Side Draft Webers in Cold Weather?

I know from experience that a 32/36 and 38/38 Weber are quite easy to live with on a daily driver. However, I've been eyeing a side draft Weber setup.

How easy are these to live with? Tinkering and tuning are fine but if they're impossible to start in cold weather it just won't be worth it for me.

Thanks John

I had DCOE's on an MGB and a Spitfire. DCOE's have a cold start enrichment circuit (not a choke) but no fast idle provision. That means the engine will always start even when extremely cold but the driver has to keep the RPM up until the engine is warm enough to idle on its own.

The Dellorto DHLA (almost an exact copy) has an air bleed system that will bump the idle up a bit. I have a pair of those on the J-H and they are a bit easier to live with, but are not perfect.

They'll work fine but if in snow country you'll find they will ice up on the hi way.. Going from VT to PA in a Friends Fiesta with side draft we had to keep stopping to chip out the ice in the carbs throttles you could tell when it was getting bad as you had to push the pedal farther to maintain 80mph... we did try to make a sheet metal heat riser tube to come off the header like stock carb have but it did not cure it 100%.

44

Concur. Once tuned they start fine, idle fine with a cable set up to manually actuate the enrichment circuit, and run fine but icing can be a problem. If you're planning to use it on the highway, you'll need a way to feed warm air to the intake.

Down where I live, icing wasn't a problem so I never ran warm air tubing etc. It shouldn't be hard to fab up a quickly removeable warm air tube for winter use.

Probably a bit of a pain for a DD 'til you learn to live with 'em.

Once I had the one on the Sprite dialed in it's been solid.

Curmudgeon wrote: I had DCOE's on an MGB and a Spitfire. DCOE's have a cold start enrichment circuit (not a choke) but no fast idle provision. That means the engine will always start even when extremely cold but the driver has to keep the RPM up until the engine is warm enough to idle on its own. The Dellorto DHLA (almost an exact copy) has an air bleed system that will bump the idle up a bit. I have a pair of those on the J-H and they are a bit easier to live with, but are not perfect.

Not to thread jump, BUT...I've thought of putting Dellorto's on the 1500 Spitfire, where does one get the manifolds and carbs? I've also thought about motorcycle carbs. In addition, I also heard they make a little more power. Some insight would be appreciated.

Also note, the sound of a side draft weber setup @ WOT negates any ice chipping you may have to do :) Better so if its dual webers.

Kendall

Which do you want to spend more of, time or money?

To spend more money go to places like this:

http://www.alamomotorsports.com/weber/triumph_carb.html

http://www.paeco.com/Weber%20Conversion%20Kits.htm

http://www.prirace.com/spitfire-keihin-carb-kits.asp

To spend more time (aka DIY) , go to places like this:

http://www.teglerizer.com/fi/fi_fuelsystem.htm

http://www.rossmachineracing.com/intakepartspage.html

http://www.totallytriumph.net/spitfire/engine.shtml

http://www.triumphspitfire.com/carbchoices.html

Have fun!

Carter

DCOEs will also ice open -- woo-hoo, cruise control! Ice can form on the outside of the carb and freeze the throttle in place.

But as long as you avoid the icing problems, they're fine. And really -- is having to blip the throttle to keep it idling a problem? I do it when it's warm just because it sounds so good.

erohslc wrote: Which do you want to spend more of, time or money? To spend more money go to places like this: http://www.alamomotorsports.com/weber/triumph_carb.html http://www.paeco.com/Weber%20Conversion%20Kits.htm http://www.prirace.com/spitfire-keihin-carb-kits.asp To spend more time (aka DIY) , go to places like this: http://www.teglerizer.com/fi/fi_fuelsystem.htm http://www.rossmachineracing.com/intakepartspage.html http://www.totallytriumph.net/spitfire/engine.shtml http://www.triumphspitfire.com/carbchoices.html Have fun! Carter

Time! Thank you very much, Carter. I really appreciate you taking the time to list all the sites.