stock valve train. I did clean up the ports somewhat, to take advantage of the better performance of the cam, but I used the stock valve train.

[SynthDesign]

Of course Petros has the perfect explanation that's easy to understand.

[ARCHINSTL]

He does explain things well!
Tom M.

[takza]

So WHY does the 3AC rev so well? Unlike some other 4 cylinders...it stays relatively smooth into the higher ranges...like a 6 cylinder...which I guess is inherently less prone to vibration. Some 4 cylinders even had balance shafts. Good design...good balance???

Still say that at one time the 3AC was going to be used as a basis for a racing car like the formula V...or as an engine in a formula V....but fell thru.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_Vee