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Carburetor Mike Stage II Observations

3K views 2 replies 1 participant last post by  The Mindless Philosopher 
#1 · (Edited)
I've been able to shake-down my Carburetor Mike Stage II (Edelbrock 1901) build for three weeks. I've wrung it out fairly well, I think. Here are my observations:

The carb idles smoothly in the neighborhood of 800 RPM.

No noticeable increase in power. A quick yank of the throttle pulls the front wheel off the pavement every time, as it had with the old 1901, and the power continues coming on, hard and smooth up to 5000 RPM. I don't push the engine beyond that.

At least once, I noticed a mild hiccup under hard acceleration somewhere between 3000-4000 RPM, in 3rd gear I think, but it smoothed out immediately. Haven't experienced that again in a hard straight-line pull. I definitely haven't had that happen in a slow steady climb.

Neither this carb nor my old one liked brisk acceleration when making a turn from a dead stop (traffic signal). It will hesitate a little until the trike is straightened out. The fix? Accelerate into a turn (from a dead stop) like a civilized person. It behaves fine in turns entered while the trike was already in motion.

No noticeable loss in power. The carburetor takes everything I can throw at it. No flooding under normal operation, no "dieseling", no stuttering, no lean-out/fuel starvation or other woes.

Fuel economy is unchanged, but then I specifically asked for a Stage II configuration, not a gas sipper. Hoss' range is exactly 120 miles on 7.45 gallons of gas (8 gallon tank) under a steady freeway cruise averaging 75-77 MPH (most AZ freeway speed limits are 75) @ 3000 RPM (exactly where the tach sits at 76 MPH with this TH350 transmission). This boils down to 16.107 MPG. My reserve fuel cell (advertised as a 4 gallon unit) yields no more than 49 miles before it runs dry. At 16.107 MPG, this puts the auxiliary tank's useable capacity at 3.042 gallons. I blame that three speed transmission for the excessive fuel consumption. Hoss needs an overdrive gear.

Overall impression: though I was hoping to have some performance characteristic really stand out compared to the standard Edelbrock 1901 carburetor, nothing really reaches out and grabs me.

I cannot say I am disappointed, though. All this tells me is that the engine was already tuned/tweaked as well as it could have been, given the combination of other parts that are on it. In order to realize any additional power, I'd surely have to swap other components like the intake, cam, and heads to begin with.

Since it has no problem feeding this thirsty beast, The Carburetor Mike Stage II appears to be worth every cent so far, and I am glad I bought it.
 
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#2 ·
The more I run this trike, and RUN IT HARD, the more I thoroughly appreciate this Carburetor Mike Stage II build. Honestly, it's a little smoother than the tune on my fuel injected '11 Mustang, and that thing has been re-tuned a handful of times using information pulled from data logs.

I have put just shy of 1,000 miles on this carburetor. That's not a big number, but if something were to rear its ugly head, I'm sure it would have by now.
 
#3 ·
As for MPG...

I don't think I'll play around with timing or carburetor jetting and such, as Mike did include detailed instructions on how to do it and what to expect, because I am a firm believer in "If ain't broke, don't fix it." Since I am not silly enough to believe I could wring any more than a few MPG's out of this thing after a handful of headaches, and trial and error, I figure it's best to leave things as they are: running well!
 
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