Webers or Dellortos

Webers or Dellortos

Author
Discussion

neilr

Original Poster:

1,530 posts

270 months

Tuesday 27th April 2004
quotequote all
Im looking at putting twin 40s on a midget, but im not overly familiar with webers or dellortos personally so was wondering what the pros / cons of
each were.

Theyre not going onto a stock engine, its lightened and balanced etc, so the twin 40's seemeed like a reasonable choice all things considered.

thanks

Neil

phil hill

433 posts

283 months

Tuesday 27th April 2004
quotequote all
Do you mean twin 40's as in a "split pair" or a single twin-choke 40 ?? No really relevant to your question....... but makes a big difference to the installation !!

As far as I'm aware there is little to choose between them, depends on which your local tuner/dyno operator is more familiar with I guess. Most people seem to want webers for no readily apparent reason. Carb fed Lotus' (Loti ??) use dellortos, so perhaps there's an avenue in finding someone who knows a bit dellos there.

Not much help really !!

Phil.

Cooperman

4,428 posts

257 months

Tuesday 27th April 2004
quotequote all
There is no point in putting twin 40's or Twin 45's onto a 5 port 'A' or 'B' series engine as you would have 4 choke tubes feeding 2 inlet ports, i.e. there is no advantage.
You can fit a single, twin choke 40- or 45DCOE, or the Dellorto equivalent, to good effect, so long as your head can benefit from the improved flow over twin SU's and you have the right cam (Kent 286 or 296).
A Weber, or a Dellorto, won't give much of an advantage over, say, twin 1.5" SU's, but you get better throttle response due to the fixed jet design of the Weber/Dellorto. You do need a good cam to work with a Weber, big valves, and a well gas-flowed head. Otherwise, my advice is to stick with the twin 1.5" SU's.
One other thing, the jetting of a Weber/Dellorto is more difficult than an SU set-up as the jets must be absolutely correct. It can only be done properly on a rolling road. If that's not done it's easy to run too rich and get bore-wash at low revs, which causes rapid bore wear and thus oil burn/smoking.
Personally I'm not a Weber or Dellorto fan on a 'A' series. However, others have got some excellent results with the side-draft Webers and my buddy with the 1330 cc Clubman GT rally car gets about 115 bhp on a 45DCOE Weber with a 286 cam, a really good head and a tubular steel inlet manifold/big lcb exhaust.
I guess you pay your money and take your choice.
I hope this helps,

Peter

neilr

Original Poster:

1,530 posts

270 months

Tuesday 27th April 2004
quotequote all
Thanks for the replies guys, It was a bit stupid of me not to mention that my midget is a 1500 which has an 8 port head, so it can take advantage of the twin setup. I tend to lurk abit on the Mini forum and know theres some excellent knowledge on here which is why i posted on it despite it not being an a-series!

Cooperman - from what I know already I think what you had to say about the 1.5 SU's still hold true for the triumph engine in the 1500 even though they are the OE carbs. I guess I'll find out whether theyre shoveling enough fuel in when I get it dyno'ed!

Chuggaboom

1,152 posts

255 months

Tuesday 27th April 2004
quotequote all
There is another benefit of sidedraught carbs v SU's and that's the pump jet...couple of light dabs and it'll start much easier I've found...in the summer no need for choke @ all !

P.S. I have a pair of Del 40's for sale in an old ad here on PH...but u won't get me to part with my 45's.

Cooperman

4,428 posts

257 months

Wednesday 28th April 2004
quotequote all
There used to be a book available called 'Power Tuning SU Carbs'. It detailed how to gas-flow the carbs and it improved the flow of a 1.5" to almost that of a standard 1.75".
I once had a 1330 Cooper 'S' with twin HS6's (i.e. 1.75's) and they were very good with a 544 cam and a Longman head running at 10.6 to 1 c.r.
In fact, a pair of 1.75's might be good on a 1500 Midget. I got mine off a friend who had a Dolomite Sprint, on which they are standard, I believe, when he went to HS8's.