Triple Webers need tuning

I replaced the duel carb set up on my 69 2+2 with a triple Weber setup. The car runs rich and coffs a bit. I live in Green Bay WI and I can’t find anyone to tune the carbs. I do a lot of my own work but tuning carbs is above my skillset. Any thoughts on whe are on where I can get some help?

You probably should have asked this question before doing the conversion!

As a veteran of many Weber or Dellorto equipped cars (all Lotus, btw) “tuning” Webers is not simply screw twiddling but rather involves trying numerous iterations of swapping jets, jet holders, air bleeds, and perhaps emulsion tubes and chokes (venturi’s). All times 6 with triple Webers. It’s an expensive process if you do it yourself, and very expensive if done by others. Finding pro shops with a chassis dyno helps, but truly proficient (and therefore cost efficient) Weber tuners are very rare these days as they are “old tech”.

There is a fairly active vintage race community in the Madison/Sheboygan/Elkhart Lake area so there likely is a competent shop not too far away. Sorry I don’t have any names.

If you are not up for spending a few grand on a pro tune, I would recommend you read Des Hammel’s book, and perhaps David’s Vizards Engine Tuning book and find a friendly supplier or shop that will allow you to return barely used tuning parts and start tuning yourself. Start with one circuit at a time (i.e. idle, progression, main in that order) change one thing at a time and test on lightly traveled roads. It will take many many hours and hundreds of dollars if you are not able to exchange parts with a supplier.

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Agree with Steve…a nightmare in the making unless a weber pro is involved. Many revert back to SU’s…

My first thought is ‘don’t’. If you still have your other carbs and manifold, just replace all the stuff on the car. I had triple Mikunis on my 240Z that I bought back in the day, and thank goodness, the man had saved the stock carbs for the 72 model. As an old hot-rodder, I really thought the Webers were the way to go, and one week into it, I needed to replace my engine. The Mikunis had washed down the cylinders with gas and ruined the engine. Magazines back in the day ran articles on the Jag swap and nobody had anything good to say about it except the looks.

…or read the numerous posts in the archives on the subject. The cost of the carbs is only a down payment on the cost of getting Webers to work on an E-TYpe

As a grizzled old veteran of setting up about a gazillion Weber carburetors, my recommendation is… Go back to the SUs…

Failing that, you have to find someone who has a whole bunch of expensive parts, and preferably, a chassis dyno. It can be done without a chassis dyno but that usually takes 10 to 15 hours of road testing.

Alas, he had ZSs before… which work just fine but lack the bling of triple anything.

Perfect! He can put on a set of 2 inch SUs on there, and get bling and ease of adjustment and way less money than Webers!

It’s good to note that in Production class, races were won with the ZSs and SUs.

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I am soooo looking forward to mounting these. Thanks guys!! :laughing:

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I just bought these for my race car as and am also looking forward to having them strapped on, I will have to change a few jets but I’m accustomed to tuning Webers… :blush:



They were on a car that were not set-up correctly and the car sat for fifteen years. The owner decided to have an SU conversion. The moto of the story is get them done by a professional if you are not mechanically inclined, it can cost you you big!

I got my car about the year 2000 and it had triple webers.

They are very complicated to tune and very expensive to tune due to the number of emulsion tubes, air correctors etc … al times 6. Sucked gas, and sounded great

I too them off, bought triple SUs and sold the webers. The triple SUs performed better than I could tune the webers

Dennis
69 OTS

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There is ample evidence from the responses of frustrated and unhappy Weber past users. cautioning “run for the hills.” My fully restored '71 series II came with Webers so I have kept them. I have been happy with them using some of the readily available You Tube or other on-line guides for how to keep them tuned. I clean them annually and need only make seasonal adjustments for idle speed. I use a $30 air flow tube inserted into the trumpets to gauge consistency between the carbs. Runs, great, great sound and I have had no issues in the 14 years of ownership. Perhaps I just lucked out, but I haven’t had the challenges others report.

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I find blaming the carbs for various woes to be misguided. Any issues caused are due to user error and/or lack of understanding of how they work.

To clarify the point of my earlier post, there is nothing inherently wrong with Weber/Dellorto carbs and when properly set up they work beautifully. And the intake sound is amazing. It’s the process (time and cost) of getting them properly set up that throws people as it’s not for the faint of heart. If you are not prepared for the time/effort/cost to do it yourself and get the component selection spot on then I would recommend you not use them.

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I totally concur: I also assert that on a stock engine, Webers buy you nothing over the stock induction. You get ear and eye candy, but that’s about it.

Job #1 would be to find out which series, model or type of Webers you have. Of course you have guys who say “The Spanish ones (insert country here) are junk”, they “aren’t like they used to be”, etc. In any case, the number of “transfer holes” (I think they call them, at least on old US carbs that’s what we called them) are different, with newer ones, I believe, having more holes. The position of the throttle plate relative to these holes is very important. Enough guys say the quality of manufacture on some new ones is poor and swag and poor construction may, repeat MAY cause extra trouble not present in known to be good sets.


A set of SK Racing units I needed to do a load of work on - just to SELL them. Pegasus Racing very near my house has the parts, as they are kind of a formula Ford specialty outfit. Note the tons of new parts, which cost a small fortune, required to do any replacemnet parts tuning. The Weber book has starting points for Jaguars, which I tried to follow before sale. Never even tried to run them, as I could see just getting a smooth running throttle set up would take lots of tweaks. Got a whole set of manifold, linkage and SU’s from various sources and Bob, was, in fact, my uncle. Fired right up, went strong and I never looked back.

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I have a set of SK’s on my Vixen TVR that was purchased from a friend here in New Jersey strapped them on and the car runs like a top. no complaints here and of course I enjoy lifting the bonnet for the eye candy, cant beat it :blush:
Here’s a video of Webers installed
Webers:Rebuild of Jaguar Etype engine? Be careful ! - YouTube

You were lucky!

More often than not–much more–Webers/Solexes/ Mikunis/Dell’Ortos fo mot just bolt on and run perfectly.

Some people like to fiddle and don’t mind investing the money and time to get them right - Usually those with the modifications to take full advantage of them. Personally I enjoy driving much more than fiddling and spending money. It really depends on what YOU like to do. If you enjoy the process and are willing to invest the time, money and have the aptitude, go for it. If you just want to spend the weekends enjoying your car and the lovely sounds it makes, then sell the Webers and hunt up a set of triple SU’s and manifolds or as someone suggested, get a pair and use your factory manifold. It’s really about what you prefer. Best of luck either way!

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Ah, they are pretty, and make lovely sucking sounds!

Paul- I’m running the Mongoletsi (ITG) triple SU filter and I have loads of induction noise. SNG claim an extra 11hp but who knows. It sounds great.