'59 Morris Minor 1000 Carb set up?

A friend of mine just bought a '59 Morris Minor 1000, and the guy he bought it from said that once it warms up it runs really rough. He hasn't taken possession of the car yet, but from what I can tell from the pics it's got a Weber DCOE and an electric fuel pump. We're thinking it might just have too much carburetor for the engine. Anyone know a good jet setting for that engine, or a better choice of carburetor? What's the hot ticket on these?

I also posted in the Classic Motorsports forum, but they don't seem to have as much traffic.

Clean the carb throughly first, then do a full tuneup. THEN start messing with the carb's settings.

Depends on what DCOE and what sort of engine mods the car has.

For a stock A-Series 998cc I would think it's a little much carb-wise, they usually came with a single or twin SUs.

That's kinda what I thought, but I don't have much experience with these cars. Here's a pic of the engine. I'm not 100% sure it's a DCOE, but it's the closest I can figure.

BoxheadTim wrote: Depends on what DCOE and what sort of engine mods the car has. For a stock A-Series 998cc I would think it's a little much carb-wise, they usually came with a single or twin SUs.

At one time I had 4 of them. They all had a single SU carb as stock. I think they were 1" but may have been 1 1/4"

triumph5 wrote: Clean the carb throughly first, then do a full tuneup. THEN start messing with the carb's settings.

^this.

If it ever ran properly with that carb, it probably just needs cleaning, maybe some gaskets and orings if its been sitting forever. You can choke a Weber down to run a lawnmower if you want, so size is not really an issue.

Streetwiseguy wrote: so size is not really an issue.

That's NOT what she said...

Yep, whatever the smallest SU was, 1 1/4 I think. Early sprites had x2.

Hal wrote:

At one time I had 4 of them. They all had a single SU carb as stock. I think they were 1" but may have been 1 1/4"

What they said - a 40/45 DCOE (doppio corpo orizontale - 2 body horizontal) has in each bore a main venturi, also called a "choke". These are available in a huge range of sizes and are one of the gazillion things that's a variable when setting up a side draft Weber.

The die hard British car community seems really down on Webers; "You'll berkeley with the car forever and it'll never run and you'll end up putting SUs back on..."

I had a 32/36 DGV on my 1275 Sprite for a few years and eventually got enough DCOEs and brass gifted to me to assemble a properly calibrated unit. Once it was sorted it's run exceptionally well ever since. I rebuilt it after the car sat a while during restoration #2, but otherwise they're easy. Buy the big Weber book and read everything on the Pierce Manifolds website. If you need metering parts call 'em and ask to talk to Mike Pierce - he'll set you straight in short order.

Check your distributor. If I am not mistaken DCOE's do not have a proper vacuum advance port to run standard Lucas distributors necesitating mechanical advance. This might have nothing to do with your problem but something else to look into I suppose, good luck.

Did a 59 Morris really have a PCV valve? (Didn't think so...) Maybe that engine just has a vacuum leak somewhere... On further thought maybe the electric fuel pump has too much pressure for the carb...

noddaz wrote: Did a 59 Morris really have a PCV valve? (Didn't think so...) Maybe that engine just has a vacuum leak somewhere... On further thought maybe the electric fuel pump has too much pressure for the carb...

i have heard that webers like very low fuel pressure, like 2.5 - 3.0 psi.

Going to go out on a limb and suggest that it is NOT a WEBER. Delllorto perhaps or maybe a Mikuni? WEBER would have a wing nut on the top.

That said, I cant see why it would run worse when warm if it is a carb issue. The only way I see that is if there is a vacuum leak and the choke is released when the engine is warm; hence inducing a lean condition.