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MG MGA - weber carburetors

Does anyone have experience with Weber carburetors type DGEC or DGEV? Considering installation on 1.5 liter MGA engine. (Reversible) Thanks, Gary
Gary Moore

Not worth doing - the original SUs in good shape will be better.

The downdraft Weber conversions are useful for the cars that have interference problems like the late MGBs, but not for much else.

Having said that the new versions you cite should have better flow than the older DGV.
Bill Spohn

Don't do it. My MGA came with a Weber. The car runs much better on SU's. Rebuild the SU's, they're not that tough.
Bill Haglan

How do you determine the model number of a Weber carburetor? The one I took off my car just says "Weber", "Made in Spain" and has a "23" in a circle molded into the side of each barrel. Those things are so damned complicated I can't see why anyone wouldn't prefer the simplicity of the SUs.
David Breneman

My experience with Weber DGV carbs is with Japanese cars in general, having owned a Mazda 808 that the PO had installed one on, and Datsun 73 240Z and 74 260Z in particular.
The flat top Hitachi carbs used on 73-74 Z cars were really bad from day one. There were many conversions avaiable to get rid of them. The dual Weber DGV was the most common that I saw. It was the cheapest and easiest way to get rid of the Hitachis and it was dependable and worked OK. They were just OK. Other than a tendancy to ice up in cold weather they were pretty trouble free. BUT they were not the best way to go.
The solution that I preffered was to use the 70-72 carbs. These were the carbs that made the 240Z so popular. They worked great. They are also a direct copy of the SU carbs on our MGAs. I used to buy brand new carbs sets 2 at a time just to have them in stock when ever a car with flat tops came in.
If you want to get rid of the SU carbs on your MGA with carbs that reduce the performance lower the value of you car and look ugly to boot be my guest.
The only reasons I can think of to use them are ignorance and lazieness. Ignorance because you refuse to learn how to adjust SUs and laziness because they are set and forget reliable in their mediocrity.
My advise is to forget the horror stories and don't be intimidated. Most SU carb troubles are caused by stupid people who screw up the carbs trying to fix a problem that was cased by something else.
Most "apparant" problems with the carbs usually originate in the ingition system.
Set up properly The SUs are very reliable and easy to work on. The only thing that killed off their use was emmision laws. The only thing better is electronic fuel injection and it is just not available for our cars.
R J Brown

Acquired and installed Weber dgec downflow. I have reworked many SU's including rebush and throttle shaft rebuild with silver solder. I was curious as to the results of the new design from Weber with heated manifold.. After minor rejet in two stages it runs quite well. The SU's are good but with some weakness. Primarily, fuel leaks and a choke system that rarily returns full home. Thanks for the input. Original carbs can be reinstalled in an hour. Gary
Gary Moore

A carburettor has to accurately regulate fuel and air ratios. If it is too rich power is lost and excessive fuel consumption occurs. If it is too weak again power is lost and inefficiencies can have serious consequencies.
The weber carburettor, especially the dcoe has the ability to regulate fuel and air ratios over a huge range of air flows which gave it the reputation of the best carburretor in the world.
This statement is borne out by the fact that the people who designed and made our cars decided that in competition the carb of choice would be the weber I suspect they would have fitted them standard had they been in a position to import huge numbers or indeed had the purchase price not being so restrictive.
I am no expert but feel what was good enough for the Abingdon competitions department ought to be good enough for us.

I have a 45 dcoe on my car. Starts first touch everytime, always idles consistantly, never leaks, does about 30 miles to the gallon(4.546litres) and has not required touching since it was set up 4 years ago.
Bob (robert) yes Y8 is toast again :)

"The weber carburettor, especially the dcoe has the ability to regulate fuel and air ratios over a huge range of air flows which gave it the reputation of the best carburretor in the world."

Bob, that may be the way you feel about the DCOE, but that wasn't responsive to the question asked, which was about a totally different model of carb - a model that happens to be very much inferior to the one you are talking about.

Your response was sort of like someone asking about a Ford Prefect and you answering that Fords are great, especially the GT-40.....
Bill Spohn

Oh well, Jeez Louise, Bill - Way to be a wet blanket! :-)
David Breneman

Point taken Bill glad you like the 45 DCOE...
Bob (robert) yes Y8 is toast again :)

Like em? Heck, I love them!

I had 10 of them in various cars at once although I am down to 8 since I sold the TVR with HRG head to Europe.

Attached is my main Weber repository.


Bill Spohn

This thread was discussed between 30/07/2007 and 14/08/2007

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