Can we discuss Chinese carbies?

Carburetors are pretty simple beasts in the scheme of things, a chunk of metal with a few holes in it.

I guess what I'm pondering is just how bad a Chinese knock of carb could be? Other than casting quality and assembly issues, how Terrible could they actually be? Some of the china-spec turbos seem to be pretty decent, why couldn't a knock off carb be the same?

This all stems from looking for parts for my Holley 5200 the other day, browsing eBay led me to a Weber 32/36 copy along with a 38/38 copy. At first I immediately dismissed them as junk, but the more I thought about it the more curious I became..... I guess the lure of a brand new carb copied from a tried and tested design with a purchase price not much more than a rebuild kit and a couple of jets is pretty strong bait. I figure it's eBay, buyers are pretty well protected, the seller is locally based and has good feedback.... Worst case scenario if it was to be total junk I could probably get my money back.

So what are grm's thoughts? Anyone ever played with knock off carbies? Any horror stories or tales of bargain awesomeness?

Nothing to say on point (sorry) but I did want to say that as I opened the GRM page I thought I read "Can we discuss Chinese cabbies?" so I expected something entirely different.

Please carry on with the original thread.

Stealthtercel said:

Nothing to say on point (sorry) but I did want to say that as I opened the GRM page I thought I read "Can we discuss Chinese cabbies?" so I expected something entirely different.

Please carry on with the original thread.

Well, if nothing good comes of the carburetors discussion I'm happy to let it become a thread about Chinese cabbies hahaha, sounds like it could get funny quickly.

Bernouli's theory is a myth, get fuel injection by some means.

No first-hand experience, though I've heard a few stories that suggest the castings aren't too pretty and the holes may or may not be drilled correctly, leading to potential tuning problems. It's worth noting that I've read similar things about Spanish-built Webers - apparently the factory was having some labor issues at one point and the workforce got a little lax in their QC.

The reason most people think carburetors suck is because they have been taken apart and put back together improperly by people with the attitude of "it's just some metal with holes in it".

A watch is "just a can with gears in it"

Chasing a tuning issue that is caused by flawed castings or improperly drilled orifices will make you pull your hair out.

There's a reason the big names in carburetion are big names in the first place. They build a good product.

In reply to ShawnG :

Yeah, probably shouldn't have over simplified like that, but what I was getting at is thth in terms of things that can be reverse engineered carburetors aren't exactly at the hardest end of the spectrum.

Totally agree that a poorly assembled or manufactured carburetor can lead to hours of frustration.

But to use your watch example. You can buy a tag or a Rolex and it should last several lifetimes, but equally you could buy a copy that quite adequately keeps time and does what's required for a number of years at a tiny fraction of the cost. 

Chinese carbs? Hell just ask about how good Demon carbs were. 

I totally get what you're saying. 

I've used the chineseium copies of dirtbike carburetors a couple times and had good luck with them.  I've seen the knockoff webers before and haven't heard of any problems with them.

If it's cheap enough you might as well give it a shot. You can always bolt the genuine article back on if it doesn't work.

I've only ever worked on one Demon carb and that was to pull it off, put it on eBay and replace it with a correctly sized Holley.

my brother got a Chinese eBay carb for some old single-cylinder honda motorcycle. he says it works fine.

“They say” the knockoff Weber’s are crapola.  

Stealthtercel said:

Nothing to say on point (sorry) but I did want to say that as I opened the GRM page I thought I read "Can we discuss Chinese cabbies?" so I expected something entirely different.

Please carry on with the original thread.

Heh, I saw “Chinese rabies.”

I would steer clear of a Weber copy.  Reverse engineering isn't the issue.  It's more a matter of machining tolerances and quality raw materials and equipment to actually make a functional, reliable product.     We're not talking about shower heads here.

I bought a Chinese carb for my little Honda ATC110.  The carb that showed up was an ugly casting with questionable hardware and wouldnt fit right despite the listing assuring me it was a cross to the OEM carb part number.  The upside was I was able salvage all the gaskets and bits and use them to rebuild my OEM honda carb, getting a few important missing pieces like the choke handle and some odd seals in the process.  

So I would give it a C-.   It probably would have worked, but holy crap it was ugly and would have taken more fiddling than the OEM.  But good news it showed up in 2 days Amazon Prime and the guts are still going strong in my OEM Honda body.  

All the Chinese babies, that my friends adopted are going strong.

TurnerX19 said:

Bernouli's theory is a myth, get fuel injection by some means.

Some of us have plenty of experience with carbs. Virtually none with FI. 

While I covet the ease I see you young whipper snappers “tune” your engines by plugging in a lap top. Changing jets, chokes, accelerator pumps just seems easier.  

Actually how hard is it to start from scratch with something that doesn’t have a program written for it?  

Say you wanted to do a 1927 speed 6 Blower Bentley or an MGB?  

In reply to frenchyd :

I am only a few years younger than you, and rebuilt my first SU carb 55 years ago. Sold my Elan partly because carbs. I still work on other peoples carbs, not for me!

My pressure washer has a 8 dollar Chinese carb that starts better than the brand new Briggs carb it came with. 

Summit sells carbs for about 300 and you can buy reman holleys for 200 on eBay. I'm building a cheap carbd vortec motor for my pops hot rod, if these China carbs get much cheaper than that I might try one

Sounds like folks have had good and bad experiences, so I'd look for something there are specific, hopefully trustworthy reviews on.

I haven't done a knockoff carb, but the mediocre rebuild kits for the old Hondas I was playing with had needles of the wrong shapes that made everything work for crap. Details matter.

The Chinese can make good quality parts.  They can also make junk.  Here in the US they tend to supply the low cost junk market.  The problem is that when you place the order on eBay or wherever you have no way of knowing which you're going to get.  When I buy generic Chinese sourced parts (as opposed to parts I specified from a specific Chinese manufacturer) I look at it as a gamble.  If I can't afford the gamble, either because the application is time sensitive or mission critical or just because the cash outlay is higher than I'm comfortable with then I go elsewhere.  With something like the Webers in question I'd rather rebuild a genuine one.  They made millions so there's no lack of cores.

I got a knockoff ford 2bbl off eBay and it works great.  No issues what so ever and I think it was under 100 shipped.

The chinese knock off carb for my stihl weed wacker made it run like new again. 

My riding mower has a $20 Chinese carb from ebay. Considering the broken mower was free and only took a $20 carb and some wiring repair to cut grass, I consider the Chinese carb to be the best part I've ever bought for it. 

I wouldn't want a Chinese copy of a Weber simply based on the fact that it's based on a Weber. Now I might be more interested in an SU or Mikuni carb copy. And IMO (a lot of people will disagree with me) but I think Weber's are pretty ugly. They (the common sidedraft models) just look like a giant block of aluminum with some tubes sticking out and some plumbing parts tacked on to me.

 They just look like a giant block of aluminum with some tubes sticking out and some plumbing parts tacked on to me.

That pretty much describes ev​​​ery carburetor ever made.