JPL Posted July 20, 2010 Share Posted July 20, 2010 Dear All, I hope you are all well. I am running a Formula Ford with a Kent 1.6 engine. (Standard cam/crank/lightened flywheel/dissy replaced with electronic ignition) We have the standard 32/36 DGAV Webber and are suffering from a loss of around 16bhp in power. I put this down to a number of factors: 1. Very poor cast Intake Manifold. 2. Reverse orientation of carb due to chassis shape 3. Oversize/ill fitting carb to manifold gasket 4. Jetting and carb set-up Points 1-3 are being rectified but I was wondering if there is any tuning I can carry out in order to improve our power. All valves and seats including timing have been set accordingly. We are allowed to change the following according to the rules: 1. Jetting 2. Opening of venturi/throttle together 3. Remove cold start and diffuser bar 4. Fit anti-surge pipes We are not allowed to blue print/polishing or reprofile the carb. Any help would be appreciated I want to get the best out of our carb and engine. JP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPL Posted July 27, 2010 Author Share Posted July 27, 2010 Dear All, I hope you are all well. I am running a Formula Ford with a Kent 1.6 engine. (Standard cam/crank/lightened flywheel/dissy replaced with electronic ignition) We have the standard 32/36 DGAV Webber and are suffering from a loss of around 16bhp in power. I put this down to a number of factors: 1. Very poor cast Intake Manifold. 2. Reverse orientation of carb due to chassis shape 3. Oversize/ill fitting carb to manifold gasket 4. Jetting and carb set-up Points 1-3 are being rectified but I was wondering if there is any tuning I can carry out in order to improve our power. All valves and seats including timing have been set accordingly. We are allowed to change the following according to the rules: 1. Jetting 2. Opening of venturi/throttle together 3. Remove cold start and diffuser bar 4. Fit anti-surge pipes We are not allowed to blue print/polishing or reprofile the carb. Any help would be appreciated I want to get the best out of our carb and engine. JP Hello All, Has no one got any opinions or advice on this one? I have since ordered the new correct carb - DGV (Manual Choke) Anyone have any advise on best settings/jetting with a Formula Ford Kent engine? Many thanks JP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deranged Posted March 9, 2011 Share Posted March 9, 2011 Dear All, I hope you are all well. I am running a Formula Ford with a Kent 1.6 engine. (Standard cam/crank/lightened flywheel/dissy replaced with electronic ignition) We have the standard 32/36 DGAV Webber and are suffering from a loss of around 16bhp in power. I put this down to a number of factors: 1. Very poor cast Intake Manifold. 2. Reverse orientation of carb due to chassis shape 3. Oversize/ill fitting carb to manifold gasket 4. Jetting and carb set-up Points 1-3 are being rectified but I was wondering if there is any tuning I can carry out in order to improve our power. All valves and seats including timing have been set accordingly. We are allowed to change the following according to the rules: 1. Jetting 2. Opening of venturi/throttle together 3. Remove cold start and diffuser bar 4. Fit anti-surge pipes We are not allowed to blue print/polishing or reprofile the carb. Any help would be appreciated I want to get the best out of our carb and engine. JP Hi, only just found this site so apologies for the very late reply! I hope that you have resolved your problems by now but, if not, I MAY be able to help if I can stir the old grey matter effectively! I used to build competitive FF engines in the distant past. We used to put an enormaous amount of effort into building competitive engines, lots of small permitted changes added up to quite a lot. Unfortunately there is a lot of duff information out there, particularly with regard to the power output of a competitive engine. All our engines were run-in and set up on the engine dyno, which was regularly calibrated, and power output corrected to the DIN standard to take account of varying atmospheric conditions. A really quick winning engine produces around 100 BHPc and anything from 98 up will be competitive. Last time I built a 1600FF engine was way back in 1995 for classic FF. Came off the dyno with just over 98 BHPc and won lots of races, strangely enough always beating the cars with their supposed 110 bhp. I love the old racing expression "When the flag drops the bullshit stops" Anyway, carb mods... the biggest problem to overcome is getting the thing to work when coming out of corners. The carb works fine in a road car, but a single seater generates much greater G forces and the fuel in the float chamber goes all over the place. There were many ways of overcoming this and the "anti-surge" pipes were the most popular. Float weight is also very important. Have fun D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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