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.)
----------
|