so guys in the know, whats the deal with bike carbs on a car? whats needed, whats the power gains like, reliabilty, ease of fitment etc etc. im seriously, seriously considering this idea as there is no way in the world i could ever afford throttle bodies. seems like a good idea and i have seen some cbr 600 carbs cheap. so can anyone fill me in/talk me through it?? hope so, it would be an adventure . (particularly interested in stu's views , advice on this one)

If you do the job properly, you'll be looking at around 160bhp peak power but your part-throttle (eg cruise) fuel economy will be unpredictable. This is assuming you do actually mean bike carbs and not bike throttle bodies - quite often people use both terms for the same thing.

 

You'll need a suitable inlet manifold, suitable carbs (approx 32-34mm), throttle linkage, fuel lines, low pressure fuel pump (putting a 3 psi regulator on a 70 psi efi pump is a bodge), and then someone to set it up properly. To gain the most from the conversion you'd need a proper exhaust manifold and free flowing exhaust system. If you can raise the compression ratio a bit too (eg skim the head) this package will work better, possibly netting you as much as an honest 170bhp - however that's probably an extra grand in total for another 10bhp, so not great value for money. Depends what you want to do really.

Thanks for your input on this stu . If i were to send you the link to the parts i have seen could you tell if they would be of any use to me at all please ? Cheers , Jay

Probably not to be honest. You want to find carbs which are either individual or capable of being modified to space them out to suit the zetec inlet port centres. That's the first hurdle to overcome.

Probably not to be honest. You want to find carbs which are either individual or capable of being modified to space them out to suit the zetec inlet port centres. That's the first hurdle to overcome.

What i have seen does look like throttle bodies but advertised as carbs . Will get the link pmd to you when i get on the computer mate . Never know my luck aye :-D

 

So in your professional opinion is it a good and worthwhile mod stu ?

It's worth it for the potential low cost per horsepower... but as far performance goes? No, you'd get used to it in a week or two.

Still better than the 120 psi im running at the minute though lol . Cheers mate thanks for your time :-)

probs with bike carbs are is youll most likely fail the MOT on emmisions. only really worth while if you are going to have it as an track car or is a car older than a J plate

or is a car older than a J plate

 

Replace 'car' with 'engine' and that'd be correct.

 

I wouldn't change to carbs and retain the cat as it probably won't last long.

Really? So that means to say if i found a very early zetec, carbd it and threw it in a mk6 so long as the engine is a j or older it would be fine for emmisions

Yup. Emissions is based on year of engine, not car, however a lot of MOT testers haven't read this paragraph in the book.

nice one, you learn somthing everyday!