Any way I can get in touch with mr bill Robertson to make me an intake or does anyone have any leads on acquiring a carb manifold? Thanks in advance
Posts: 21
Any way I can get in touch with mr bill Robertson to make me an intake or does anyone have any leads on acquiring a carb manifold? Thanks in advance
Location: Northern NJ
Posts: 8,581
My VIN: 10757 1st place Concourse 1998
He hasn't been heard from for a while. Maybe you can find a used one that someone wants to sell. Many of the people that did convert to a carburetor were not entirely happy with the conversion. The carburetor settings were never optimized to deal with warm-up, idling and stumbling issues. It also lowered the gas mileage. You are better served to try to get the K-Jet system the car came with originally, running. Besides preserving the originality of the car, it is better for resale value. Probably also cheaper if you have the major components. If you do find an owner that wants to convert back to K-Jet maybe you can do a swap. Put an ad in the Wanted section.
David Teitelbaum
Location: NYS
Posts: 2,511
My VIN: 4519
Lol....no offense intended David, but I have to ask: where are you getting this info, brah? I think you're correct about the gas mileage & maybe resale, but the other stuff just doesn't jive with what I've seen over the years.
For the guy looking: Bill can be found on DeLorean Technical Help and DeLorean Restoration Projects (on Facebook,) and he has several friends here and on Facebook who can reach him. I don't think he's still making manifolds, but he offers a lot of help online for owners who acquire a manifold. I recently saw him helping a guy online who is doing an awesome complete restoration, to include an engine rebuild w/carb conversion.
Carb manifolds appear to be in high demand; I have one I'll eventually be selling, I hear from owners a few times a year asking about it.
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Last edited by Rich_NYS; 11-02-2019 at 01:19 PM.
Location: Northern NJ
Posts: 8,581
My VIN: 10757 1st place Concourse 1998
Bill used to be an active member of the DMA but he hasn't been active lately. He also used to be a member of this forum but he hasn't been around here either. Because I am not on Facebook I did not know he was over there. I am in touch with several owners who did the conversion and they seem to have trouble getting in touch with Bill . The info about the conversion I got from them and first-hand trying to get the carbs to run better. As for the demand for the manifolds, I wouldn't know but there seems to be at least one person who wants one! If there was any significant demand you would think a Delorean vendor would try to satisfy it.
David Teitelbaum
Posts: 4,779
My VIN: Banged your VIN'S mom
I watched Steve Rice's car crank right up cold(after sitting all night) and idle perfectly cold and hot. When you say "The carburetor settings were never optimized to deal with warm-up, idling and stumbling issues.." You do realize that carb equipped cars have done this very thing for DECADES right? What "settings" are you referring to anyway? Are "settings" non adjustable? The Renault Alpine PRV does quite well with a carb setup.Originally Posted by David T
I (everyone) gets that you have a disdain for ANYTHING that deviates from the Old Testament Tech manual, but I have to admit, even though my own Kjet equipped car does fine, I am quite jealous of those who can replace their distributer cap in under 10 minutes and don't have 75psi of fuel coursing over the exhaust manifold in an overly complex fuel delivery system. His question is where can he find a carb manifold setup, not why he should stick with kjet.
Answer, Bill Robertson is still quite active on Facebook.
Last edited by Michael; 11-02-2019 at 02:56 PM.
Location: Northern NJ
Posts: 8,581
My VIN: 10757 1st place Concourse 1998
A carb set-up can be adjusted well but few are and they have a problem adjusting to varied ambient temperature. The main reason I suggest Delorean owners keep their cars as original as possible is because then the car will retain it's highest value. That said there are lots of modifications which are desirable. Ideally they should be reversible. In the end it is each owner's decision what to do with their car. Most owners could not care less about ease of service and besides, how often do you change a distributor cap? Every modern car is fuel injected now and have high pressure fuel coursing around. Everyone went to fuel injection because it is much more easily controlled and can be much better optimized to a particular car. It is also much easier to meet emission standards. As for Bill's conversion, it is an answer in search of a problem. IMHO it is easier and cheaper to fix any problem in the K-Jet system than to ditch it and put a carburetor on. If you must remove the K-Jet system, instead of going "backwards" for a solution, go forwards and install a Mega Squirt or something like it. Putting a carb on has taken up some of the aspects of a religion with it's advocates and it's detractors. While it is simpler, it is not as good as the K-Jet. As for advice, anyone considering converting to a carb should understand the advantages and disadvantages BEFORE going ahead. I never said not to do it, I just caution against it for several reasons.
Last edited by David T; 11-02-2019 at 03:49 PM.
David Teitelbaum
Posts: 990
Satisfied customer here.
Posts: 4,779
My VIN: Banged your VIN'S mom
Sorry, but the guru has proven that is impossible.
Posts: 990
Dammit!
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 694
My VIN: 1710
I’ve ridden in and driven Bill’s car thousands of miles across a big chunk of the lower 48 (including New (including New Orleans to NYC & back), and his car has none of the problems Dave T described. It always started & idled perfectly regardless of weather, was a bit peppier than a K-Jet D, got comparable gas mileage (25mpg Highway), and his conversions are indeed designed to be fully reversible. Now Bill did things to his personal car like remove all wiring related to K-Jet, but obviously other owners can do their conversions how they wish.
There are other access benefits than just easy access to your ignition distributor. If you have a manual car, access to the clutch slave cylinder is much improved too (if you’ve ever replaced a clutch line, slave cylinder, or flushed/bled a clutch line with a K-Jet manifold you’ll know what a bear that is). Ease of access to the “valley of death” is about a thousand times easier, too. Just think of the awful times you’ve had to get into the valley to replace a water pump (DeLoreans seem to chew through those), replace coolant lines, chase down vacuum leaks & replace vacuum components under the valley, etc. Not to mention more routine maintenance like changing spark plugs is far easier without that bulky K-Jet manifold. Bill loves to share this story, but once we were at a gas station filling up his car, and he dropped a wrench into his valley beneath the intake. He was able to remove the manifold, retrieve the wrench, and replace the manifold before the gas pump kicked off. With stuff like block rot, easy access to cleaning the valley isn’t a bad thing.
The only bad thing I can say is that Bill definitely has an affinity for cheap carb fuel pumps. On our way to New Orleans one gave out on us (but he had a spare with him and swapped it in a gas station parking lot). That same trip I was riding in Farrar Hudkins car, and his carb fuel pump gave out too. But an owner can of course chose a higher quality pump than Bill uses and avoid this issue.
While I disagree with Dave T that carb-ing a DeLorean is a solution in search of a problem (K-jet’s issues are extremely well known & documented), I personally think EFI is the way to go if time, skill, and money is no object. But for ease of installation & operation, going carb is tough to beat.
Louie Golden
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