Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hey guys;

So the time to mount the carbs on my '69 +2 has arrived, can anyone indicate whether i should go for dellortos or webers? i have a set of each so cost/availability etc is not an issue.

cheerrs

Dellortos are generally a better carb - flame proof overall now on

Dellortos are a little harder to set up but do seem to stay set for longer.

Does your manual cover both carbs?

Tbh there isn't much in it, but if I had both and in the same say poor condition, I would rebuild and fit the Dellortos

The webers I have done have been very easy but I like the Dellorto carburettors pump jet set up better

Matt

Were the Dellortos originally supplied by Lotus? If so, the Dellortos will probably be the better choice. IIRC Lotus worked with Dellorto on a special six-hole idle transition circuit which gave much better off-idle performance than with the earlier Webers.

My Elan always used Weber 40DCOE18's. They are a great carb. Still, even when properly set up and synched, I always felt they could be a little better at light throttle settings.

About a year ago, I acquired a set of Dellorto DHLA40E's from an Ebay seller. I have not yet fitted them. The popular wisdom was that in general, the Dellorto's were a little more advanced design wise, and offered a little better vaporization of the fuel/air mixture. This could be important for a street car which mine is.

There are numerous variations of the DHLA40, generally identified by the suffix letter. Some are good and some are not so good from a perfomance and tuning point of view. If you want to fit Dellorto's, figure out what's important to you and find a good set of the appropriate models. Many models are emissions versions and restrict tuning. Some offer great performance but lack features like vacuum taps for balancing and additional transition holes to extend running on the transition circuit. This features are really only important for a street dirven vehicles and are not particularly important for racers.

Either carb is pretty good, but if you're a perfectionist looking for the best street carb, a matched set of Dellorto's is probably the best bet.

Bill

Seem to remember reading somewhere, years ago, that Dell 'Orto was started by someone from Weber who branched out to make a rival, improved version of the Weber. QED the Dell 'Ortos are better than Webers(?)

PS - Guess which carbs my car has.

My Dellortos are the DHLA40E model, and are origional lotus fitment off a '73 Europa Special, so i guess they are the ones to go for

cheers for the feedback