Date:         Thu, 27 Jun 1996 10:26:43 -0500
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         John_Sirutis@ATK.COM (John Sirutis)
Subject:      RE: Kadrons


Eugene:
Your the second person to offer to take these off my hands. The parts 
counter man at Autovice/BowWow offered to trade me even for a stock carb, 
which he said would cost $185 otherwise. So far, I haven't abandoned the 
Kadron/Solex setup, yet. Here is what I've learned:
1. I had the timing set wrong for the 009 distributor. It's right now.
2. The carbs are the same as described in the literature I picked up from 
Autovice. I couldn't find the crossover tubing because it comes off the 
intake manifold, not the carbs themselves. It is on the forward side of the 
manifold, completely hidden, making it a pain to disable for tuning 
purposes.
3. I tuned the pair, before discovering the crossover, and the engine runs 
very smoothly and with good power. It will idle down to 500 to 600 RPM, 
which is a bit low for starting, considering there is no choke or throttle 
adjustment, other than the pedal, for cold operation.
4. I have two theories about the reason that it died on the first trip after 
the tuning. Either I have a fuel flow problem - clogging or fuel pump - or 
the carb is icing - see below.
5. Last night I copied an essay by Bob Hoover off the Internet 
(http://www.sky.net/~rmk/hoover/) about dual carbs for vdubs. He says that 
non-standard exhaust systems which eliminate the heat riser to the carb 
leave the carbs vulnerable to icing. This could match my symptoms in that 
after my bus died it let out clouds of white smoke as I tried to restart - 
possibly steam from the ice melting into the hot cylinders. Also, I have 
felt the carb throats after short trips and found them to be very cold, 
despite the fact that the intake manifold is warming up from conduction from 
the head.
6. Incidentally, the Hoover essay was addressing primarily the problem of 
icing with a single carb and no heat riser from the exhaust. The 
Kadron/Solex he says are less vulnerable because of the shorter heat path 
from the carbs to the head. His conclusion is that stock is usually best, 
but he does like a single, progressive carb.
7. In general, I like a stock setup and clearly this bus I inherited suffers 
many of its problems due to the aftermarket specials that have been 
installed. However, right now I'm just trying to find the path of least 
resistance to a reliably running machine. Switching to stock carbs or a 
progressive seems like allot of work, and does not address the possibility 
of icing.
8. The bottom line is that the Kadrons are not for sale. If I abandon them 
I'm likely to use them in a trade to move to a different, possibly stock, 
configuration. If your interested I'll keep you advised of what I learn.
By the way, I'm going to post this on the Vanagon listserver, but I'm not 
sure it will be broadcast to the subscriber list. I've abandoned my 
registration there - too much traffic and much too low a hit rate for what 
interests me. I thank the three people who responded to my Kadron query - 
you, Pat Walsh, and Mark McCulley
That's all for now,
John Sirutis
Bainbridge Island, WA
(Opinions are strictly my own.)
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