Has anyone ever heard of swapping an air-cooled VW carb(30 or 32 PICT) onto a 1.3 Samurai? It seems to me that they would be easy to adapt/tune, and provide great off-road torque(1bbl) while maintaining good fuel economy(my last beetle got 24mpg). They are also cheap and readily available. All one would really need is a simple adapter plate, and a single wire for the idle cut-off/choke. Any thoughts?

I don't see where the advantage would come from. The stock Samurai carb is a progressive choke, at low loads only 1 barrel is open and that barrel is about 22mm.

I don't see where the advantage would come from. The stock Samurai carb is a progressive choke, at low loads only 1 barrel is open and that barrel is about 22mm.

Progressive choke? Wouldn't that make it run slower? Maybe progressive linkage?

Quote from: Rhinoman on June 19, 2007, 11:15:00 AM

I don't see where the advantage would come from. The stock Samurai carb is a progressive choke, at low loads only 1 barrel is open and that barrel is about 22mm.

Progressive choke? Wouldn't that make it run slower? Maybe progressive linkage?

Typing in a hurry, I meant a progressive twin choke carb. 2 barrell (US) = twin choke (UK)

2 barrell (US) = twin choke (UK)

Never ran across that before.  Cool.  Wish I'd known that my whole friggin' life of reading car magazines..  I'm sure a few things would have made more sense.

I'm mostly interested in the conversion because the stock sammy carbs are junk, I am experienced with VW carbs, and 1bbls are proven torque pigs.
1 bbl carbs have much higher intake velocities than multi-barreled units, and help move the engine's power band lower on the rpm range. This is the reason that Ford used a 1bbl Carter on all of their I-6's up until the late 80's when they switched to efi.  A stock Ford 300 I-6 with the 1bbl produces peak torque at 1500rpm. The same engine with an aftermarket 2 or 4bbl makes slightly more power, but doesn't reach it's peak until about 2300rpm for a 2bbl, or almost 3000rpm for a 4bbl.
With a 30mm or 32mm VW 1bbl, it would basically be like the primary and secondary on the Sammy carb both opening all the time regardless of load... meaning that the engine would make it's peak power at an rpm that is more useable off-road.

I'm mostly interested in the conversion because the stock sammy carbs are junk, I am experienced with VW carbs, and 1bbls are proven torque pigs.
1 bbl carbs have much higher intake velocities than multi-barreled units, and help move the engine's power band lower on the rpm range. This is the reason that Ford used a 1bbl Carter on all of their I-6's up until the late 80's when they switched to efi.  A stock Ford 300 I-6 with the 1bbl produces peak torque at 1500rpm. The same engine with an aftermarket 2 or 4bbl makes slightly more power, but doesn't reach it's peak until about 2300rpm for a 2bbl, or almost 3000rpm for a 4bbl.
With a 30mm or 32mm VW 1bbl, it would basically be like the primary and secondary on the Sammy carb both opening all the time regardless of load... meaning that the engine would make it's peak power at an rpm that is more useable off-road.

The carb isn't going to behave the same on a Zuk engine as on a VW engine. Peak power and torque is defined primarily by the camshaft timing, you will only move peak power down if you create a restriction that prevents it from flowing enough air at higher RPM. It doesn't follow that you will get more power lower down. The Ford I-4 engines that we had over here all had Weber 32/36 carbs, the advantage of the progressive carb is that at low loads (lowRPM/low throttle) you have a much smaller venturi than with a 1bbl carb so the intake velocity is higher.

I totally agree with what you are saying, I am just really tired of my stock carb and all of it's issues(non-functioning choke most of all). I also don't really have the coin to throw down for a Weber right now(just dropped $1,200 on a lift and tires), and have heard of people using 1bbl Holleys with success, so I thought a Solex might be an easy, reliable, and inexpensive option.

I'm mostly interested in the conversion because the stock sammy carbs are junk,

Wow, in all the years I have wheeled and all the Samurai's I have owned I have never had any problems.  I have wheeled on both sides, straight up and straight down and haven't had the carb miss a beat.  I have heard others bitch about the carb but usually they don't know how to tune it.  Good luck with the swap.

Well, I located a suitable Solex today, and am going to try the swap for better or worse. Either way the info I gain will add to the collective knowledge of the zukiworld community. I know most people don't see the point in such a conversion, but at least we get to find out how a Solex performs on a 1.3!