I hope this doesn’t upset anyone.
The remains of the zenith strombergs were placed in an urn above my mantle with the title, “Never quite lived up to expectation”
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Been there done that…45DCOE-9 setup…a true bastard of a nightmare to set up correctly. You’ll need a rolling road and someone with the the knowledge and a truckload of jets, venturi etc to get them right. Once set, they’re excellent! However, I removed mine and fitted the original Strom’s back on the car. The Webers went where they were best suited, to Dick Maury’s record holding JCNA slalom car. Couldn’t get quite enough out of the SU’s so the Webers did the job, For me, the Strom’s are plenty to get to something like 130! 110 all day long and get there pretty quick, but then I have the GT cruiser verison, the 2+2. Best of luck, you’ll love the look and the sound!
Hi Les thanks for response.
I suppose that is the consensus. I don’t understand how you can both praise them and disregard them at the same time?
What struggles did you deal with after tuning them?
I am looking forward to hearing the healthy breathing of the 4.2.
Want my frank opinion?
PM me.
I don’t disregard them at all. It’s just that they require the tuning of each individual intake. You have essentially 6 carbs with three float chambers. Getting each carb/cyl tuned requires a dyno and expertise in knowing what to change on each “carb” from jets to Venturi and all stops in between. It can be a very time consuming and expensive undertaking and the reward is nominally worth it on a stock motor. I loved the look and sound but I never did get them exactly right.
I hope you’re lucky and the setup you have just turns out to be right, but don’t be surprised if they need professional attention.
I could get them right, on stock engine: in today!s prices, it would be a $1700-$2500 process.
Is it worth it? Mainly on the mental dyno.
I heard once that Webers have something like 17 adjustments on each carb.
Has the cat been house trained? That tea didn’t look like tea.
Bill, my lady is a southern belle she drinks sweet tea from a solo cup under normal circumstances.
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-Pump jet
-idle jet
-main jet
-air correction jet
-emulsion tube
-chokes
-secondary venturi (on 45s)
-pump stroke
-float level
Not quite 17, but still plenty enough to require one knows where to go!
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I have 3x Webers on my '71 series II. My mechanic (knowledgeable on Webers) adjusts & cleans 1 x per year. The sound and look is great, more importantly the engine purrs with lots of power throughout the entire range. Every once in a while I get the Weber “spittle” sound which goes away quickly. I have driven the SUs
and Zeniths, Webers better in my humble opinion. Invest in the Weber tuning guide and you can dial in for best performance without being an expert.
Yes: A good deal of work came my way, through folks who thought that.
I ended up doing LOTS of resetting of maladjusted Webers because folks thought the book would give them all the answers.
On a stock engine, the increase in meaningful performance (performance within the envelope of a stock engine, in a street car), over a well set-up 3-SU car, is minimal.
The main benefit of Webers happens at at an rpm and load condition one rarely attains on the street.
Paul, the nine adjustments you listed, not that different from any other comparable carb, is it?
Tom
Depends on what you call “comparable:” an SU has 3 major adjustments. Even Holleys have fewer adjustments than Webers.
These adjustments give one extraordinary control over how the carb responds to any given engine’s specs, but it can, and often does lead to wildly-maladjusted carbs, by those who do not fully understand the minute and precise interaction of the adjustments.
Yes, and, they’re just the levers you can pull, the real problem are the permutations due to said levers. It can be one hell of an undertaking and if you don’t have the expertise and equipment (I gained some from several years and around $1k of parts and tinkering with mine but they still never ran quite right) you can drive yourself nuts or worse, give up. Biggest problem was getting a smooth idle, which might not sound much but it is.
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I did and I disagree with the presumed outcome.
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I agree with what Wigs said…the SU and Stroms are for all practical purposes pretty much the same when it comes to adjustments, given that they work pretty much the same. And if you have an airflow meter to sync the throttles, they’re, pardon the pun, a breeze to set up. as far as the Stroms go…diaphragm ok, check…good oil in the damper, check…pistons falls without binding, check…sync throttles, check…set idle speed, check…set mixture and reset idle speed (not required unless you have the adjustable jets), check…done. Maybe an hour or so if you take it slow.
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The OP forgot to burn the damn distributor too!
He’ll be back. Might as well throw in the taillights and headlights for kindling as well.
Wait…I like S-2s.
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Yes, you are correct. To me, comparable is Solex 44 PHH This carb came standard on the Mercedes 190SL. It is a two barrel carb. It is often replaced by the Weber carbs, a very comparable swap.
Selectable components/adjustments
Venturi tube Primary
Venturi tube Secondary
Main jet Primary
Main jet Secondary
Air correction jet Primary
Air correction jet Secondary
Mixture tube Primary
Mixture tube Secondary
Idle jet Primary
Idle jet Secondary
Injection pump
Pumping jet
Injection tube
Injection quantity adj per stroke
Float level
And this four cylinder engine uses two carbs.
Also used on Mercedes and BMW’s around 1970 are the Zenith/Solex INAT, which I believe has similar components.
Tom
I guess I have lucked out during the 12 yrs of ownership. I really have not had the problems listed. Having someone who knows what they are doing in getting them set-up helps as in my 1 x year mechanic’s clean and adjust. I only have had to adjust the idle speed based on changes of season. I know others who appreciate having the Webers, but no doubt there are those who have frustrations.