General Weber DCOM's v. IDF's for X19

[Icsunonove]

In my infinite wisdom I purchased a pair of Weber 40 DCOM Carburettors from Ebay with the vision of fitting them on my X. From what Im told the DCOM is a newer version of the DCOE, and it pretty much the same carb. However, fitting these to the car is going to be quite complex, as they are a sidedraught type carb.

I have the chance to swap them with a guy at uni for 2 Weber 40 IDF's, a downdraught carb. Is this a fair swap, and would IDF's be suitable for an X? Most of the guys Ive read about run 40 DCNF Webers, which Im told are similar to the IDF. Essentially, is it worth obtaining these IDFs instead of mt DCOMs?

 

[jimbro1000]

The DCOE and DCNF carburettors were regarded as the ultimate in high performance carburettor design for a very long time. If it ultimate performance that you're after *and* you have to stick with carbs then there is little or no substitute. On the flipside of this you are in for a tricky time fitting side draught carbs to an X1/9 if you do not want to sacrifice the rear boot. It just doesn't fit despite all of the motorsport oriented details in the engine, the port spacing is wrong for a direct mounting so you need a longish manifold and that pushes the carbs to far to the rear.

A downdraught setup fits rather nicely by comparison and offers almost the same ultimate performance (and on a road-spec car you are never going to notice the difference).

As to whether or not the IDF's are a suitable substitute for a DCOE/M - if it makes your car work then the answer is a resounding yes. If you mean "are the two different types of equal value?" that is another matter. DCOEs always carried a price premium, I imagine a DCOM would do the same. The IDF was used as an OEM fitment and is available in much larger numbers.

The last thing to remember is that those DCOE style carbs are available new (still), I'm not aware of any continued production of IDFs

 

[Eoin611]

Have to agree, running twin 48 DCOEs on my x1/9 and if it was road legal there's no way I could put anything in the boot! Everything would just get toasted.

 

[MRFIAT128]

Get the IDF'S , manifold to suit, cant go wrong