Carb manifold

[Rich_NYS]

I drove Bill's car the same day I drove a stock 5-speed, and my own stock 3-speed auto. I decided on that day I'd keep an open mind about converting if ever necessary.

The next car I bought was 4728, already converted to carb. I've driven it a few thousand miles so far, and have benefited several times from the ease of pulling the intake for the water pump, VOD, slave....etc. as mentioned.

David is probably right about resale if a lot of things are removed, but I keep seeing conversions trending upward so I'm expecting that to change. I kept 4728 as reversible as possible in case the new owner prefers originality.

Bill, Steve, and the other rednecks can fix most of the common issues with a trip to AutoZone and no flatbed.

Anybody got an intake to sell the OP?

Sent from my LGL164VL using Tapatalk

[opethmike]

You saw my car; carb on my LS swap. A properly setup carb is easy to do, and will run remarkably well.

[SamHill]

Hoping to keep myself out of mod crosshairs with no nanny nanny boo boo and just plain honesty.

The pros and cons from my perspective... and by now I should know.

CONS:
*The throttle gets a tad hung up in stop and go, but the slightest pat on the pedal puts it right.
*Less fuel efficient. And I mean, no more than a few miles a gallon.
*Resale. This point, as above, is arguable. Not only is every Delorean itself unique out of the gate, anyone's car's history for the past 30 years makes it unique, and variations on its particular condition are much more of a factor than a carb/KJet differential.

The first tiny airtex fuel pumps did burn out, as a matter of fact. I remedied this by putting a different --and beefier-- airtex pump in the engine compartment instead of in the gas tank, and it has been great for many years now.

PROS:
*Low psi fuel is better when your entire underbody is a confirmed accelerant. Therefore it is... drumroll... SAFER.
*My fuel system rebuild means a new carb that bolts on.
*Access as previously mentioned.


It works pretty damn well. The proof is in the pudding.

[David T]

You saw my car; carb on my LS swap. A properly setup carb is easy to do, and will run remarkably well.

I agree, a PROPERLY set up carb CAN run well. So can a homemade EFI. The problem I see too often is they are NOT properly set up. It takes a lot of work to get it right so you don't have to fiddle with it and it runs smoothly and reliably. Staying with the OEM set-up you have known ways to adjust it and known specs to set it to. If you need parts you can call up a Delorean vendor and they know what parts to send you when you need them. Deviate from "stock" and you are on your own. That means you must document all of the parts so you can order an air filter or a gasket or whatever. It also means you must adjust and try different jets and other adjustments till you get it to work. It is also assumed ALL of the other systems on the motor are running right so you only have to deal with the carb. Often that is not the case. Whenever I saw Bill he was always fiddling with his car, it was always a "work in progress". Most owners just want a car they can jump into and drive. A good running K-Jet system can do that.

[rollingzep]

I didn’t want this to become a resale value or a carb is better than k-jet. The reason I am even going different route cause I don’t have the k jet setup and I used to have a Delorean 20 years ago and always had issues with it so I would have done away with it anyway. But for now I just want to get car running without spending a fortune on it

[David T]

Now I understand why you are looking for a manifold. It could be easier if you can find someone who did convert to a carb and bought their K-Jet parts. You know you need more than *just* the manifold. Alternatively maybe you can find someone who wants to convert back to K-Jet and is willing to sell their carb conversion parts. I know of one owner that is thinking about doing that.

[Andrew]

I have been a DeLorean owner since 1998. During my first few years of DeLorean ownership, K-jet left me stranded at least a half a dozen times, if not more. I was never happy with either the performance or reliability of K-Jet. I had looked into carburation as early as 1998, but Ed Bernstein of DeLorean 1 told me that the Peugeot 604 / Renault Alpine carb manifold would not work on the DeLorean engine.

While I never sold my original DeLorean, I was out of the community for a few years due to college and law school etc. When I started getting back into the hobby in 2013, there had been a lot of development with regard to carburation. Turns out, Ed B. provided me with incorrect information...the Peugeot / Alpine manifold directly bolts to the DeLorean PRV! The carb options inspired me to buy and restore a second DeLorean. My goals were, a budget restoration with performance and reliability improvements.

By sheer luck, I found two complete Peugeot 604 fuel systems including the carbs, intake and air cleaner. To make a long story short, that was 5 years and quite a few miles ago. I loved the carbed DeLorean so much, that I converted my running K-Jet car to a Peugeot system two years later. I have never been stranded as a result of a carburetor related issue. Plus I sold my K-jet parts at a profit!

Keep an eye out for a Peugeot 604 / Renault Alpine manifold, they do come up for sale from time to time. While I run the dual Solex carb system on both of my DeLoreans, most carb conversions are running an Motorcraft 2100 or Autolite 2150 1.08 venturi carb.

I don't know if Bill is still supplying carb conversion kits. However, another option would be to contact John at JL Engineering. JL Engineering is a Renault Alpine tuning shop in the U.K. that modifies Renault Alpine A310 manifolds to accept a Holley 390 (a nice small 4bbl carb). Per John, the result is an improvement in performance and reliability over the stock Solex system.

Finally, a carb conversion also provides the option of utilizing a mechanical fuel pump as opposed to an electric pump. The mechanical pump bolts directly onto the back of the passenger side cylinder head, opposite the ignition distributor, and is driven by a camshaft lobe. The mechanical pumps are starting to get difficult to find, in fact, I sourced a spare one from Latvia on ebay.

If you have any questions, let me know!

Andrew
4194
5052

[rollingzep]

Andrew thank you for your post

Many years ago I also had a Delorean that left me stranded at the worst opportune times like on the middle of a bridge in Manhattan. Not fun let me tell you. I have a 308 that was kjet and the car was a pig. Changed it to EFI and wokenthe car up. Then I drove a friends webber equipped car and I should have went that route. But I like the simplicity of a carburetor not to mention the induction sound. And while efi is more faster responding the carbs are mikes ahead of the kjet where you push the gas and half hour later car responds. I’m being cheeky here

But in actuality I just want to get car on road and I am not computer savvy at all so I’m going the simpler route

[rollingzep]

And remember it only has value if you’re willing to sell. No sale no value. I have been owner of my cars since a teenager still have my first car I ever bought 69 pace car back in 1995 when it was considered just an old car. To me it’s still a 2500$ car that I paid for it. Not what it costs now. But if I go thinking it’ll be an investment I’ll never really enjoy it. But that’s for another thread another time

[opethmike]

I agree, a PROPERLY set up carb CAN run well. So can a homemade EFI. The problem I see too often is they are NOT properly set up. It takes a lot of work to get it right so you don't have to fiddle with it and it runs smoothly and reliably. Staying with the OEM set-up you have known ways to adjust it and known specs to set it to. If you need parts you can call up a Delorean vendor and they know what parts to send you when you need them. Deviate from "stock" and you are on your own. That means you must document all of the parts so you can order an air filter or a gasket or whatever. It also means you must adjust and try different jets and other adjustments till you get it to work. It is also assumed ALL of the other systems on the motor are running right so you only have to deal with the carb. Often that is not the case. Whenever I saw Bill he was always fiddling with his car, it was always a "work in progress". Most owners just want a car they can jump into and drive. A good running K-Jet system can do that.

A couple of things:

1. No, it does NOT take a lot of work to get a carb running properly. Took me literally 1 hour to get every single aspect of the carb on my LS working perfectly.
2. What exactly are you ADDING to this thread by babbling on and on about K-Jet this, EFI that when the thread creator was clearly looking for CARB information?
3. Is it possible for you to talk to people without talking down to them?