Attempting the Weber carb install

[Rocketman]

Everyone's gotta start somewhere, with what they have on hand and what tools they have available to them. Casting is just one way of making parts, it's my forte' so to speak. Do you have pics of your adapter? I'd like to see it.

[zoe60]

This is the bottom part of the adapter plate that I made. At this point I still needed to counter-sink the holes on the corner.


Here's all the parts before I put them together.


Ok, here's the whole thing assembled and ready for the carb.


Aha! Here's the entire assembly!


And heres the whole thing installed on the car! I think it looks like it was made for it. Whadaya think? Oh, I forgot to mention, I do have a bench grinder too.

[zoe60]

Sorry- for anyone that hasn't seen a Weber adapter plate, the top part with the studs came with the Redline kit along with a bottom part that won't fit a Festiva. I just made the bottom part.

[Rocketman]

Hmmmm very simple and effective design. Would you be able to lend it to me? Or really, all I need are tracings of the flanges and bolt centers... more points if you have the CAD drawings of each Would be pretty easy to cast and machining wouln't be killer either.

[zoe60]

All I did was trace the bottom of a spare Festiva carburetor on paper. Then when you trace it onto your aluminum you have to make it as wide as the Weber top plate. The big holes are 5/16" and countersunk with a 5/8" countersink. Then you just drill and tap the 4 smaller holes after tracing them off of the Weber supplied top plate. The Weber part already had 4 allen screws with recessed holes so the heads are flush. That was the good thing about the kit. It had the adapter plate with it. I just remade the bottom and tossed the original part. Sorry I didn't measure anything. It is completely improvised from scratch. That's just the way I roll! I'd be proud if others made them, It's actually Webers design.

[zoe60]

Also with the Weber adapter for a Suzuki Samarai, You get the flathead allen screws that fit the Festiva carb stud holes. and the 4 allens that hold the two pieces together. If you made them for people you would have to provide those. Weber adapter plates are around $42.00.

[drddan]

This is the bottom part of the adapter plate that I made. At this point I still needed to counter-sink the holes on the corner.


Here's all the parts before I put them together.


Ok, here's the whole thing assembled and ready for the carb.


Aha! Here's the entire assembly!


And heres the whole thing installed on the car! I think it looks like it was made for it. Whadaya think? Oh, I forgot to mention, I do have a bench grinder too.

Zoe, you are a Hacksaw Master! Good work. That is a very good idea using the Samuri kit. I had wondered if that would work when I was looking into adaptors. I wasnt sure, so I just built the whole thing myself.
Worked out that I needed more height anyway as I used a Weber DFEV, instead of a DGEV, and I wanted the choke towards the front. I needed extra height for the choke to clear the valve cover.
Your pic of your motor reminded me of mine, especially with the little valve cover breather filter on there.




Here is my adaptor

[zoe60]

Well, I basically copied the whole idea after you. I just threw my own spin on it. It was a fun upgrade. Made me think a lot but was not all that difficult. I still can't believe the difference in power and how much smoother it runs. Now I'm getting ready to bolt all that stuff onto a 1989 Mazda 323 b6 I've been working on. Hoping for the best. Thanks again for the Idea- Kenny

[drddan]

Well cool, glad I was an inspiration! :p
Good luck on the 323 and keep us posted....

[zoe60]

I just checked my mileage and it went down. 33 MPG's Before I did anything it got 38. With the performance cam it got 36. With the cam and the Weber it got 33. I don't know how much of that can be attributed to winter gas and me flooring it a lot with my new goodies. Just thought I'd pass on my results. It's still way more fun to drive and I'm glad I did it.

[TominMO]

I just checked my mileage and it went down. 33 MPG's Before I did anything it got 38. With the performance cam it got 36. With the cam and the Weber it got 33. I don't know how much of that can be attributed to winter gas and me flooring it a lot with my new goodies. Just thought I'd pass on my results. It's still way more fun to drive and I'm glad I did it.

Guess what I believe? But try leaner main jets if you have 140s; I think 140 is probably a little rich for such a small cylinder (325cc). I have used the same Weber on three different cars, all of which were 1800cc 4-cylinders (450cc per cylinder), and they used 140 main jets too.

[zoe60]

Yeah you are probably right. The thing is, I'm getting ready to put a 1.6 in it so I guess I'll leave it alone for now. May be OK with a b6.

[brickdog2000]

I finally got the festiva running. It took awhile waiting on jets and finding time. She runs a little rough, but I am happy just to have her running again. I did end up plugging the distributor advance, which is opposite of what everyone else did. I just couldent get the car drive right with the distributor advance hooked up. It would idle fine, but as soon as I would take off in 1st gear I couldent go over 10mph. I will be posting pictures sometime this weekend of what the finish product looks like. I have to give thanks to drddan. He put up with me hounding him with questions through out this project.

[brickdog2000]

Okay the pictures are being delayed due to the fact that the festy isnt running right. After research I discovered that the disty advance is not hooked up correctly. It was never hooked up correctly to begin with. So this weekend I will hopefully get this thing runnin right.

[drddan]

I will be posting pictures sometime this weekend of what the finish product looks like. I have to give thanks to drddan. He put up with me hounding him with questions through out this project.

No problemo! Glad I could help.
Hey, you can always add to my REP power!

Lets see those pics!