1600 Kadron motor: fond memories

[Jim Ratto]

For a good 6 years, I worked on and sometimes drove my ex's Super Bug, which had a stock 1600 dual port. When I met her it had a dead 34 PICT carb and a vacuum distributor with a bad vac advance. Needless to say it ran like junk. I found a somewhat good set of Kadrons for $100 and donated one of my 010 distributors, added a Phoenix header and quiet pack, and it was a new motor. Whereas before it had a terrible flat spot off idle and horrible acceleration, after the carbs and distributor and exhaust, it became lively, torquey and had a snarling dual carb growl. It became a really fun car to drive. We used to trade cars for weeks at a time (she'd take my Vanagon), and I loved driving that car. Not fast, but responsive, throaty and easy to work on. Kadrons were the bastard child carbs when I was in high school.... we all though you HAD to have Webers or nothing. What a mistake. I was given a set of Kadrons when I helped a guy get his 44's dialed in, yet I just tossed them in a box and forgot about them. Years later, I ended up with a Bus with a 1679, and worn out ICT Webers, and it wouldn't run well at all. I was bored one day and pulled out those old free Kadrons and rebuilt them and by the afternoon I had found a lot more power out of my Bus. It would actually burn some tire off in first gear!
Anybody remember the 44mm "Killer Kadrons?"

[danny gabbard]

My exwife had a set on here 1835 and talk about beating on a car, Lots of fun and it always ran and ran smooth. I don't know why people are always talking shit on those carbs? They worked great for me, But I'm know mechanic.

[Sarge]

I bought my first set of Kads in the '70's and ran them on the '69 for many years with little problem.  I think they're a great choice for a 1600 or 1776 with an Engle 110 cam.  Years later, I bought a second set with the intention of using them on the '67 but passed when some IDA's came my way.  Allen Wiess' son Matt has them on his 1914 FK87 camed drag racer and the car runs quiet nicely!

[javabug]

I seem to have mine working alright at the moment.



My 1835 is prettymuch a stock 1600, with 92's.  Wish I had time to spend on it lately, to really get it tuned up right.  The 1-1/2" merged and duals really made a difference...it'll pull past 5k, but I try not to with the unbalanced internals.

Never ran filters so far.   

[Neil Davies]

I'll start by saying I've never run them myself, so my experience of Kads is based purely on friends owning and using them.

For the price of a set of brand new Kadrons, I would always spend the money on a second hand set of Weber IDFs or Dellorto DRLAs. My 36DRLAs came from a breakers yard for £25, and the CB Performance linkage, manifold and filter kit cost £165. Rolling road and jet changes cost another £50, so including the extra fuel pipe and clips I put the kit together and had it fully tuned up for around £250. Even if you pay £100 for a pair of carbs you're still quids in on a new Kadron kit. While the carbs themselves aren't bad, the linkages are crap - I know of so many people who have had the linkages pop off at the ball joint. One friend even replaced the ball joints with R/C car suspension bits! I know Gene Berg sells a linkage kit but why not just buy a better carb and the linkage to suit that instead?

[Neil Davies]

Oh, and my biggest reason for going for IDFs over Kads - when I started drag racing I had my 1971 KG, with a 1641 with 36 Dells and a merged header with dual quiet packs. It ran a best of an 18.035 @ 82mph. A friend had a 1972 Beetle with a 1641 with kads, 1.25:1 rockers, and a 4 into 1 header with a stinger. We both had 3.88:1 swing axle gearboxes, both had the same height rear tyres, both had stock cams and heads. Bearing in mind that there is a weight difference of 50lbs between a Ghia and a bug, and I was a good 100lbs heavier than the owner of the bug, I can't think of any reason why her car was over half a second slower than me other than the carbs.

[Sam K]

Back when I was in High school, I had a 1600 with a set of Kadrons, a 009, some 1.25 rockers and and S&S header with a variety of mufflers. My car ran like a champ!
The only trouble I had was that the steel manifolds liked to ice up when it was really cold. Actually, I used all of the above parts to blow up several used 1600's, but I had a lot of fun and learned a lot. 

[Jim Ratto]

easy thing with kadrons too.... getting them jetted in. Yes, it does suck that you have to unscrew carb cover, but they seem to repsond so acutely once you get the "right" jet in them.... it's like the motor says BINGO

[Sam K]

I'm pretty sure my old kadrons are sitting in a friends garage. This topic makes my want to get them back and put them on my girlfriends Thing.

[javabug]

HEY!  That's between you and her. 



(take pictures)

[Sam K]

HEY!  That's between you and her. 



(take pictures)

As soon as I made that post, I expected a reply along these lines. 

[181]

for my temporary singleport 1500, Kadrons are fine.. I had to jet them down on main and idle too. Fo my 2276 it will be 48 Trijets 

[crofty]

They ran better than the transaxle in my bus!

[Rennsurfer]

I dig Kadron carbs... always had great luck with them. Wish I could've found a set of nice cheap ones for my current temporary engine, but being single port made it a royal pain in the arse. In the old days, we threw away the single port manifolds. Dang! Wish I would've saved a few from the trash at Auto Haus. We never sold any... or rarely did. Oh well.

So I ended up finding a set of Ratto's favorite Webers... 34ICTs.

 

They were brand new (only on a customer's car for exactly one week), complete, and jetted for a 1600 single port. For $200 and me not working, I had to buy 'em. Couldn't handle my single carb, any longer. So far, so good. They're great on gas, have decent power, and no problems yet. Ran 113 octane leaded race fuel that my employer makes. Ran pretty good, this weekend.

What I've hardly seen over the years are the 44mm Kadrons. At least in So Cal... not to many out there on the road.