Hi, I just purchased a car with dual sidedraft DCO-SP2 Webers (similar to DCOE's, sort of), I want to get into them to see what all the jets, ect are, so I can know my baseline. I've never been into a sidedraft weber, is a gasket kit required or can I access all the variable parts without messing up a gasket?
I've got the books and sync too on the way, but I haven't ordered gaskets...
Thanks
How old are they? If they're fairly new and you're careful, you should be able to pull the lids without berkeleyin' up the gaskets. Most of the jets are under the round center cap with the wingnut. Unless these don't have that access port.
Good luck!
Jets and emulsion tubes under the Mickey Mouse hat, accelerator pump jets under individual screws, more accelerator pump stuff under the cover, and venturis come out from the front (could be located by screws or clips - not sure on that model). There are also some things, like progression holes, that are specific to the carb body and can't be easily changed but can be viewed by removing yet more screws. They're great carbs, but they do require some fiddling. If you plan to go into them enough to set them up, you might as well just buy a gasket set to have on hand.
Are you trying to fix something or make it better?
Are you a carb person or new to the game?
What size venturies are in the carb? What engine is it on? Most people over size venturies and suffer a bog.
If this is aftermarket set up, had the distributor been curved to run with the carb since DCOE do not have vacuum advance.
Like Holleys, tune from the idle up and dont tune the idle with the throttle plates open into the transition slots.
Thanks folks, I was looking for a fun 4 cylinder car to play with and I ended up accidentally buying an old SCCA racer built in the early '90's, a Rotus Seven. The ad said it had a 2.3L Ford 'Pinto' motor, with webers, a header and a cam... Sounded fun until I got it home and started digging deeper... It has a bunch of Esslinger go-fast goodies from the 1990's, plus a ton of notes and documentation on the motor & car, but not everything. Esslinger aluminum head, dual weber & manifold kit, 1-3/4" primary tube header, 12:1-ish forged pistons, long rods (making it ~2.6L now), huge 'oval-track' cam, adjustable cam gear, HPV-1 distributor-less, wasted-spark ignition etc, etc... Apparently it held a few class track records at tracks in the NE, notes indicate it ran well at 9500rpm (!)
The car is in great shape from what I can tell, but if the motor is still built to the same spec as the notes indicate it may not be the most civilized while stuck in traffic. The intended use is spirited sunday morning drives, autocross and a few track days.
So far all I've done is pull the sparkplugs (NGK DPR6EA-9), happily they're black rather than silvery-melted piston color. I'm not a carb guy, but I'm not afraid of them either. According to the seller they were ultrasonically cleaned within the last 2 years, with fresh gaskets. The old notes indicate the venturies were enlarged to 50mm ~1993.
My initial goals before starting the motor are to figure out what's in the carbs currently, change the oil, do a compression check (once I figure out how to disable the coils and fuel pump), check the cam timing, new plugs and wires...
Sounds like the entire package was set up for one throttle position Wide Open. Any idea of cam specs and compression ratio?
If the compression ratio is reasonable at 10;1 or less, I would be looking at chokes down to 36 or even 32 mm, and a non radical cam.
It might be easier to re engine the car than make this play nice on the street. Or embrace the personality and drive it as is.
We respectfully request more pitchers and details about the Rotus. From your description and single pitcher this sounds very enticing.
Please.
Are there velocity stacks under the air cleaner? If so, how long are they?
IF the engine is a good running race engine you'd be money ahead if you just tried to sell what you got and build up a replacement engine. A 2.0L Duratech swap with carbs or even FI would make a much better street engine than what you have now. To make what you have now streetable would require new custom (lower C:R) pistons to fit the long rods and of course a new cam. In doing this your really going to end up doing a near total rebuild. Better to start with another engine. Another 2.3/2.5L engine build or the Duratech.
Here's a couple more pics with cam specs, there's a note in the docs where the original owner recalculates the compression... 12.75:1 (yikes) There are stacks in the filter, ~2-3" long. I hear what you're saying about re-motoring it, I hope to talk to someone at Esslinger about it, see what I can do/get away with, then figure from there...
The car is an '80's/90's version of the Lotus 7, this one built to accept the 2.3L, most had Toyota 4's, some had Mazda rotaries, a few had 215 Buick V8's. It's a little wider and maybe a little longer than the original 7, I just barely fit. Chassis/suspension design mimicked Formula Ford racers, with inboard front suspension. It beat the C4 Corvette in lateral acceleration at over 1G on BFG street tires.
It's bitchin!
Is this a toy for street use?
If so, a set of lower compression pistons should be on the list and a milder camshaft before you tackle fuel issues.
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