Been driving my 88 YJ with the 258 for quite some time now, but I'm
getting tired of constantly trying to keep the Carter BBD in line. I'm
in the market for a Weber conversion kit now, but I can't decide
between the 32/36 and the 38/38. My tires are bigger than stock (31's
in place of the stock 215's) and more than anything I want to be able
to maintain a reasonable highway speed.... I never try anything over 70
but I want to be able to climb a hill without having to downshift and
hear my engine tell me about it bitterly and loudly. All the ads claim
that the 38DGES kit gives a noticeable gain in low-end torque... I
don't run my engine faster than 2200 RPMs in the average trip, so I
don't really care about high-end performance. Anyone have this carb or
tried it before? Your thoughts?

 

I installed one for a friend. He chose the 38 synchronous over a 32/36
progressive for performance reasons, but not having installed the
progressive on the same vehicle, there is nothing to compare
It s a great carb, but you should install the off-road float kit. The
installation kit was very complete, no fabbing needed, but the standard
Webber air cleaner is small for a place like this with lots of powder silt.
I made a bigger one.
--
Stupendous Man,
Defender of Freedom, Advocate of Liberty

 

I installed one for a friend. He chose the 38 synchronous over a 32/36
progressive for performance reasons, but not having installed the
progressive on the same vehicle, there is nothing to compare
It s a great carb, but you should install the off-road float kit. The
installation kit was very complete, no fabbing needed, but the standard
Webber air cleaner is small for a place like this with lots of powder silt.
I made a bigger one.
--
Stupendous Man,
Defender of Freedom, Advocate of Liberty

 

I installed one for a friend. He chose the 38 synchronous over a 32/36
progressive for performance reasons, but not having installed the
progressive on the same vehicle, there is nothing to compare
It s a great carb, but you should install the off-road float kit. The
installation kit was very complete, no fabbing needed, but the standard
Webber air cleaner is small for a place like this with lots of powder silt.
I made a bigger one.
--
Stupendous Man,
Defender of Freedom, Advocate of Liberty

 

Micah wrote:
> Been driving my 88 YJ with the 258 for quite some time now, but I'm
> getting tired of constantly trying to keep the Carter BBD in line. I'm
> in the market for a Weber conversion kit now, but I can't decide
> between the 32/36 and the 38/38. My tires are bigger than stock (31's
> in place of the stock 215's) and more than anything I want to be able
> to maintain a reasonable highway speed.... I never try anything over 70
> but I want to be able to climb a hill without having to downshift and
> hear my engine tell me about it bitterly and loudly. All the ads claim
> that the 38DGES kit gives a noticeable gain in low-end torque... I
> don't run my engine faster than 2200 RPMs in the average trip, so I
> don't really care about high-end performance. Anyone have this carb or
> tried it before? Your thoughts?

Sounds like your bottom half may be more of a problem than the Carb.
Maybe piston slap, or wrist pin knock at higher RPM's My 88 had a bit
this. One or both, not sure which because I haven't opened the bottom
half up yet.

Incidentally (Here I go sounding like a broken record) my 88 also had a
new Hesco Cam, crane lifters, a 4.0 head swap, Holley fuel injection,
cold air induction and high flow filter, TFI (and others) ignition
upgrades, camp cams double roller timing set (not that it helps
performance but it's more money spent while trying to), 4.0 OEM style
stainless header, 2.5 inch mandrel bent exhaust back to a flowmaster.
Bigger gears were the biggest single butt dyno improvement.

Long story short, don't waste too much money trying to polish the 258
turd :) the 258 never approched my XJ's bone stock 147k mile 4.0, it's
crank and rods are about to be pulled for machining, to be put into that
147k 4.0 as I (slowly) use both engines to build a stroker similar to
the 4.6 that's in my DD Cherokee.

If you don't take my advice (and I know you wont just like I didn't
listen to others who wasted money trying to get something like decent
highway performance out of that pig) then I would recommend getting
gears before the weber, but a poorly tuned Carter is definitely going to
be the next logical thing to replace... The taller gears will give the
most noticeable improvement especially on takeoff and under load up hills.

--
Simon
"I may be wrong, but I'm not uncertain." -- Robert A. Heinlein

 

Micah wrote:
> Been driving my 88 YJ with the 258 for quite some time now, but I'm
> getting tired of constantly trying to keep the Carter BBD in line. I'm
> in the market for a Weber conversion kit now, but I can't decide
> between the 32/36 and the 38/38. My tires are bigger than stock (31's
> in place of the stock 215's) and more than anything I want to be able
> to maintain a reasonable highway speed.... I never try anything over 70
> but I want to be able to climb a hill without having to downshift and
> hear my engine tell me about it bitterly and loudly. All the ads claim
> that the 38DGES kit gives a noticeable gain in low-end torque... I
> don't run my engine faster than 2200 RPMs in the average trip, so I
> don't really care about high-end performance. Anyone have this carb or
> tried it before? Your thoughts?

Sounds like your bottom half may be more of a problem than the Carb.
Maybe piston slap, or wrist pin knock at higher RPM's My 88 had a bit
this. One or both, not sure which because I haven't opened the bottom
half up yet.

Incidentally (Here I go sounding like a broken record) my 88 also had a
new Hesco Cam, crane lifters, a 4.0 head swap, Holley fuel injection,
cold air induction and high flow filter, TFI (and others) ignition
upgrades, camp cams double roller timing set (not that it helps
performance but it's more money spent while trying to), 4.0 OEM style
stainless header, 2.5 inch mandrel bent exhaust back to a flowmaster.
Bigger gears were the biggest single butt dyno improvement.

Long story short, don't waste too much money trying to polish the 258
turd :) the 258 never approched my XJ's bone stock 147k mile 4.0, it's
crank and rods are about to be pulled for machining, to be put into that
147k 4.0 as I (slowly) use both engines to build a stroker similar to
the 4.6 that's in my DD Cherokee.

If you don't take my advice (and I know you wont just like I didn't
listen to others who wasted money trying to get something like decent
highway performance out of that pig) then I would recommend getting
gears before the weber, but a poorly tuned Carter is definitely going to
be the next logical thing to replace... The taller gears will give the
most noticeable improvement especially on takeoff and under load up hills.

--
Simon
"I may be wrong, but I'm not uncertain." -- Robert A. Heinlein

 

Micah wrote:
> Been driving my 88 YJ with the 258 for quite some time now, but I'm
> getting tired of constantly trying to keep the Carter BBD in line. I'm
> in the market for a Weber conversion kit now, but I can't decide
> between the 32/36 and the 38/38. My tires are bigger than stock (31's
> in place of the stock 215's) and more than anything I want to be able
> to maintain a reasonable highway speed.... I never try anything over 70
> but I want to be able to climb a hill without having to downshift and
> hear my engine tell me about it bitterly and loudly. All the ads claim
> that the 38DGES kit gives a noticeable gain in low-end torque... I
> don't run my engine faster than 2200 RPMs in the average trip, so I
> don't really care about high-end performance. Anyone have this carb or
> tried it before? Your thoughts?

Sounds like your bottom half may be more of a problem than the Carb.
Maybe piston slap, or wrist pin knock at higher RPM's My 88 had a bit
this. One or both, not sure which because I haven't opened the bottom
half up yet.

Incidentally (Here I go sounding like a broken record) my 88 also had a
new Hesco Cam, crane lifters, a 4.0 head swap, Holley fuel injection,
cold air induction and high flow filter, TFI (and others) ignition
upgrades, camp cams double roller timing set (not that it helps
performance but it's more money spent while trying to), 4.0 OEM style
stainless header, 2.5 inch mandrel bent exhaust back to a flowmaster.
Bigger gears were the biggest single butt dyno improvement.

Long story short, don't waste too much money trying to polish the 258
turd :) the 258 never approched my XJ's bone stock 147k mile 4.0, it's
crank and rods are about to be pulled for machining, to be put into that
147k 4.0 as I (slowly) use both engines to build a stroker similar to
the 4.6 that's in my DD Cherokee.

If you don't take my advice (and I know you wont just like I didn't
listen to others who wasted money trying to get something like decent
highway performance out of that pig) then I would recommend getting
gears before the weber, but a poorly tuned Carter is definitely going to
be the next logical thing to replace... The taller gears will give the
most noticeable improvement especially on takeoff and under load up hills.

--
Simon
"I may be wrong, but I'm not uncertain." -- Robert A. Heinlein