Carb Balancing tools. What's the best?

[alexblack13]

So .. You IR temp guage users... Weaken mixture = higher temps? or lower / vice versi.. ??

Good tip..... keep them comming.

Alex...

[Bruce Crowthorne]

I plump for the Carbtune (4 manometers - but they aren't mercury!) plus a Colortune plug.
Actually, I cheated - I already had the Carbtune to set up my motor bike.

Use the Colortune to set up the idle and maybe a bit of progression (but you can't load the engine and see the plug)
I tapped the inlet runners on my Webber TwinCam when I was rebuilding the engine, so I have the ports.

The Synchrometer is also good, but you need the airbox off to use it. Plus you don't get the visual impact of seeing all four at once.

The IR thermometer was interesting but I didn't find it sensitive enough to make any adjustments.

Don't think it is worth having more than one Colortune - you set up the idle on each choke individually.

On mine I found that two chokes on the same carb differed! I read various manuals and ended up stripping the carb and you could actually see that the two butterflies uncovered the progression holes at different times.
How could you fins that any other way?
Took some VERY careful tweaking to bring them into line....

Bruce

[alexblack13]

Bruce. This a typo? I can't understand what's ment here.


''How could you fins that any other way?'' I am poss' missing something. If so sorry!


The reason I thought about two colourtunes was to enable me to set up one carb at a time. Fit the devices to say front two cyls, start up and adjust. same for back two.

Quicker? Easier??

Cheers all & thanks for the input..

Alex B....

[Bruce Crowthorne]

Sorry Alex, it is a typo - it should say "find".

I suppose you could have 4 colourtunes!
But as the idle mixture is adjusted separately on each choke then when adjusting No1 then it will have no effect on any other cylinder. So having more than one won't make the process of adjusting each choke any different.

Plus my Scottish roots mean that I would only buy 1.
BTW mine came out of the ark - bought it when I tuned Minis running SU carbs in the 1970s! So they can last a lifetime.

B

[alexblack13]

I had one years ago also when I was responsible for all of our company vehicles the main one was the boss's Jaguar XJ6. Twin su's at that time. Worked well. I balanced them with a 'tube' and had those little pointers that one stuck into the dashpots.

Loaned them out... Never to be seen again.

Alex B....

[FOX5D]

Does anyone now what the best synchronisation tool/method is for strombergs?

[bill308]

Fox5d,

For Strombergs, I think the BK Synchrometer would likely be best. You have 2-carbs feeding 4-cylinders and there are balance tubes, so vaccum measurement is not a good choice. Direct measurement of the actual airflow into each carb is best.

Bill

[69S4]

I have a Gunson carbalancer which did an ok job on my strombergs but you have to take the airbox off to use it which does tend to limit the number of times it gets done.

I have wondered about vacuum measurement, particularly as as I already have a manometer for use on my motorcycles and it would be a lot simpler to use - just plug in and twiddle, but the possibility of the balance tube canceling out the differences has stopped me drilling the take-off holes.

On the other side of the coin though, if the balance tube does have such an effect is it worthwhile bothering with getting the strombergs finely balanced? Would near enough be good enough and let the balance tube do its job?