I am lovin this post. It's a nugget of gold.
The best carb is the carb
YOU like best. When I was a young man, I spent hours lusting over the hotrods that the cool guys drove. Back in the day, the coolest cars had certain qualities that were unmistakable. They all idled about 1500. They all made this awesome induction sound when the eight barrels opened up. They were all a handful to drive around town, lurching along, heavy clutches that wore your leg out, flat tappet cams ticking away in a sweet cadence that mesmerized the young wannabes. Some things you just can't shake. I can't shake my affection for a hotrod, warts & all.
In addition to my Savage, I have a Burgman. That thing is sweet. It always starts on the first tap of the starter button, immediately settles in to a silky smooth idle, fuels perfectly under ALL conditions, has tons of power, is comfy as a Barcalounger, keeps me dry in the rain, has loads of trunk capacity, stops on a dime, carves corners like its on rails. But, it ain't nearly as much fun as my Savage.
Now that I put the 40mm S&S carburetor on, to me the Savage is even more fun. It's my hotrod. Sure its a little choppy here and there, but screw on that throttle and the old engine gets an instant erection. It's like Viagra for that 40 inch mill.
I've been testing and tuning for the last 1500 miles or so. Logged countless hours in the saddle sorting out the stock carb on my Stage II ported head. That head doesn't utilize bigger valves so it only flows about
7% 12% (don't know how I screwed this up) better on the intake (exhaust has the full treatment so its about 43% better than stock). I can confirm that the stock carburetor, once properly sorted out, worked absolutely flawless on that head. It ran perfectly and the setup made some really good power. Then I installed the Super-E.
It's like hoppin out of a new Camaro with all the performance options and climbing into a 55 Chevy with a hopped up 409 and traction bars. The thing is a handful but oh the smile on my face. Its significantly faster than the stock carb, and also significantly less sophisticated. But I love this thing. It not only makes loads of top end power, but it also has excellent torque. Roll it on, any gear, and it goes. It actually likes WOT way better than cruise.
IMO, the stock carb can pretty much handle any flow requirements demanded by the stock cylinder head. It's a typical metric mixer, pretty much flawless once correctly jetted, and flows more than enough air to support stock head flow regardless of exhaust, cam, compression, etc.
Bump up your head flow and it's time to invest in a carburetor that can keep up with the head.
If you are curious about the flow capabilities of the carbs in question, check out this old post on carb flow tests.
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1552860080I'm not suggesting that everyone go out and round up an S&S Super-E and slap it on your Savage. It's waaaaay to much trouble. But for me, having a thirty year-old piece of nostalgia hangin off my intake port is simply the coolest. Takes me back to my younger days.
Yep! The best carb is the carb
YOU like best.