Dual 40mm Carbs?

[Classic-Manx-71]

[FONT="Tahoma"] As I understand it, the currently available Weber dual 40mm carbs are made in Spain (?) and their quality is considered to be less then when they were made in Italy. So, I'm looking at the EMPI dual 40mm carbs (made in China and $250-300 less a kit then the Webers) and wondering what their overall quality is? Can anyone share any first-hand experience with these carbs? [/FONT]

[5150bossman]

Haven't heard much in the last couple of years, but Hot VW's did an article on the Empi HPMX carbs a while back, and they said it did produce more HP (keep in mind that manufacturers do send perfectly tuned, perfectly built examples to be tested, not one straight from the production line), but all the comments after that were that it was a piece of junk. Fit and finish were horrible, and it often had to be rebuilt right out of the box. Do a web search and see what people are saying now before you commit to them.

[newmanx59]

I have always had good luck with Italian and Spanish Webers. I have only heard bad of the EMPI HPMX carbs.

[manxfwin]

Mark Harney had a web site where he had taken apart a set of Empis and found them to be so bad that he could not even modify them so they would work.He has removed his web page but is still active on the Samba site.General consensus seems to indicate they are junk.On the plus side,in 5 years all of our production will be products for the Chinese and we can return the favor.

[FAKMANX]

I purchased a set of 44's from Weber Carbs Direct. I installed them and had my engine builder tune them, seems they did not drill out the idle circuit completely. When I removed them on closer inspection, you could see the poor casting done on the venturi. It looked like it was melting. I returned the single carb and they replaced it. There is no refund once you run gas through it. I was told these were made in the U.S.A. not Italy or Spain. Since I was unable to get a refund, I had my engine builder go through both of them and install and tune them. I am very happy with the way they perform now. However I am sure if I shopped around I could have found some rebuilt ones from Italy for less than the $1,200 I have invested now. The moral of the story, "its a jungle out there".

[croakintowd]

Generally, I have found Empi products to be of poor quality. Recently, I bought some disc brake pads, made by Empi. I removed them from the packing material, and the brake material fell off the steel backing. Not good. I wrote the folks that sold me the pads, and they were willing to replace them. (I declined). I wrote Empi and told them I was concerned about the quality of their parts. No response from them at all. So, I have decided to avoid Empi products. I have not heard good things regarding the Empi IDF's, either. Be patient and keep looking. You may be able to find a pair of Italian or Spanish units.