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[supercowmoo3]

Has anyone ever carbureted an n/a capri? I'm thinking of swapping out the efi in mine so that I can turbocharge it without having to worry about expensive aftermarket ecus and all of their wiring. I know that by doing so in nys it's considered illegal and probably won't pass inspection but I can get around that if I needed to.

Anyways what are your guys thoughts about it and if you have any tips or concerns please let me hear them. Thanks:)

[chrispoe]

I never heard of anyone installing a carburetor on a capri and I see no reason for it either.
If you want to turbocharge it, just get the parts from an XR2. The parts are fairly cheap and easily swap over.

[supercowmoo3]

i understand that xr2 parts would work perfectly fine but i can much more easily get a couple carburetors and have some fun making up a custom intake manifold and mounting them up. Im just curious as to whether anyone has tried this or not. Probably no one has but if i ever reach the limits of the stock ecu and efi then ill probably end up going to a carburetor as it is more cost effective for me and plus i dont have to have a bunch of wires with possible shortages and faults so more bulletproof i guess. Ive been looking at 11.0:1 forged alloy steel pistons for 1.6L miatas and forged connecting rods for around 1600 dollars. I know thats a rediculous amount of money and the stock 9.4:1 in my n/a 1.6L is perfectly good so i wont do that unless i really really want it and have the money to blow.

To me a carburetor is so much easier to tune and change air to fuel ratios and a v8 carb on a 4 cyl will definately keep up with a good amount of boost if i choose to go that route. I dont really want to spent a grand on aftermarket ecus or addons or a bunch of xr2 parts that i cant really find. Before i do any crazy horsepower improvements id like to get my hands on an xr2 transmission preferably with an lsd. But if an n/a tranny can handle 150 bhp then that'll be good for now.

Anyways carbs are cool, retro, steampunk, hipster, confusing to most, witchcraft using a magical thing called a venturi which was made up and doesnt exist therefore our ancestors lied to us and we are the true successors.

so yeah carburetors mirite?

i really just want a cheap fuel dilivery system that i can tune for pure ethanol use so as to get more horsepower running on moonshine and have the fuel adjustment screw marked for regular pump gass and ethanol or higher octanes.

[Rocketman]

There was a gentleman here who was building a trike trying to use a Capri engine, and wanted to carb it. Same deal, the electronics were "too complicated" and they don't offer much in the way of tuning. He stopped posted when he could not figure out how to run the ignition system without the ECU. The posts are still here somewhere.

The Capri's electronics are about as simple as simple gets. The lack of tuning does suck, but it's not insurmountable

I have seen carb'd Miatas. But the setups cost far more than the whole car is worth. Twin dual side-drafts, proper carbs for a 4cylinder.
An old Rochester or Holley quadra-jet is not going to be a good match for such a small 4-cylinder.

Turbo'ing a carb is not the easiest thing either - I personally haven't done it, so I'm speaking from material I've read over the years. EFI is the way to go if you're looking for 'easy'

If you want to be different, and I mean really, really different just for the sake of being different (and that would really be the only reason) lol, then go for it

[greywolf27030]

Mounting an SU or Weber on the intake side of a turbo shouldn't be that big a deal.  That's how it would have been done ol' skool.  Think '63 Olds F85 or Corvair Spyder.  I agree, a four barrel could be a huge mistake although they were mounted on Corvair engines that was over half again larger than ours.

Jack Byrd

[Rocketman]

I don't think the Capri will breathe well enough to utilize a 4-barrel (even with a turbo). The hot carb for a 4cyl of this size is the Weber 32/36. The festiva guys love them. Seem to perform really well too.

Draw-thru carb setups require special seals on the turbo's compressor side, and running an intercooler is a no-no as it's a large reservoir of compressed fuel/air mix asking for a backfire. BOVs are a no-go for the same reason. But could make a cool flame show! hah.

If someone was seriously interested in a 32/36 (or any twin-barrel downdraft for that matter) I can cast a proper intake manifold for the B6D for it, but I need some investment (for tooling) from said serious folk(s). The tooling is expensive & time consuming to build, and I'd rather not make them and then sit on my shelf 

[greywolf27030]

I agree that the blow through isn't exactly the hot set-up compared to today's technology.  The Corvair with 150HP from 164 CID (2.7L) isn't awe inspiring these days.  Pretty good back in the day though.  I had one with and adapter to mount a down draft Stromberg, pretty hot when combined with other mods.

I thought of you when I made the my previous post.  I can easily visualize the adapter as it would be so similiar to the one I used.  As with my example above, you can't approach the HP of modern systems with FI and aftercooler, but if you're looking for something different, there you go.

Have you looked into 3-D printers for tooling.  How expensive is it these days?  Years ago when I was doing tooling and the printers first came out it was terribly expensive but now they're doing complete cars on them.  3-D model a plug and print it, how cool is that?

Jack Byrd

[Rocketman]

Jack,

3d printers have come a long way! But they still have a long way to go, for the kinds of tooling I would need to make. A friend of mine recently purchased one, it has a 6"x6"x6" build area so it can't quite do car-sized parts. The parts though come out rather rough and require significant amounts of hand finishing - and something the size of an intake manifold would take days to print on an affordable hobbyist printer. They certainly have their place, and I still want one! But it would not be as useful for me at other tools.

I do have a CNC router, which is more suited for tooling - but there's still a tremendous learning curve with it compared to making tooling by hand. I use a blend of both. The 3d modelling is rather difficult for me - and there's a big difference between modelling a finished part, and modelling the tooling to make that finished part.

If I made one this is essentially what it would look like:


A company made them for a period of time, but they are not US-based, and the details are vague on it. I *think* that one was for the BP.

[greywolf27030]

When I was doing vacuum form tooling, I used CNC totally.  Most of them were less that 24 by 24 and it was a lot easier to end up with what I wanted using 3-D modeling and and CNC than via casting.  We needed polished surfaces and there was always a lot of hand finishing with the castings that increased the labor and time.  Sorry to high jack the thread.

Jack

[supercowmoo3]

Wow I seem to have sparked a very interesting conversation. You guys rock and I'm loving the info