Dellortos and rain

[Barry]

Well - we had about 100mm of rain in a couple of hours the other day
And my beetle lives outside 24/7
Result - a motor that wouldnt turn over.

Guessing water came in through the Dells

Cranked the motor over with a rachet and she fired up ok....... well sort of
Popped and farted till I blew the idles out

Anyway - how do people with Dells live with heavy rain if their dubs live outside??

Icecream buckets over the filters??
Silicon bead around the jet stack and drain holes in the filter base??

Just keep on cranking over by hand??

Thanks

Barry

[MinamiKotaro]

I never had a problem with my Dells in the rain.

[Bruce2]

What year is your car?

[FJCamper]

Hi Barry,

What sort of filters do you have on your Dells?

The classic filter does allow water to soak through when there is a lot of it.

http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDetails.asp ... e=C13-8714

Porsche solved this by using a stamped metal shield over the air intake.



These are easy to make for 2xbbl Dells and Webers.

FJC

[Barry]

My car is a 75L



And i have the classic type of filter set up

That is what i thought i would have to do.

Looks pretty easy to knock up

Note
I know i have a filter there but this is old pic
Got barb now

Thanks

[Bruce2]

My car is also a 75 and I use Dellorto DRLAs. Mine lives out on the street and it rains a LOT here. I've not had such a problem yet in many years. I think you had a fluke event. If it was me, I would do nothing.

My brother had a 73 Super with DRLAs many years ago and it happened to him once. He had parked his car sideways on the driveway so that the right side of the car was tilted up. I figured this tilt interfered with the natural draining under the louvers under the rear window.

[sideshow]

This is not quite a knock off of weber rain hats, but it should work slightly better.

I designed this around a late oil bath cleaner, cut down turbo hats, and common 2” exhaust tubing.

[Clatter]

You might try "Outerwears" pre-filters....
This will keep the water that inevitably gets onto the filters moving down the outside,
Instead of getting caught in the bottom.

If you get a hose and douse the vents from outside, you can see how the filters always get rained on/in..

Sideshow-
I have been wanting to do something with the turbo hats like that for a long time...
Doesn't that stock filter choke up a big motor?
How big is that motor?
Ever test it with/without on a dyno?

Seems to be a super sweet way to get cleaner air, no clogged idles, and lose the headache you get on the highway from all the noise....

[sideshow]

I considered outerwear also, but they don't add that much noise reduction, water shelter, or filter, just more work to maintain. Besides the manifolds I have are so tall they would get caught in the decklid springs.

Done only many thousands of miles of A-B-A testing mostly on I-5. It is 2 liters, I rev to 6500, judging by local track times I make less than 100hp (hats only with screen).

Still fail to see how an oil bath is restrictive, even with the older 36hp oil bath. Splash water is no issue, noise reduction is good, heat stove is possible, and it filters way better than the high maintenance well advertised kind.

Been trying hard to find any evidence of restriction, but no luck.

[turbobaja]

I like your intake sideshow. looks like something a lot of off-road guys could make use of too. A simple vac gauge plumbed into the ducting would show you if there's any measurable restrtiction. What about your crankcase breather hooked to the carb hat, could that draw in unfiltered air from the factory 'road pipe'? I miss having the room in a Ghia engine compartment, looks nice.

[sideshow]

I have a couple of boost (vacuum/boost) gauges but haven't plumbed one up yet. I figured they wouldn't be sensitive enough.

The stock road draft tube has a duck bill rubber seal at the bottom, crank pulley has a labyrinth screw seal, I consider this an open crankcase.

[sideshow]

FYI picture is clip art, mine is a little simpler with no graduations.


Just a quick update; I have run a filter minder'ish (http://www.filterminder.com/hfmw_air.asp ) but OEM from a chevy air cleaner sourced off the ground at a wrecking yard. I plumbed it into the breather fitting and found that normal driving doesn't trip the indicator. Redlining the motor trips it every time. The picture is old (I suffered with a t-4 for a few years that required an electric pump) I have added a crankcase breather vented into the air cleaner from where the fuel pump was. If one blocks the oil tower breather vent and drives a long freeway trips, it will over fill the oil filter, cause lots of tail pipe smoke.

After using that as a gauge/tool/benchmark, I still don't see how the oil bath is a practical restriction. It was just a tattle tale to remind me I have no rev limiter.

What I need to do (if I cared) would be put in another boss in the intake and angle the minder so it is plainly visible through the deck lid. I suspect it would only trip just as before when flogged, and the oil filter vent would prevent the fuel pump vent from over filling the air cleaner.

[Piledriver]

Bakers Secret Loaf Pans work splendidly as rain hats on IDFs etc.
Just use them for the top lid with some grease on the air filter seals top and bottom.
(had the hydro-lock after a downpour here in Dallas with my 914 w/no rain tray)

Cylinder was full and carb bowls were full.
Thank goodness for electric fuel pumps.

[shepherd]

That is a pretty good idea. I just finished rebuilding a set of Dells that were on a car that sat unused through a few months worth of rain storms. Ran when parked, junk the next spring. Needed both throttle shaft, all bearings, and seized one bypass screw. Having a top lid that overhangs the filter is key, if any water can get to them at all. Thanks for the tip, any pics?

[Steve Arndt]

Jake Raby tested a customers bernie bergman N/A 2275 T1 engine with CB turbo hats and a big K&N, compared to no filters. He lost some huge number like 25 horsepower from the single filter setup.

Here is an old pic I saved of it;