Does anyone know about carburetor types and multiple carburetor setups? At least from what I can do in game, it seems that single barrel carburetors are for really small engines or best used in multiple carburetor setups, with a single two barrel carburetor being good for engines that optimize torque and economy performance. Multiple two barrel carburetors are obviously the performance option of choice for the late 1940s and 1950s (I’m using triple two barrels for my V8s and twin two barrels for my I6s), but I’m not sure what to do when DCOE carburetors and four barrel carburetors become available. I’m not even really sure what a DCOE carburetor is. I’ve heard it described as a sidedraught instead of a downdraught, but what does that mean? Also, were DCOE carburetors ever used on American cars? Also, how do twin two barrel carburetors compare to a single four barrel carburetor?
I’m also wondering how multiple carburetor setups that don’t divide evenly with the number of cylinders maintain equal fuel flow. For example, how does Tripower (three two barrel carburetors) maintain equal fuel flow to the eight cylinders of a V8?
DCOE wasn’t used on American cars I don’t think, at least not from the factory. I do know that the high end sports car manufacturers in Europe, like Lamborghini, did however.
Two chambers under each outer carb, with a smaller passage connecting them, above which the center carb is positioned.
Center carb always active, the outer ones activated either by vacuum or by the last 40-25% of the pedal movement.
The DCOE Weber is a sidedraft carb, the downdraft ones is named IDF or IDA. IDF has the same center to center as the DCOE (90mm), the IDA is larger with 120mm C-C.
1 Like
So DCOE carburetors are akin to three barrel carburetors?
The first part of my post was about the Tripower question.
There have been 3 barrel Webers made, but they were called the IDA 3C, only made as downdraft.
Fitted to Porsches and Lamborghini Miura.
Since no one has answered to that yet, the solution is proper intake manifold design that tries to divide the fuel flow equally between all cylinders.
For your specific example, some cylinders are probably powered fully by a single carb, while others are powered partly by 2 or more.
It still is not perfect though, and you can end up with uneven flow, although that’s an issue with pretty much everything short of having a carburetor per cylinder or pair of cylinders (and then they need to be all adjusted perfectly.)