on the bright side you are now our broken stud removal expert, who now has a running buggy.

Fixed that for you   

Determined to play in the garage for a few hours today, and managed to find a few dribbles in the bottom of a can of black engine paint - not much, but just enough to cover up some of the mess that has been made over the last few months. However, I am pleased to say that I am now back on track to where I was nearly ten weeks ago, with one exception. Progress has been made as the exhaust hanger nut has now been fitted and I can carry on putting my car back together again.





With the modifications made to the gearbox cradle, and the design of the new rear mounts, there was an element of preliminary guesswork done with the result being fingers firmly crossed that the exhaust cross pipe at the rear would actually miss them - and luckily it did, but not by much.





Thankfully, as the engine is now more rigidly mounted, there will be no more side to side rock, and the smaller gap I now have should hopefully not prove to be a problem.

Where the exhaust cross pipe at the rear has been rotated and moved just a fraction to get around the larger engine mounts and gearbox cradle, it has meant that the exhaust does not sit quite so well as it did before, so the car has been over to my mate Bill for a couple of days for him to do a bit of fetlling and re-welding of a few joints, the result being that the Cannons now sit nicely, just as they did before.

I`d like to give a report on how the gearbox feels now that it has been fitted, but you may have seen the weather reports today, and it is nothing short of Armageddon down here on Paignton Seafront, and my mind was more focused in dodging the waves crashing over the roof, than how the car felt. I was soaked and I just wanted to get home.

That said, there are some noticeable differences in how it feels. Yes, I can feel the vibrations of the engine gently shaking the car. Its not to the level of annoyance, but it certainly doesn`t feel as "silky smooth" as it did before. You can certainly feel the engine tickover and revving when stationary, and when moving along it is pretty negligible, but where it does seem to be fairly noticeable is under hard engine braking. That is going to take some getting used to, and I think if I went everywhere with a roof on, then it may be another matter. Early days yet, and this isn`t really a fair test, but so far, so good.

The car is now back together again, and I thought it about time that I gave it a run. The gear changes are understandably a bit tight as everything needs to settle down, but the car didn`t like being opened up on the dual carriageway. seemed a bit "hesitant" when floored in 4th. Could be because the temperature was just below freezing, could be I was too cold to drive it properly, but something is niggling away at me that it may need a bit of a tune. To be fair though, I haven`t actually balanced the carbs since I have had it, and with so much being dismantled recently, this could be a good place to start.

But at least I made it to the pub for Club Night 

But at least I made it to the pub for Club Night 

Darn it!!! I blooming well missed it!!!!

Got to get me some blue LED's 

Got to get me some blue LED's 

Mr Plod dont like that

Got to get me some blue LED's 

Mr Plod dont like that

For the car park  and shows

Got to get me some blue LED's 

If searching around - look for    "LED 5050 SMD Modules"  as they are better than the usual leds that most use   

If you look around on the Interweb these days, you will find that there are quite a few kits available for upgrading the carburetor and whilst there are just as many arguments for one type over another, invariably, the choice for the Type 25 / Type 4 usually boils down to Weber Vs Dellorto. Now the problem here is sourcing a good one, because most of the Webers I could find seemed to be poorly made Chinese copies, and the production of decent Dells ceased back in Noah`s day. For that reason, rather than trying to source a serviceable pair through eBay, I opted to go to Eurocarb, and obtain a pair of factory refurbished Dellorto DRLA40`s for an Alfa Romeo, along with a few bits and pieces to adapt them for use with a Volkswagen.

It wasn`t long before lots of shiny bits arrived on my doorstep, but a quick word of caution must be made before ordering a kit like this, as not all bits are as easy to fit as you may think, and if you are not careful, the overall height can easily get out of hand and cause some clearance issues.





Before any parts are allowed near my Buggy, I always have a good look at them, get a feel for them and I like to test fit and assemble any parts before going any further. There were no instructions whatsoever, and the number of nuts and bolts supplied had me a baffled for a while as to where they should go. I located a set of very poor instructions for the linkage on the Eurocarb Website, but they were about as bad as bad could be. So, it was down to my own devices to see what mess I could make of this kit. It must be stated that I am a complete Carb novice, and what I know is from reading and talking to people. I am going to write this as I go along, so if any mistakes are made, you will see where/how/why I went wrong, and hopefully you can avoid making the same if following me here.

So, lets start with the business end then, the actual units themselves. They appear at first glance to be "handed" ie: one is for the left and one is for the right hand side, but that is only really down to the way the linkage mechanism is currently fitted on the end, and even that looks as though it could be removed and fitted the other way around. Other than that, the carbs look identical, Yes? Well, actually No, my pair are not, but your pair might be. Let me explain. Not all of the Carbs have a Vacuum advance take off point. Not all of the original Alfa Romeo`s utilized them, (as they had a very different ignition setup), and it is not uncommon to be supplied two identical Carbs. It must also be duly noted, that unlike a pair of single choke carbs, when using a pair of twin chokes, the Vacuum suction is so poor and so weak that it is often dismissed. The pipes are simply blanked off and a non Vacuum distributor is subsequently fitted such as the fabled Bosch 009. This is quite a normal and common practice, however, it is also one that I currently disagree with (more of this much later) but suffice to say, that when I ordered my kit, I specifically asked to make sure that one of them had a Vacuum port, which you can just see to the right of the golden screw on the right hand choke of the carburetor on the left.





At the moment, I know that setting up these carbs is going to be a right mix of black magic and witchcraft, so I need to at least learn what the names for the various bits are. Today, I learned that the aluminium inserts down those two big holes are called the Venturi, and like every other interchangeable performance part, that they come in different sizes. Looking down the holes (Oops! - sorry - Venturi) I can see that mine are stamped with a 30 - so I guess thats the size of mine then.





Something else that is fast becoming apparent, is just how easy it is to change jet sizes on these carbs. In olden days, you had to remove the carb, strip it down, unscrew the jet and then reassemble it. It was quite labour intensive. Well, those two brass bits sticking out of the top like two fingers are not only easily accessible with the air filter removed, but if unscrewed, carry all of the jets in one place. Eurocarb supplied me with a set of jets that they thought would be a good starting point, but were different to the ones that everyone else in VW Land seemed to have ended up with. But they were as good as gold when I asked them to change them over, and quickly sent me back the ones I had asked for. Again, I`m not sure what they all do just yet, but on the left is the Air Corrector (175), in the middle is the Emulsifier (9164.2), and on the right is the Main Jet (130) and those numbers correspond to the jet sizes I am going to initially start with.





Now that we are fairly familiar with the Dellorto DRLA40, its time to start preparing them for use on a VW instead of an Alfa Romeo. Most, if not all of the modifications are as a direct result of fitting a Hex Bar type linkage to them. Originally, these would have just had an air filter bolted to the top of them, but because we are adding nearly 20mm of gaskets, base plates and trumpets, the original studs in the top are going to be far too short. My kit has a new set of extended studs, so it is a simple case of out with the old and in with the new.

Apologies if this picture is teaching your grandmother to suck eggs, but not everyone knows how to remove a stud, and those trying it for the first time may well make the mistake of grabbing a pair of pliers and destroying that thread. All you need to do is add two nuts onto the stud, and gently tighten them against each other. Using a spanner on the lower nut, the stud can then be unwound from its hole, and when putting the new stud in, tightening the top nut will tighten the stud into the hole. Two spanners on the nuts, and they are easily removed once undone from each other.





Be careful when changing the studs that you get the rights ones in the right places, as there are two different lengths. The longer studs fit on the side with the pump and the screws. The difference in height can be seen here, with the new ones fitted to the carburetor on the right.





Included in the kit were some very thick cork gaskets, and these are used between metal surfaces to ensure that air cannot get in where we do not want it to. These particular ones, supplied by K&N are very thick.





This is where having poor instructions proved to be a problem, when it came to fitting the Hex Bar mounting plates. After reading the instructions many times, it clearly stated that the plates were handed and marked L and R, yet the ones in my hand were not only unmarked, but they were absolutely identical. Well that was one of my first mistakes, as I promptly set about messing with the plates to see which way would work best, and then it suddenly dawned on me that due to the layout of the flat four engine, that the carbs would not actually be in line with each other, so if I reversed one of the plates, the hex bar would actually fit in a nice straight line. Yes, I knew that one end was too far away from the linkage to make it work, but knowing the linkages could be fitted at either end of the carburetor, I didn`t think it would be an issue and would be fiddled with later when I looked at the linkages.





Make no mistake, these carburetors are going to end up being quite tall, and clearance is going to be a problem if not careful. The main body is around 95mm in height, but as I added the next cork gasket, I soon discovered that the cork and the linkage plate had added another 10mm to the overall height. I must confess that in my initial calculations and measurements that I had not taken this extra thickness into consideration. I was still very confident that they would fit though, but for some of you, that extra 10mm could be a problem.





The Air filter base plate is then fitted. Most air filters of his style will either have a single bolt in the middle, or a bolt at each end for holding on the lid, and K&N, for reasons best known unto themselves, decided to fit four bolts which actually make the lid quite cumbersome to fit when lining up all the holes into the top. Now 99.9% of you will stop here and simply add the filters, but I have a little further to go yet.





You see, I have decided to fit the "Trumpets" to mine. Now there is an art and a science behind these and it is to do with smoothing out the airflow by eliminating and controlling the air turbulence and vortexes as the air enters the top. There are different lengths available for tuning low down grunt, or high top end. Most people do not bother to fit them, and I can fully understand why, because to be perfectly honest, they are ridiculously expensive and on our engines it is doubtful that they will make a sods worth of difference. But that is not why I am struggling to try and fit them, and the key word here is struggling. You can see that those upright posts are somewhat obstructive, and I am going to need a good session with a file before I can make them fit.





My reasoning for fitting these Trumpets is nothing to do with performance and more about the water problems I had during the Monsoon summer of 2015. That summer was so wet, that a few of you even went so far as to design water deflection plates to prevent the air filters filling up with water. My thoughts here are to use 25mm high Trumpets and raise the water line, so even if the internal base plate of the carb becomes saturated, it doesn`t just run straight into the engine. Instead of concerning myself with trumpet heights, the only figure that matters to me is the minimum 25mm clearance between the top of the Trumpet and the top of the filter to allow unrestricted air flow.





I am now ready to fit the air filter and top cover, and this illustrates ones of the downsides of using these K&N filters. Trying to get all four studs through the holes of that top plate can be quite fiddly, but a quick wiggle and they will eventually come through. The filters come in various heights, and I opted to use 63mm which (if I have my measurements correct) should ft under the bodywork.





I wanted to get the filter on there as soon as possible, so that any crap in the garage is prevented from dropping down one side of the carb at least, and now this is done, its time to strip this down and put the linkage base plate the right way around and then turn my attention to the huge amounts of nuts and bolts that make up the hex bar linkage itself.

At this point, I should have been looking at these and admiring my handywork. But I wasn`t. In fact I was becoming increasingly annoyed with myself with a single word going round and round in my head and that was Bugger. Only after I had fitted the top of the air filter did I suddenly realize which way the linkages would rotate and how flawed my plan was. Bugger. Have to take them all apart again and refit the Hex Bar plate with both the linkage extensions at the same end.

Brilliant 

I have found the guy's at Eurocarb to be amazing and very helpful, this will be
an interesting article in this thread, and maybe useful to put into the help section
when it's all done too...

Re jetting and learning what happens will be very useful 

Peter

Thanks Peter,  nice to know someone enjoys my ramblings   

I have to agree with you about Eurocarb, they are indeed very helpful - (not cheap though)

But then its the old thing of getting what you pay for, and that includes good service from a reputable company 

Its all very interesting, and nice to see a small project being done like this,
the setup and jetting can be tuned quite finely as all engines are slightly different, Chris Jordan
has made inroads into all this too.

In a daft way I find it all quite enlightening 

If its ok I would like to add some of your pictures to the carb albums I have, with links 

As always Peter, help yourself to any pictures - no need to ask   

Time to have a look at the throttle linkage. This is where the real modifications are made to convert from an Alfa Romeo fitting to a Volkswagen fitting, and in theory, should be nothing more than unbolting the Original linkage from the Carburetor and refitting the parts from the kit supplied.

I bought the more expensive CSP linkage kit, mistakenly thinking that it would be of a slightly superior quality. I was a little surprised that the instructions suggest to remove the complete Alfa Romeo mechanism from the Carburetor and also to rely on a big spring on the adjoining Hex Bar for correct operation. I am absolutely appalled by this, as it not only looks really crap, but you can see that it is so poorly made that the throttle stop arm doesn`t even come into contact with the adjuster screw - And this was the upmarket kit?





Time to stop and look at the rest of the bits in the kit I think. From appearances it looks like a fairly basic Hex Bar kit, just like any other, except that it runs in a pair of rose joints instead of the tube with the plastic ends. That bit seems ok, but I am a bit saddened to see that like every other aftermarket kit, they use a return spring that is just thrown on as an afterthought. And these springs are always problematic.





Eurocarb are lucky its a Sunday and they are not answering the phone, whilst CSP are just lucky that they are not closer, else they may find me on the doorstep trying to insert a hex bar. No, I am not a happy bunny. These parts are shamefully poor in quality. I have no doubt though that anything that is returned back to me is going to be of equally poor quality these days, so I guess its down to me to solve it with some clever fabrication. With the CSP manual now torn up, a snotty phone call looming on Monday morning, I need to calm myself and take a close look at the parts I have to work with in front of me. Most of it is there, just none of it fits.

At the moment, I have a pair of twin Weber 34 ICT`s with a Hex Bar linkage, and it is very smooth in operation. Both of my carburetors each have a return spring and there is zero lateral play in the linkage. This is a good starting point.





Closer inspection of the original Alfa Romeo linkage reveals it to be exactly as expected. Its very nicely built with a vertical screw on the left to adjust when the throttle opens and closes with respect to the other carburetor, the important horizontal screw to adjust the point where the throttle stops for the tick over, and a nice big spring to make sure everything returns back to its starting point when the pedal is lifted. I cannot, however use it as is, because the ball joint for the linkage is on the wrong side and of course the wrong size goes without saying.





Time to come up with a Plan B then. With the CSP arm on top of the Alfa linkage, some of the differences can be seen straight away. The instant thought is to simply drill out the Alfa Ball joint and use the hole to connect the linkage to. This has two flaws though. Firstly, the distance from the central pivot point to that outer hole will affect how much travel the throttle pedal has, and if the distance is too great, then there may not be enough floor travel of the pedal to actually achieve full throttle. The other problem is the Alfa lever is made of "Unbendium" and because it is bent inwards, that may also cause  the linkage to fowl when operated. I can see straight away where a few modifications can be made. The Alfa Throttle stop arms are important to retain for correct adjustment, which means the extension on the CSP arm is just going to get in the way. The CSP bracket doesn`t actually sit flush, but if it had a hole in it, the Carburetor return spring could also be retained.





In fact, whilst I am at it, that vertical screw on the left can probably go, as the hex bar has adjustable arms that will do the same thing. After 20 minutes with the angle grinder, I am now left with a linkage that looks like this and works perfectly.





The pattern is then repeated for the other Carburetor. With the linkage arms fitted, I now have full independent control of each carburetor, full throttle stop control and a really smooth return spring action designed by Alfa Romeo that works a damn sight better than the CSP one.





Next thing I need to do is get them physically mounted onto the car.