Carb upgrades

[Billy Smalls]

Hi

It may be that I have a cracked inlet manifold - and my brother in law has tried to tempt me with one of these

http://www.webcon.co.uk/shopdisplayp...d=56&cat=Volvo

any good? of course they are quiet expensive but if I were to treat myself, would I notice a difference?

single Stromberg at the moment - and would it be easy to retro fit?

Thanks

[classicswede]

I'm not a fan tbh. I just dont like weber dd carbs.

They are popular in the US and used manifolds for the conversion do come up cheaply.

SU/Strombergs set up correctly give good consumption and if you have two of them the power is not bad either.

[swedishandgerman]

Sticking that on to your fabulous B20A will not give you benefits unless you go down the route of matching it to an appropriate cam and so on

Together with your super smooth engine you have there and auto, I'd most certainly stick with what you have. Someone will have a good second hand manifold for you!

[rustytoba]

I'd have to agree that the whole Weber thing in my experience opens up another can of worms, I think in my case it was a Weber so called direct replacement for a Cavalier but it ended up being as direct as flying from Glasgow to Manchester via Dorset, cam timing, ignition timing etc a real pain. You have a classic it may be far less expensive having an experienced engineering shop weld your manifold then as suggested by others here get the Stromberg tuned properly and you'll have kept your car original and you'll be surprised how well it performs

Rustytoba

[guitarman]

Total agreement with the above. At the very least you've got to jet the Webber correctly and this will be trial and error. Webber were always rather agricultural and since they've made them in Spain quality has dropped.
Stromberg carbs are under rated; don't forget they were designed to need no adjustment and use less fuel.
Welding up a manifold like yours is a doddle for any half decent welder; I'd be fairly confident myself with a stick welder and some stainless rods.

[guitarman]

Whilst I'm at it I'll mention again that performance of my 164 was markedly improved by blocking of the retard pipe on the Stromberg carbs; my mechanic friend tells me that many early '70s cars featured retard as well as advance to keep emissions down; at the expense of poor fuel consumption and less power.
With that done, dwell angle set correctly, new points and ignition timing set right my 164 drives like a demented tram!

[Billy Smalls]

Thanks fellas; I've knocked the idea on the head now anyway; I'm no purist but I do like the idea of keeping it standard with the carb.

maybe I'll see a twin SU up for sale at some point.....

The question came about as someone suggested my mystery squeal could be an air leak at the manifold, but now I'm not so convinced

I'll leave the Weber idea alone

cheers