Quote:
Originally Posted by acindrich
I'd love webers on my car for looks alone. Staggering performance is just icing on the cake. Problem is I'm still not confident I could put them on and make them work, or that I have the patience to do it. So, what sort of 'specialist' would one have to go to and just pay to have it done? Can the average Joe at your local garage do it? Is there a way to order them already tuned and just bolt them on? Or, do they really require someone willing to pay the price to own them what with their seemingly constant maintenance?
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acindrich, I can only speak from my own experiences and other people who have run Webers (or attempted to). There are shops and skilled mechanics all over the place who you could bring your setup to and have them do the work. You'd be paying for their labor and who knows how high that could run? I know how much time I have in setting up my system and I'm fortunate somebody else's meter wasn't running the whole time. I am NOT a master mechanic by any stretch and have limited abilities when it comes to hardcore engine work. A lot of guys can tear down their motors, replace the crank, cam, do the machine work etc. That's not me so I know it's possible for someone with my skill levels to sort out a set of Webers, assuming the engine is healthy, the Weber setup is compatible with the motor, and you're willing to put in the time.
Here's the best reason I've found to try to handle your Weber setup yourself rather than farm it out: You will gain a tremendous amount of insight into the overall "health" of your engine and (I know I'm getting weird here) be able to have a "conversation" with it as you gradually find the ideal setup. It's almost like training your dog. If you can communicate with him, he'll obey your commands. Try a certain jet size, idle mixture adjustment, etc. and you're telling your engine "I think this is what you want." Your engine will tell you if you're right or wrong on your test drive and so you've just had a conversation with it. If you think I should be locked up somewhere, I understand fully.
The other reason I recommend you take the DIY plunge is that you'll never be "Weber self-sufficient" if you depend on someone else to troubleshoot your system whenever you have a problem or question (unless, of course, your brother-in-law works for Inglese). Once you've understood what each component in the carburetor does, how to access them, how your changes are supposed to impact the setup, and you graduate from fear and intimidation to confidence and a comfort level that comes with familiarity, you'll be glad you didn't need someone else's intervention throughout the whole process.
Now, there IS help available--either places like Redline or Inglese or Webers Direct, plus there is a good selection of books and manuals out there which cover the entire world of Webers. But I really think you have to be your own best friend when you finally make the move. And before you know it, you'll be helping other people running Webers because you've been there and done that.
Finally, there is a misconception that Webers need constant maintenance. If my experiences are any example, once you've got them dialed in, put all your tools and manuals away and drive the car. Webers will hold their tune unless a problem develops somewhere else in your engine or you move from Oahu to Fairbanks, Alaska. Can an idle jet get clogged up on occasion and starve a cylinder? Sure. Can a hex link lossen up and change the linkage synchronicity? Yup. But that takes me back to the point I made previously. If you understand your system and can recognize what your engine is "saying" when it's not happy, you can correct the problem yourself. But I haven't had any ongoing maintenance issues with my 48's since I got them in the sweet spot.
And yes, that takes patience.
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