In Jan I bought one of the 34EPC carb kits from EMPI (Chinese Weber ICT's) at the local foreign parts house where I get all my VW stuff. I had
300-350$ oked to spend on my toy from my wife, maybe I could go up to 500 with lots of persuasion. I looked hard at ads on Samba and Ebay and online stores. Just plain got scared off from used "ran good when pulled" Kads and others. Read lots of online articles and knew whatever I got would need jetted and other tweaks, none of that bothered me as I've been screwing with VW's for 25 years, just never had a set of dual carbs. So I go to the store and ask around what they had and the quality of EMPI's stuff. One of the guys recommended Kads or whatever the kit is these days, saying the 34's would be weak, one of the guys said the 34s would be better for what my needs were, just a little boost to my stocker. Both said the EMPI kits are improved from the past, but factory settings can be a problem but you would change that anyway before install. So I handled both carbs and left the store to think about it.Went back on a evening right before closing time and asked what the price was for the 34's as it was the cheapest (299 if I talked to that guy, special price!?) and I also said I would need to get an 009 since I have always ran vac advance 034 distributors, he told me the epc's have provision for vac advance and that pretty much sold me. I bought the kit a week later.
The price was 277.75! and we opened it up and took a look, it had heat riser blockoffs and a bag of screws and other hardware, I found out later nothing was missing. Simple one page instruction sheet that was basically the same as those posted various places on the web for installing Weber ICT's. He told me I would need a balance tube so I went to Ace and got a tap and bit and some hose barbs, about 15$. I had not remembered reading anything about a balance tube at that time, so thought that was an advantage of buying local, (I Have since seen lots of info about it, and have read more about the tuning and setup also).
So anyway I go through the instructions and kit a hundred times while it rains outside and prepare to get going. Check the floats and all looks well The instructions say absolutely ZERO about what the chunk of vacuum line included with the kit is for, only mention of vac is to say "all applications will benefit from a centrifugal distributor" so I thought the parts guy was full of it, so bought a decent 009 off samba for 25$, (cheapest ive seen in a long time, got lucky). So I studied the carbs and compared it to a 34pict3 and determined that the vacuum port gets its signal from above the throttle plate just like the stocker and so a 034 diz will work. YEA! for sale: good 009, never used!
So on a sunny sat morning I go to install them, engine in car. Started to think about taking the fan housing out but the thermostat, removing the hood etc, the heck with it, cut the old manifold up with a die grinder and tossed it to the scrap, lets go install!!
Mostly went ok as per the instructions, Hard to reach some of that stuff, had to cut off one of my wrenches to get in there. OK got everything hooked up and running, and took it for a drive. Ran, took off when floored, but sputtered at steady throttle, LEAN according to ACN tech pages. Went to the store to get some jets and they didn't have any!!!!!!! Ordered from ACN and drove the car as is, more tweaking of the timing and mixture screws made a difference but waiting on the jets.
Jets arrived midweek and took the carbs back off, took em apart and fitted the new jets, rerouted the fuel lines, with the German hose, and tee'ed off the vac advance hose which really isn't necessary but was fun and looks good. RUNS GREAT!! Smooth, no sputter, no bogs off idle, mileage hasn't changed from stock but may improve after I take my foot out of it!!(I wrote this part mid Feb.)
Its now mid march and the car still runs great, mileage seems to have went up about 1 mpg, but still too early to tell.
Note on balancing: I bought one of those nice ones, but I could tell with just sensing whether the carbs were balanced or not, and my ear was right, experience I guess of what a good running engine should sound like? My ear and my balancing tool are in sync!
EMPI Quality from my observations.
Carbs themselves are very well casted, better than the late Brazil 30/31's I have seen, and better then the couple of Bocars I have laying around. Very clean when opened up before installation, float levels dead on. Come with lean jets, 52 idles, 130 mains. 160 air correction which I didn't change. The specs are not listed on the package, the info is posted online but I couldn't tell you where. I put in 57 idles, and 140 mains, after running with the factory jets for a short time.
Manifolds are aluminum, and not great, I couldn't get a socket on them to tighten one side, dam hard to reach in there with a cut off wrench too, but I got them tight. Are the bugpack manifolds better? Perhaps one should add those to your kit?
The linkage is what it is, probably the cheapest they can get away with, aluminum hex bar with plenty of thread if you need to cut it off, I didn't. Steel linkage arms that adjusted up nice with no slop. I put never seize on EVERYTHING, and all seems well and they open the carbs at the same rate. I put springs from the solex on the carbs because someone who wrote an article I read is right about the ict-epc, the spring configuration is backwards! They pull "up' not "across"! Solex springs give a nice feel in the foot!!
The kit came with Made in USA ¼" fuel hose, and plenty of it. I used the German 5mm because that's what you do with a VW!!!
The hardware is a mix and match of US and metric sizes, so are the Mack trucks I work on daily, so I'm used to it!
Like is stated above the kit comes with a length of vacuum hose but the instructions make no mention whatsoever of its purpose, there is no mention of balance tubes or the use of a vacuum distributor. Instructions seemed a little (a lot) generic, probably go with any carb kit they sell. Online info is very valuable and appreciated from all who have written over the years.
The hose clamps are good quality, metric 5mm, the gaskets are fat fiber or whatever they are made of and thick and fit well. Nothing was missing from the kit and I bought it locally so I could always go back and gripe. Very happy with the kit.
Regards,
Cletus Zuber