[T3] Old Type IIIs

James Lingenfelter jimmyandcher at yahoo.com
Wed Feb 23 21:13:46 PST 2011


  If you fill up your tank, drive 200 miles, then fill up again and  
get 5 U.S.  gallons in, that equals 40 mpg. Come on, give me more  
credit than that. The car has been a daily driver for 7 years, I  
think I know what highway mileage I get. And yes, I have even heard  
of tailwinds (once). From my experience, dual single barrel carbs  
ALWAYS get better gas mileage than stock setup, if they're done  
properly. And being mostly a type 1 person, I have NEVER gotten that  
kind of mileage out of any type 1, no matter what the setup. For one  
thing, the type III, particularly the squareback, has less drag than  
any of the type 1s. So I stand by the 40mpg. In fact, a few weeks  
ago, I got over 30 IN TOWN.... and I'm talking big-city, stop-and-go,  
never-get-over-40mph kind of in-town. When I lived at higher  
elevation and had it jetted smaller, I could do even better. So,  
unless Texas is now measuring with the Imperial Gallon.....

BTW- this particular car had these carbs when I found it..... that  
was actually one of my requirements in type III hunting, since nobody  
I knew with the FI could ever get them to run, LOL. I am NOT a  
mechanic and didn't want something that would take a lot of work to  
get running.

On Feb 23, 2011, at 6:47 PM, Jim Adney wrote:

> On 23 Feb 2011 at 7:58, James Lingenfelter wrote:
>
>>     I will be ridiculed, as always, for saying this, but I still
>> stand by it; my type III has been a daily driver for 7 years; if it's
>> not running, my family is minus a car. It is used to ferry the kids
>> around, has had to go on long trips, etc. Since I have owned it, I
>> have known a FEW other people that used them as REAL daily drivers,
>> with one friend basically using his as a work truck on unpaved
>> mountain backroads, logging 1,000 miles a week or more. Everybody
>> I've known that REALLY depended on a type III for serious dependable
>> transportation would tell you what I'm about to tell you, and it's
>> very simple: Throw the fuel injection system in the trash and put
>> carburetors on it.
>
> Sure, you may not have been able to get your FI to run right, but
> don't blame the car. I drove FI Type 3s as daily drivers for 35
> years. For most of those years, we had 2 such cars, daily drivers for
> my wife and for me. They started and ran well from -30F to +112F,
> from Death Valley to 8000', and seldom let me down, almost never for
> a FI problem. I almost NEVER had to adjust anything related to the
> FI. It was always rock steady decade after decade. I would still be
> driving them except that I'm no longer willing to do so in our winter
> salt while suffering from the lack of a practical heater.
>
> Yes, you can put carbs on one, and with some effort you can get them
> to run well with them. Most people fail at this, but a few, like you,
> come out ahead. Yes, you can probably get slightly better HP, but
> this won't come without an increase in emissions and a decrease in
> fuel economy. Frankly, if you think you get 40 mi/gal, you're either
> using Imperial gallons or you're not doing the math right. I don't
> think my '62 beetle ever did that well.
>
> Your complaint points to the one weakness in our FI systems: the lack
> of good mechanics who understand them. Yours clearly didn't and I'm
> afraid that experience is all too common. I'm my own mechanic, and it
> was a steep learning curve in the early years. Not much was published
> and even less was understood. That's one of the good things about the
> internet and this list; it makes that info available for those who
> care enough to ask and listen.
>
> Perhaps you got 40 mi/gal one day and that's the day you remember. I
> did that once, too, but then I discovered that I had a 25 mi/hr
> tailwind on an interstate. Not a fair test.
>
> So, yes, I'll give it to you and your carbs for HP, but for
> emissions, fuel economy, long term reliability, and general
> driveability, FI comes out on top.
>
> -- 
> *******************************
> Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
> Madison, Wisconsin, USA
> *******************************
>
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