Above: One very dirty Kadron, having set long exposed. Note AJ Sims overflow tube that extends from float bowl. The top of the carb is an exhaust pipe reducer pop-riveted on to accept crankcase vent and fresh air tubes.
The Kadron is actually a Solex carb made in Brazil. Kadron is the company that resells them. In the early 1970s (maybe even a bit earlier), Kadron began packaging dual card kits for the VW, with both single and dual port manifolds.
The Kads we get are sold individually in South and Central America as the 40-44EIS as replacements for old single bbl Carter's, etc. They are not "racing" carbs by any stretch, but due to a variety of throttle bodies and venturis, and use of standard Solex jets, very tunable.
The 40-44EIS is an evolved version of the Solex 40 PBIC/PICB used on 1300-1600 Porsche 356 Super engines in the 1950's. Porsche eventually replaced the 40 PBIC and PICB with the 2bbl Zenith, which was a reasonably good carb but was overshadowed by the better Webers and Weber-like 2bbl 40mm Solex PII.
Porsche considered a 28mm venturi as the performance option on the single bbl Solexes and even the Zeniths. Kads come out of the box with 28mm venturis, so you have a good start.
There is no direct performance relationship between Solex and Weber venturi sizes because of the very different carb designs. As a rule, a Weber needs a larger venturi to achieve the same performance as a Solex ... but that's still apples and oranges.
Solexes need crossover or balance tubes to run correctly. 356's were delivered with balance tubes. The tube mainly aids idling and improves low to midrange performance.
Lots of people try to run Solexes with no balance tube (no tubes on Webers, etc., right?) and have terrible trouble. It can be done, but is in no way easy.
The advantages of Kadron-Solexes are cost, and ease of tuning if you know what you're doing. The disadvantages are poor throttle shaft bushings, poor linkages as delivered in the standard issue kits, and no vac outlet if you need to use a vac distributor.
More people are inclined to use a vac distributor on Kads than Webers. Kads see more street use than true race use, and nobody expects Webers to have vac ports (although they can).
Lots of good Weber tuning books exist. Not one Kad book is out there, and I am tempted to write one. A well tuned Kad engine can run against a well tuned Weber engine for all except the most competitive road courses.
AJ Sims has proven Kads can hold their own in drag racing.
I have set up, advocated, and used Kads since 1974. I highly reccommend them to anyone who does not want to take the time to become a Weber expert or who cannot afford the jets and venturis for Webers.
FJC
