RE: [T3] Carb Conversion?

["Fuhriman, Mark" <mfuhriman@fugro.com>]

Doug,
My first Type 3 was a '70 that had been converted to dual Solex carbs.  Kind
of sloppily done, but it worked fine.  I think if you want carbs, you should
try to get a pair of the Solexes that were made for our cars.  While I owned
that car, the Solex system worked pretty well.  Unless you're already pretty
good with carbs, I'll bet the Webers would be hard to get running right.

But since you say you have no idea what's involved in the conversion, I'll
venture to say you are headed for more work and $$ out of your pocket than
you are expecting.  Spend that work on learning about the FI and to keep it
tuned yourself.  I've been doing that.  I got a nice '69 with FI last
spring.  I didn't know anything about the FI, but the engine was freshly
rebuilt and ran nicely, so I bought it.

After about 7 months of trouble-free daily driving, my engine started acting
up.  Since then, I have been fighting recurring episodes of intermittent
missing/no-start problems.  Over the last couple of months I have become a
voracious reader of anything FI-related.  I've become reacquainted with my
old volt-ohmmeter and soldering iron, and I have learned a lot about how the
ignition and FI systems work together.  Over a couple of months I've spent
maybe 3 to 6 hours a week with my car, tools, manuals, and notes from many
good people on this list to become familiar with all the little wires and
sensors and look/test for trouble.  While troubleshooting, I have been able
to tidy up a lot of funny wiring and do a lot of other deferred maintenance
that should be done once a decade or so.  Stuff I might not have gotten to
if I hadn't been forced to find the source of an annoying problem (stalling
out in heavy freeway traffic is *so* annoying!)

I'll bet if you invest the time and are patient, you will be able to service
your ignition and FI systems by yourself.  In the course of learning, you
will wind up doing lots of deferred maintenance that you will be glad you
found (e.g., dirty fuel tank and filter, bad fuel lines, hacked wiring,
loose wires, ...) -- stuff that a typical shop will never find or bother to
fix right.  And you won't necessarily spend a lot of money on diagnosing and
fixing problems, FI or other.  Slowly build up a stash of FI spares.
They're out there.  Sometimes in junkyards or with other listees who have
parts to spare.

In my own case, I think I've narrowed it down to a FI problem (probably oily
pressure sensor), and I'm feeling confident that I'm almost there, if not
already.  It's been a long, steep road up the learning curve, but you will
have one with carbs, too!  Besides, you're problems probably are not as
elusive as mine have been!  Most are far simpler.  Stick with the FI, learn
how it and a volt-ohmmeter work, and I think you'll be glad you did.

-Mark Fuhriman (sorry for the rambling...)
 '69 Fastback

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