Purchase and pick up my mk1 - carbed engine.

Hi everybody

I just placed a deposit on a stunning mk1 golf which I'm set to pick up next weekend.
Fully restored, 1.8 Kr engine conversion with bike carbs, shaved engine bay, 15" bbs rs wheels and lots more.

I haven't owned a carbed engine before. I've been doing some reading and seen a few people saying they can be a pain to cold start sometimes and others saying they have no issues at all.
Is this true they are a pain or are they generally okay?
Any tips other than pumping the throttle a few times while turning over the engine. When I viewed the car the owner showed me he had a manual choke installed on the carbs themselves - I was paying attention however there was a lot to take in at the time!
I'm used to "turn the key and go" type of thing - this is my first classic car so lots to get used to.

Cheers

When injection cars arrived in the 80s they were a revelation.

Instant starting no matter the weather/outside temp/engine temp, instant smooth driving at all times and along with simple electronic ignition perfect in-tune running for 10,000s miles. No manually fiddling with knobs and cables to stop it stalling, bogging down or reving its kanckers off

All of which carbs struggled to do.

Now no one can be bother to maintain/repair injection systems (that are 40yrs and 200,000 miles old) and go back to the dawn of time and fit carbs…

Garns said

Hi everybody

I just placed a deposit on a stunning mk1 golf which I'm set to pick up next weekend.
Fully restored, 1.8 Kr engine conversion with bike carbs, shaved engine bay, 15" bbs rs wheels and lots more.

I haven't owned a carbed engine before. I've been doing some reading and seen a few people saying they can be a pain to cold start sometimes and others saying they have no issues at all.
Is this true they are a pain or are they generally okay?
Any tips other than pumping the throttle a few times while turning over the engine. When I viewed the car the owner showed me he had a manual choke installed on the carbs themselves - I was paying attention however there was a lot to take in at the time!
I'm used to "turn the key and go" type of thing - this is my first classic car so lots to get used to.

Cheers

welcome back to 1980-1990

sill like and use k jet personally

nicci21paul said

sill like and use k jet personally

I'm guessing that's a carb thing ?
Completely over my head tbh

Garns said

nicci21paul said

sill like and use k jet personally

I'm guessing that's a carb thing ?
Completely over my head tbh

Hey bud. 

No k jet is the Bosch injection system used on gti's and the like. 

Twin carbs can be troublesome in my experience, but I've friends who have them and have no issues, albeit on aircooled stuff. 

Just find an old school mechanic that can balance them every service. 

Also my old carb stuff I find a couple of pumps of the throttle when cold before cranking helps them in their way. 

Roach said

Garns said

nicci21paul said

sill like and use k jet personally

I'm guessing that's a carb thing ?
Completely over my head tbh

Hey bud. 

No k jet is the Bosch injection system used on gti's and the like. 

Twin carbs can be troublesome in my experience, but I've friends who have them and have no issues, albeit on aircooled stuff. 

Just find an old school mechanic that can balance them every service. 

Also my old carb stuff I find a couple of pumps of the throttle when cold before cranking helps them in their way. 

Hi mate

Ah okay - I've heard of k jet but didn't know exactly where it was used. I think this 1.8kr 16v engine is from a mk2 gti. Could be wrong.

Thanks for the advice

1.8 dx 1.8 kr also use it on my m2 2.0 abf

nicci21paul said

 1.8 dx 1.8 kr also use it on my m2 2.0 abf

So my 1.8kr engine does use the k jet system ?

Garns said

nicci21paul said

 1.8 dx 1.8 kr also use it on my m2 2.0 abf

So my 1.8kr engine does use the k jet system ?

should be mate

nicci21paul said

Garns said

nicci21paul said

 1.8 dx 1.8 kr also use it on my m2 2.0 abf

So my 1.8kr engine does use the k jet system ?

should be mate

Good to know, thanks. I'll double check with the previous owner when I can.

It also has a canems ecu

Garns said

nicci21paul said

Garns said

nicci21paul said

 1.8 dx 1.8 kr also use it on my m2 2.0 abf

So my 1.8kr engine does use the k jet system ?

should be mate

Good to know, thanks. I'll double check with the previous owner when I can.

It also has a canems ecu

It can't be K-jet and carbs at the same time, also the canems is just for ignition if you really are on carbs?

Sat behind a computer never seeing your car it can either be,

standard factory K-jet fuel injection,
after market carburetors replacing the factory K-jet
3rd party injection system replacing the factory k-jet

Early-1800 said

Garns said

nicci21paul said

Garns said

nicci21paul said

 1.8 dx 1.8 kr also use it on my m2 2.0 abf

So my 1.8kr engine does use the k jet system ?

should be mate

Good to know, thanks. I'll double check with the previous owner when I can.

It also has a canems ecu

It can't be K-jet and carbs at the same time, also the canems is just for ignition if you really are on carbs?

Sat behind a computer never seeing your car it can either be,

standard factory K-jet fuel injection,
after market carburetors replacing the factory K-jet
3rd party injection system replacing the factory k-jet

Ahh okay I see. Interesting. This is all new to me as you can tell.
Yes it has R1 bike carbs

deffinatly carbs lol

Yep. 1 carb for each cylinder. Fun to balance I bet….

Injection gives you turn key and go, that's why it's the norm these days.

Your carb mod will be fine, it's just a matter of getting used to how much choke you need when cold starting, which will depend on exactly how cold it is, and also you will need to judge how much, if any , choke you need if you've done a stop and start - depends how cold it is and how long you've been stopped for..

Too much choke and the engine will get flooded with fuel and then won't start at all. The cure for that is no choke, full throttle and crank , this clears the excess fuel.
Not enough choke will prevent starting as well obviously, as not enough "extra" fuel for the cold start.

Once you get driving , say for example a cold morning, you will need to reduce the amount of choke as soon as possible as the engine warms up - this you will learn with practice - specific to your engine..

I'm showing my age now !!! Happy memories from when all cars had carbs, before the turn key and go era of today !!!

jazzydog said

Yep. 1 carb for each cylinder. Fun to balance I bet….

Injection gives you turn key and go, that's why it's the norm these days.

Your carb mod will be fine, it's just a matter of getting used to how much choke you need when cold starting, which will depend on exactly how cold it is, and also you will need to judge how much, if any , choke you need if you've done a stop and start - depends how cold it is and how long you've been stopped for..

Too much choke and the engine will get flooded with fuel and then won't start at all. The cure for that is no choke, full throttle and crank , this clears the excess fuel.
Not enough choke will prevent starting as well obviously, as not enough "extra" fuel for the cold start.

Once you get driving , say for example a cold morning, you will need to reduce the amount of choke as soon as possible as the engine warms up - this you will learn with practice - specific to your engine..

I'm showing my age now !!! Happy memories from when all cars had carbs, before the turn key and go era of today !!!

Hi jazzydog

Thanks for the informative reply!
Sounds like it's going to be fun 😂
It's alright I'm up for a challenge and for me it's something cool and different to what I'm used to so I'm looking forward to it all.

The weird thing with this is the choke is under the bonnet on the engine so I wouldn't be able to adjust it while driving (obviously) like the usual choke in the cabin

Hey, yeah well , that’s not going to be any good !!

Your first job, install a choke cable which can be operated from the driving seat !!!


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