Hi all, new to the forum as a member, but have been loitering here for several months gathering any bits of wisdom I can get. Lots here, so thanks!

I have a 1983 GS with a pretty good body and a 1984 GSL with some decent parts. I have a basic idea of what the goal is, and a general idea of how to get there, but I could use some help with carb selection. I recently had a young guy stop by the house because he saw the parts car in front of the garage. He recently scrapped his 1st gen (rear end fell off!) and had some left over parts he wants to get rid of. One of the items is a 12a Racing Beat intake with a Delorto 48mm carb (had a tag with 5353 on it). They seem to be in good shape, but I don't know how well they work for D.Driver/ Autocross duty. Sooo...
1) How hard are they to rebuild/tune?
2) How well do they work on a stock or street port engine?
3) How much fuel will they drink vs. a Holley or Nicky?
4) What is it worth $$$ ?

He had some other stuff like wiring harness, 3 core radiator, headlight assemblies with motors, wiper motor, fuel pump (unknown kind), floor mats, distributor, and various lights and lenses. He wants $450 for the lot. Personally, I think that is waaay too much, but would like some input of the actual value of the stuff. Nothing looked perfect, and all was used.

Any help would be appreciated (please don't tell the newby to learn how to use the search button - I told him I would call him soon to let him know, and he said the price isn't firm.)

Thanks!
Eric

 

Honestly 450 for all that isnt a bad deal at all. Im assuming that included the carb and manifold with it...as far as the Dell'orto carb is concerned, its essentially the same thing as a Weber carb, only downside being theyre not produced anymore- which means parts are going to become increasingly harder to find, as well as someone with alot of experience with them. But then again it is just a two barrel carb.

If you want to really understand them, pick up a book on them- i have one that i'm loving more and more as i embark on tuning my weber. It's called "How to Build and Power Tune Weber and Dellorto DCOE and DHLA Carburetors" by Des Hammill- not saying go out and get that specific book, but I found it/am finding it VERY useful to have a good reference. Only downside is there is no reference to specific use on the rotary.

Tuned right it will be roughly the same as a stock nikki in terms of fuel consumption, possibly even better. Especially with a motor rebuild.

They work beautifully on a stock or street ported engine- IF they are tuned right. You wont be able to open it up WOT right off the line, just simple physics of the two barrel, but you'll get used to driving them quickly.

lemme know if that covered what you wanted...hope it helped
zach

 

just saw the last bit. NEGOTIATE. ALWAYS. enjoy.

12 hours of school, Hurley- out.

 

1st thing I did was change your title. These titles with Newbie needs help, help, newbie has questions, etc are driving me insane.:-)
State the title as to what information you are looking for.

By the way, I am going to tell you to search. It is listed in the rules of the 1st gen section and the main section when you sign up.

Use term delorto carb in your search engine.

As far as value goes. Besides input from us you can can to the 1st gen parts classified section and search also with the term Delorto to find out what they have sold for.
Personally I wouldn't offer more than $350.00 total for the lot.

 

can't go wrong a dellorto is great carb actually a better verison of a weber and they aren't hard to find parts for them you just need to know where to look

 

First off $450.00 for just the carb and the intake is a little high, but if your getting all the other goodies its not a bad deal.

The Dellorto is a great carb and it was tuned by RB to work with stock port 12a and with street ports. When ordered you had to specify which you wanted because the jetting is different for each. It also has a choke for cold weather starts which is really nice if you need to run it in cool or cold weather. I've had one for 15+ years on my stock port 12a 80 GS SA and it been a great carb. I get approximately 15/24 mpg with it and thats with spirited driving (15). So its about as efficient as the stock nikki and more fun to boot. If you get a carb like this you really have to switch over to a preformance exhaust wth headers and a free flowing muffler to get the most HP out of the 12a, otherwise it may run rich. You should ask if the carb is setup for a stock or ported 12a. Also make sure it was a RB prepped carb, otherwise you will have a hard time tuning it. See the link below for details on that.

As far as rebuilding just order the rebuild kit from www.dellorto.com (its in the UK). Took me less than 2 weeks to get the kit in and it has all the stuff you need to rebuild it. The rebuild was very easy, easier than any 4 barrel thats for sure. Also check out http://www.gruntled.com/Dellorto for some good info for tuning and messing with these carbs.

Brand new the carbs were ~$700.00, now they go for anywhere between $200.00 and $400.00 with the intake.

 

Sorry about the whole newby thing, Doc. I will do better in the future. I also hope your trip to insanity is a far longer one than mine. I have searched carbs in the past, but have focussed on the 4 barrel set-ups because I was under the impression the 2 barrel was a better way to go if racing was the goal. I just kind of ruled them out untill now.

Thanks Zach and t g farrel. I appreciate the education from the voices of experience. T G, I saw that you are running a stock port. I wonder if I am getting ahead of myself assuming I need to do a street port. What do you think? I bought the car several years ago (in pieces) and am just now looking to get started doing something. The reason I say this is that I have never actually driven a 12a car before, so I have no point of reference telling me what really needs to be done. Are you satisfied with the stock port? How much do you think a mild street port will increase fuel consumption? I do have the RB header and street port exhaust system.

If anyone else has any imput on this, please educate me.

Thanks

 

thank you, "t_g_farrell" for the website link to the information about Dell'orto carbs, and intake systems, i just purchased an '85 12a and have been doing some reading so i can hopefully install and have running the IDF 48 carbs from Weber...again, thanks for the links.