On our mission to cut the cost of an EFI setup for a Duratec the idea passed my mind whilst dosing off last night that we'd been wasting our time in trying to find a setup of bike throttle that can be re-spaced and have 45mm butterfly diameter or finding some 2nd hand Jenveys when we had a set already in the garage in the form of some 45 DHLAs.

We've had these 45's knocking round in the box of carbs for years, they're in very good nick so I thought why not take the top plate off and replace it with a flat piece of ally, block up any jets likely to cause an air leak, remove the aux' venturi and choke and bobs your auntie, we have a set of 45mm DCOE style throttles for free. Can anyone see a problem with this?

Yes, they might be a little un-sightly and be a touch heavy but with the top plate replaced for a bit of ally I don't think they'd be too tragic, certainly not when they free. You might argue that we should sell them and use that money to go towards a set of 2nd hand jenveys or similar but they're slightly incomplete and missing some parts that I was quoted £130 to replace. I'm not wishing to change them beyond the point of being able to revert to their original carb guise (as per the CCC magazine article a while ago) hence not machining them back to just the throttles!

Anyway, thoughts would be welcome...

[Edited on 15/11/10 by andylancaster3000]

Only thought is:

hmmm, I have a set of (I think useless Dellortos) and a matching manifold.

Keep us updated with your progress...


Cheers,
James

I have seen this a few times i the past.
Someone also used a DGAV carb as his throttle body.
Seemed to work ok.
Good luck

Or just use the spindles and butterflies and make your own TB out of thick walled ally?

Will keep progress posted. Only have very few pics so far but the block is in are done, clutch/flywheel done, sump job underway so just need to sort the inlet and exhaust!

Owelly: We have been discussing that as the next step also!

quote:

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Originally posted by owelly
Or just use the spindles and butterflies and make your own TB out of thick walled ally?

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We fortunately already have a DCOE style manifold so that gets rid of a fair chunk of work!

Due to where the butterflies are there aren't many, if any jets downstream of the butterfly. Maybe some idle related ones, so I was assuming this wouldn't be an overly difficult task. (I haven't got them to hand so can't look at them more closely)

PPC/Dave Walker did a series on this many years ago. Hardest part is getting some bosses welded on for the injectors. As I recall, though may be inaccurate, but the carbs are not made from ali as we know it.

Cheers,
Nev.

I have seen this series, I think it was re-printed in PPC eventually.

The duratec has injectors in the head so I was hoping to use these.

It has been done before, only difficulty is the location for injectors, but as you say the duratec has the injectors in the head, so does the Zetec SE and the toyota 4age. Don't know about other engines.

Zetec (E) and ST170 duratec(=zetec) don't have them and then it gets difficult.

Just take out the chokes etc, and replace them with a suitable diameter / wall thickness ally tube, fill the progression holes and primary drillings with with something like belzona - easily done from the top after removing the screws.
You can then leave the top covers on and looking like carbs.

I've had similar thoughts - but i'll weld in the injector bosses onto a home made steel dcoe manifold.

(got lots of manifold ideas)