Weber plumbing question

[John Fitzpatrick]

These Webers were modified at some point—the fuel inlets were blanked off and the fuel supplied from above through the fitting that normally secures the filter. I disassembled and cleaned the carbs 15 years ago and they’ve been sitting ever since, and I’m going to have to do it again since fine dust seems to have found it’s way past the covers and the shaft seals. My question is, since I’m going to have them apart anyway, should I go ahead and have the fuel inlets drilled out and re-threaded and put the fuel lines back in the standard configuration, or was switching fuel inlet location (and eliminating the filter) a common performance mod back in the day?

[Jac Mac]

If it works OK the way it is then leave it as is. If you fabricate or already have a tray to seal the airhorns off from engine bay/exhaust etc it means that the fuel lines will be in a cooler area as well. Change for the sake of change alone is not a good reason!

[John Fitzpatrick]

Okay Jac Mac, thanks. If there isn't anything inherently wrong with the mod, I'll leave it as-is and put a serious filter in the line just ahead of the first carb. These particular Webers were like this when I bought them and I've never run them. I just wanted to avoid having to pull them later to correct someone else's bad idea after rebuilding them once again. Next time I store something like this it's going to be in a sealed bag with some desiccant!