I have recently sourced a bog standard stock 2.0l pinto. During my search ive been offered a 38DGAV carb. Ive been told this will be good for up to 140BHP which is what i'm aiming for with improved gas flow and fast road cam. Is this carb worth having? Its £120 with manifold and filter etc. Will it fit under the locost bonnet? Mine will be a Mac#1 bonnet with small bulge.

In the future i'd like to rework the block to 2.1 and re-fit the head with fast road cam. Would the carb then need to be replaced? Im looking for ways to get close to 150bhp on a budget.

Thanks in advance for your help,
Darren.

I hope it is a 38 DGAS not DGAV as there is not such a thing. There is a 32-36 DGAV, which is the standard 2.0 cortina/early sierra/escort rs2000 carb.

The 38 DGAS was the standard carb on a 3ltr capri and bolt straight onto the standard 2.0 cortina/early sierra/escort rs2000 manifold (which had the 32-36 DGAV originally) The 3ltr capri was 135hp as standard and the carb should be fine to 145hp, but that's about the limit, and it will hold the engine back at that level. (but don't let that put you off, it uses MUCH less fuel than twin 40 webers, has better part throttle and better low down torque on the std Ford manifold.

£120 sounds rather steep though, remember you can get a carb from a Reliant Scimitar GTE (some on ebay for £40ish) or old capri or rally spares place, and attach it to a std ford manifold.

The last one I got cost me £20 for the carb and £10 for the manifold.

try rally and competition equipment in Stoke on Trent, yorkshire rally spares or any of the other rally spares places in the back of Motorsport News

Thanks NS Dev,

It probably is the DGAS. It came from a big Granada apparently and was competitive on a std 2.0l Pinto in a Mk2 Escort rally car.
Do you know if it will fit under the bonnet of a locost without cutting a hole in it?

Since posting this Q i have seen them cheaper. Sounds like a good budget option for my car. Ill probably settle for std 2.0 with fast road cam for now. try and aim for 130bhp ish. Im hoping that with std head, fast road cam onto a 2.1 bottom end later i can get 150bhp ish.

You won't be far off that target if you have a head from an injection car (porting is better as standard)

You probably will need a bulge over the carb, westfield did, either that or use an ITG foam filter and poke it through a hole in the bonnet, gets nice cool air then too!

With std injection head, fast road cam and 38 dgas expect about 125 hp. head really wants skimming, pintos always need a bit more compression, that will push you just past 130 ish hp. Add a quick port clean up, clean up a few radii in the manifold and re-jet the carb and you should have 140 ish hp where the carb then become the limiting factor.

Will certainly go plenty well enough in a locost, drove a westy in this spec and it is so torquey it's great fun, powerslides aplenty on a real low budget!!

[Edited on 21/9/04 by NS Dev]

I'm going down this route with my tiger. 2ltr pinto with flowed head and dgas carb.Much better economy, less messing about with twin carbs etc, better throttle response. If you find a good source of carbs, let me know ! I was quoted £200 for a new one !