Here are some photo details of my home made manometer that I use to balance the throttles. First photo shows the general arrangement, two tubes about 8 foot long fixed to a plank of particularly fine grained Norwegian Spruce It is important to make sure that the vacuum end is completely sealed once the water levels have been set. Second shot, my hand is at the water level at the vacuum end of the pipe about 1 foot from the end, but it could be less. Third shot my hand is at the water level of the open end of the tubes. I fit the tubes to the fitting at the end of the plenum shown in the fourth photo. The vacuum in the plenum pulls the water down the tube towards the engine until the vacuum in the pipe is equal to the plenum vacuum. The adjustment is then made via the large brass bypass screws. P Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Sorry to inform you Phil....I was looking at Ferrari's automotive tools catalogue & they have the same "Manometer", except that is comes in a Yellow box with a Horsie....price is $1,875.00 euro.....fine grain Norwegian wood is an "extra" though.....Mark
I think I will market mine then, 1,875.00 euro you say....I'm up for some of that I might even add a lick of paint as well! P
Phil, I have made similar, mine is one clear tube wrapped around a wooden yard stick, filled with red oil to the appropriate level. Always works great. The $1.55 Carb Syncronizer by Marty Ignazito The objective of the vacuum measuring carb synchronizer is to see that the vacuum signals from both carbs are the same. It is the difference between the signals and not the actual signals we are interested in however. The Rotax two stroke engine shows a signal of about 6" of mercury at idle measured against the atmosphere at its test signal port and a difference of about 1/16th to 1/20th of an inch of mercury can be read easily by eye. If lighter liquids are used like oil this signal would read as about 97 inches of oil requiring a very tall manometer gauge. With a senstivity of some 16 times greater than a mercury manometer, an oil manometer only needs to look at the difference. By hooking each side of the manometer to each of the carbs we have a very sensitive tool for synchronization. A 1/20th of an inch of mercury difference would show up as about 13/16ths of an inch of oil on the oil manometer allowing for even finer adjustment than possible with mercury. Attached is a photo of an oil manometer I made up with some cheap materials from the local Ace hardware store. I filled mine with air compressor oil since I did not have any two stroke oil around, but two stroke oil would be a better safety measure in the event of oil getting into a carb. Here is the bill of materials: 12 ft of 1/8" ID clear PVC tubing $0.84 1 wooden yardstick $0.59 2 wire ties $0.12 For a total cost of $1.55 plus tax. The tubing was taped to the yardstick with transparent packing tape. The wire ties were put thru the hole in the yardstick to secure the tubing on each side at the top. If desired a machinists or carpenters square and a pencil can be used to extend the 1/8" markings to both sides of the stick or the level of the oil on one side can simply be noted before testing begins since it must return to this point to be in balance. Fill with oil to about the 26 or 27 inch mark (36 at the bottom). You may have to leave the unit sit for a day or so to get all the bubbles out. If you are careful not to introduce air when filling this is less of a problem. When in use with the engine running both lines must be connected, one to each carb. The oil will be sucked up and out of the manometer if only a single carb is connected and the other end is left open to the atmosphere. This device is so simple and cheap to make, I thought it best to just tell everyone how to do it rather than try to make and sell them. Bing's claim that their $34.95 mercury device is the most accurate carb balancer regardless of price seems to ring hollow doesn't it? I will try this unit as soon as I get a chance. If any of you beat me to it, let me know how it works for you. Marty Prairie Skyhook Marty Ignazito 13961E Co. Rd. 620N Charleston, Illinois 61920-7831 217-348-1525 fax 209-796-4433 e-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.powerchutes.com/prairieskyhook.htm Image Unavailable, Please Login
Phil, Thanks again for the pictures and description. I built it just like you said (except I used oak instead of Norwegian Wood), but when I apply vacuum it sucks the water out. I then used my vacuum pump to see how much vacuum I could pull w/o sucking the water out and it was about 15 inches. I did like you sid and sealed the end, but my suspicion is that there is a tiny leak.
If you use the one I made each hose runs to each bank, reducing the chance for sucking the fluid out, it can still happen if the banks are way off, but usually works well.
Hello Kenneth; If I understand correctly your unit is made of "1" continuous piece of plastic tubing, where as Phil's is "2" pieces of separate tubing, sealed each on 1 end.....Thanks, Mark
The real beauty is this shows serious understanding. Once upon a time: I had my car aligned by some shop with a fancy Align-O-Master 3000 with lasers etc, and the car handled terrible, crabbed down the road sideways, drank fuel, and showed tire scrub immediately. I found a shop where the tech taught alignment to ROP students. He used chalk, a razor blade set in a chunk of wood, and a measuring tape. The tech asked me, "if I wanted it set up for the street or the track". It never handled better!
Perfect example why I "cherish" older sports cars....Points, Plugs, Condenser, Rotor, Cap, Coil, Sparkplug Wires......NO FANCY Computers for a diagnostic evaluation....."3" questions....Does the engine have....fuel?, spark?, air?.....Mark
Agreed! A friends's BMW just had a "Check Engine" light come on. It took a diagnostic tool to say the Cam-Position-Sensor is going out, and it seems to run fine. What the heck does that mean? Won't start? Won't idle right? Won't rev up right? Bad gas mileage? Connecting rods are gonna pop out the side of the block
Your friend's BMW must have "variable valve timing", thus the need for the "C.P.S."....I have a friend bought a brand new BMW....we are backing out of his garage...& he mentions to me..."Watch the passenger side mirror"....he puts the car into reverse & the mirror automaticaly adjusts itself....after seeing this feature...I thought to myself....ANOTHER system to fail!!!!....what's wrong with turning one's head whilst backing out?!.....the same friend bought a brand new "Full Size" truck....was returning from vacation during a "sizzling" summer & thought he was getting sick, because he felt very HOT & assumed he getting a fever, even with the truck's air conditioner on HIGH....turns out the truck had a "seat warmer" that was turned on full blast & he didn't know it....I still LAUGH about that "1"......Mark
I had a check engine light come on in my beater a few years ago. I popped the hood, verfied that yes indeed the engine was still there, ignored the light and drove the car another 45,000 miles.
Regarding the manometer; I am still having problems. Using the dual-tube method, I sealed the end as bets I could, the water still got sucked into the intake. Went to the single-tube method (right bank to one side of the tube, left bank to the other), the water still got sucked in! This would normally indicate a huge imbalance, but I checked each side with a vacuum gage and (using the same gage for both sides) got 13.5 ". So the imbalance should not be that much.
Hmmmm, I can only guess that if ALL the water got sucked in, then the pipe is NOT fully sealed. If SOME of the water got sucked in then it is probably because there is too much water in the pipes to begin with, or possibly there is too much air at the closed end of the pipes, 6 to 12 inches is more than enough. I would not worry too much about the water entering the engine as long as the engine was warm and you ran it for a while after the "ingestion" it will be okay. I believe that some time ago GM used water as a way of decarbonising cylinders. It works! I tried it out on a Honda and it made a big difference. PLEASE DONT TRY THIS AT HOME THOUGH Let me know how you go on Vince and if it helps, send me a PM and I can take you through my "design and process" in a little more detail. P
