Zenith

[siii8873]

I've read a number of post about carbs. I have a rebuild project going on and considering what carb to put on. I have a used weber 34ICH and a new in box Zenith. I see a lot of bashing of the zeniths. I had a zenith on a truck I sold and it was OK did not give me to many problems after I worked the bugs out. I have not really ran the weber when I did, from trailer to barn, ran like crap but it was not carbs fault, really dirty fuel system. I have a 2 barrel weber on my daily driver and it seems to work great. Got just under 17mpg on a 600mile round trip on highway running at about 60mph except on uphills.
From what I read weber - reliable a little under powered, must keep fuel clean
Zenith, warp issues - are these usually a one time thing (fixed this on one I had) or a reoccuring problem, good at all angles,, (original type carb)
I was leaning toward zenith, thoughts?

[printjunky]

Do some searching. Few subjects have gotten more scrutiny on this board. There is a LOT of good carb information here and on Terri Ann's site and other links from posts here.

I haven't used a Weber carbureted Rover in about a decade, but I had few problems with it when I did. Eventually it developed a leak, but soon thereafter, the rear main went, making the carb moot.

And right now I've spent the past few weeks trying to get the Zenith on my current SIII dialed in with very limited success. I'm still running very rich - getting bad and frequent carbon fouling, and getting about 7mpg!

My opinion is that based on venturi size and air volume the Zenith should be perfect, if fixed, tuned well, with no worn parts. The Weber seems less perfectly fit, but the ease of ownership quotient seems to be the converse.

If the Zenith doesn't come around soon, I'm just going to order a Weber. I might then consider a new rebuild of the Zenith and trying it again at some point, but right now, I just want it to work.

[gudjeon]

Gimme a Zenith any day. Simple as a carb is going to get. If you know its foibles, then even better. I can field strip mine down for full field repair/rebuild in minutes. I ordered one from PA Blanshards and had it in my hands in a week via Royal Mail. Sorry hosts.:D

[bchene]

I have used both. I found that the zenith, once set and the halves lapped seemed to give more power and even a little better mileage. The weber to me seems simpler, especially if rebuilding. When I rebuilt the zenith i did have some issues with 'real' versus 'pseudo' zenith carbs and parts. Get the zenith bits from a reliable source.

Anyway, I too vote for the zenith.