Dell 40 gaskets

If I recall the thick gaskets are called Isolators that keep heat from wicking to the carb. You can make your own gaskets form gasket material. Retires?  Congrats ... Every day is Saturday ~

I agree with Alan.  There are heat insulating spacers between the intake manifolds and carbs like this:

https://www.cbperformance.com/product-p/3283.htm

As for the intake to head gaskets, take the manifolds off and look at the holes in the bottom.  They will be round, oval or "D" shaped.  You'll need to get the right ones from CB Performance:

https://www.cbperformance.com/...ccessories-s/270.htm

They may still need some "touch up" depending on if/how it has been port matched.

Thanks Gordon--for those prices I won't be making gaskets. My heat spacers are 1 piece which probably make them so difficult to get around all 4 bolts at one.

Hey, BTW......   Two things:

What is your first name?  Calling you "Heritage" is kinda like calling my great Aunt "Fionnuala" (yes, that was her name...   She was very cool in a stern sort of way).

Secondly, I think both @DannyP and I have tried using the extra-thick CB performance head-to-manifold gaskets and, while they work, they tend to loosen up over time as they squash out and leak.  My head ports are really big, leaving maybe 1/8"  of metal between the ports and the thicker gaskets tend to get sucked out between ports causing all sorts of consternation.  If you already ordered them, use them, but re-torque the manifold nuts after a week or two to snug them up and then check their torque every Spring.

David--from a small village in Lakemore, Ohio.  Might just drive it after swapping out steering box for a few weeks since it's been asleep for so long and I have the itch. Then when it gets stinking hot just turn on the air in the garage and tear it down.

After DannyP rebuilt my dual Dell 40's we made the decision to ditch the thick isolators/gaskets and go with regular gaskets when I reinstalled them.

No apparent downside to the decision, and a small leak that had appeared at the bottom of the passenger side thick gasket went away.

@Gordon Nichols posted:

Hey, BTW......   Two things:

What is your first name?  Calling you "Heritage" is kinda like calling my great Aunt "Fionnuala" (yes, that was her name...   She was very cool in a stern sort of way).

Secondly, I think both @DannyP and I have tried using the extra-thick CB performance head-to-manifold gaskets and, while they work, they tend to loosen up over time as they squash out and leak.  My head ports are really big, leaving maybe 1/8"  of metal between the ports and the thicker gaskets tend to get sucked out between ports causing all sorts of consternation.  If you already ordered them, use them, but re-torque the manifold nuts after a week or two to snug them up and then check their torque every Spring.

I'm pretty sure that the CB gaskets are different than they used to be. I used them on the motor I built last year.

@Panhandle Bob posted:

After DannyP rebuilt my dual Dell 40's we made the decision to ditch the thick isolators/gaskets and go with regular gaskets when I reinstalled them.

No apparent downside to the decision, and a small leak that had appeared at the bottom of the passenger side thick gasket went away.

I agree. Countless high performance VWs have been built and run without the insulators with no ill effect.

On the fence about ditching the isolators. Anyone know if I can remove the filter bases and just have the velocity stacks showing.(see pic) Speedy got some new hats today.

Thanks for info Bob.

The original Dellorto base gaskets had a little bump cast on them that fit in a small hole in the bottom of the carbs. That little bump would eliminate the famous Dellorto "chirp" when you blip the throttle. Unfortunately you can't find the old style isolators and the "chirp" tells everybody your running Dells!

For reference. No isolators.

@Heritage 2008 posted:

On the fence about ditching the isolators. Anyone know if I can remove the filter bases and just have the velocity stacks showing.(see pic) Speedy got some new hats today.

Thanks for info Bob.

You'll need to get a new twist style linkage or a sync-link cable setup if you want to remove the air filter bases.

@Heritage 2008 posted:

Thanks Gordon--for those prices I won't be making gaskets. My heat spacers are 1 piece which probably make them so difficult to get around all 4 bolts at one.

Check your nuts, David.

IIRC, those studs are 8 mm. Typically, an 8 mm but would have 13mm flats, and those are a bitch to get on and off.

The correct nut for those is a special nut with 10 mm or 12mm flats. With those, a 1/4” drive U joint and a thin-wall socket (which you don’t need with the 10mm ones) and they’re a breeze to get on and off.

I get them from Belmetric.
https://belmetric.com/nuts/hex-nuts/

@DannyP posted:

I agree. Countless high performance VWs have been built and run without the insulators with no ill effect.

My Dells don’t have the insulators. Who knows, maybe if I had them I wouldn’t have to start it with a WOT when it’s hot and sits for 4-5 minutes. The local AC VW pro tells me it’s my hard fuel line running across my shroud. Who knows?

It’s not enough of a bother to worry about.

I actually enjoy hearing my Dells chirp.  A lot.

Thanks guys. May be chirping down the road soon or not. Cheap enough just to replace given that these are hard as rocks--no idea how old they. 

@sherco_chris posted:

The original Dellorto base gaskets had a little bump cast on them that fit in a small hole in the bottom of the carbs. That little bump would eliminate the famous Dellorto "chirp" when you blip the throttle. Unfortunately you can't find the old style isolators and the "chirp" tells everybody your running Dells!

On my original motor that I put Dells on Pat Downs modified the carbs to eliminate the chirp. I’m sure there is information somewhere on the internet that shows how to do it.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/l...dex.php?t309668.html

On my 40mm Dells, the chirp went away when I used the thicker base gaskets which are NLA from Cb or Aircooled.   ☹️  I suspect that a strategically placed dab of RTV 1/4-way up that channel just before the gasket is applied would easily cure it, too.

Using the current, thinner  available gaskets, the chirp came back but, like Jack Crosby, I kinda like it.  It grows on you after a while and you always know when someone’s running Dells.  

I rode in @WildBill's Blackie my first Carlisle ('05) and I remember the chirp distinctly.  I thought it added character and I liked it.

@Jack Crosby posted:

I actually enjoy hearing my Dells chirp.  A lot.

If you like that, you’d love my Ducati. The FCR carbs start this whistle/hurricane sound about 1/3 throttle. I think of it as “the sound of acceleration.”

@Lane Anderson posted:

I rode in @WildBill's Blackie my first Carlisle ('05) and I remember the chirp distinctly.  I thought it added character and I liked it.

I’ve never noticed it, but I think I’m going for a drive today. I’ll check for it.

I kind of feel bad that I don't have a chirp with my Webers.

@Michael McKelvey posted:

I kind of feel bad that I don't have a chirp with my Webers.

Dell Schmell!

@Michael McKelvey posted:

I kind of feel bad that I don't have a chirp with my Webers.

Don’t feel bad. My dells don’t chirp. Either that or the exhaust is too loud to hear it. It wasn’t too loud to hear one of my valves making a little to much clatter, though. Time for a quick run through the adjustment.

@dlearl476 posted:

Don’t feel bad. My dells don’t chirp. Either that or the exhaust is too loud to hear it. It wasn’t too loud to hear one of my valves making a little to much clatter, though. Time for a quick run through the adjustment.

Mine either. Panhandle Bob's either. I've often wondered about the apocryphal "chirp". Is it really there on some Dells, or just imagined?

I'm deaf as a post, so there's that - but I've never heard it in 20 years of having them.

Some Dells do have a chirp. Lenny's do. I remember Bill's Blackie did.

Since this thread started I've been listening for it, but Stan is correct about my Dell's, no chirp.

Some do, some don't depending on whether they've been "fixed" by either plugging that port (it's easy to do) or by using those thicker gaskets that allow some gasket material to squeeze up into the port and close it.  The port is something like 1/4" wide, 1/16" high and 3/4" long and makes an open-ended whistle when the gasket is applied.  

I went 15 or more years with no chirp.  Then, the last time I had the carbs off all I had were the thinner gaskets and now.....  Chirp.  🐥  Going back to my Ham Radio days, I would guess that the frequency of the chirp is above 12,000 hertz and not very loud, so if you've suffered hearing loss (and the higher frequencies are the first to go) then you might not hear it.  It's higher pitched than a referee's whistle.

It's not like it's loud or bad or anything, it's just there.  A few more years and I'll be deaf enough at the higher frequencies that I pro'bly won't hear it either.

If you want to eliminate the chirp on those carbs that have it, just fill in that little channel with JB-Weld and you're done.  There is no port opening on the far end from the carb throat - That was only drilled out for Alpha Romeos or something like that so filling it with JB-Weld just eliminates the whistle port into the carburetor throat.

You are a wonder, Gordon. Thanks for the arcane info!

Careful, Mike.  You don't want him to get a big head now do you?

There is no need for JB Weld. I plugged some ports on a gasoline generator carb when I converted it to run on only propane. I used blue RTV and it was over twenty years ago. That generator still runs like a top.

@Lane Anderson posted:

Careful, Mike.  You don't want him to get a big head now do you?

Too late for that, don't you think? 😄

Wow!

I'm not just "Cane".....

I'm "Arcane"  

Just like the Three Amigos.....    They're not just "Famous", They're "IN-Famous"

.

So, when you guys with Dells aren't cleaning out plugged up holes, you look for clean holes to plug up just to quiet down something that half of you can't hear and the other half won't be able to hear in a few years, anyway?

Is this another one of those Schrödinger's cat things?

.

@Sacto Mitch posted:

.So, when you guys with Dells aren't cleaning out plugged up holes, you look for clean holes to plug up just to quiet down something that half of you can't hear and the other half won't be able to hear in a few years, anyway?

Is this another one of those Schrödinger's cat things?

It's how I spend my evenings now. I take one carb or the other off and look for brass thingies to remove or holes to plug, as I've got nothing else going. I used to dream of retirement, but I'm having so much fun with my blue RTV and JB Weld that I don't ever want to stop.

Retirement?!?

You can't handle Retirement!    😉

@Gordon Nichols posted:

Retirement?!?

You can't handle Retirement!    😉

That's @Panhandle Bob you're thinking of. He's the guy who "retired" , moved to Florida, and started selling a couple dozen houses a month.

I'm getting way too tired for that.

I hear yah.....

I started working at Data General Computer Company back in 1978 and there I met Dennis O'Brien.  "Hot Rod Dennis" has a 1934 Ford panel truck Hot Rod that has waaaay more miles on it as a Street Rod than it ever had as a regular truck.  Semi-stock frame, Mustang II front end, MOPAR big V8 and automatic, A/C, Jaguar rear end and air bag suspension.

Somewhere along the way, Dennis was lamenting the fact that it was getting hard to find places that would make Car Club plaques that Hot Rodders attach to their bumpers to show what club they belong to - Something like us having an SOC grill badge.  They used to be hugely popular but the makers kept dying off, so Dennis saw an opportunity and bought out the remaining sets of plaque masters (over 12,000 of them) and set up "O'Brien Truckers" making club plaques for clubs all over the world.  He even personally delivered a shipment of them to MUSBJIM's island of Guam as guest of honor for a Hot Rod event there!

Anyway, he kept growing his business over the years, eventually retired from Computers around 2010 and devoted his full time to his "side business" and today produces a whole range of products, with several people working for him part time to keep up with orders.  While other places saw a vast drop in orders with the Pandemic, his business picked way up.

Funny how devoting yourself to a "side gig" can mushroom into something major as a "retirement" business....

https://www.obrientruckers.com

There's a thread on thesamba.com about the chirping.  These gaskets were suggested: https://vwparts.aircooled.net/...o-whistle-gasket.htm

It was also said that the current Hot VWs magazine has an article about Dells.

Unfortunately, Aircooled is also showing those gaskets as "Out of Stock" with no replenish date.  

When I was out cruising yesterday, I confirmed what someone else mentioned, that the chirp comes on at about 1/3 throttle and disappears somewhere around 2/3 throttle, so I guess the easy fix is to either dog along at low speeds or get your foot in it and smoke the freeways......   YMMV

Some year when I have my carbs off (Unlike Stan who says he pulls one every night for practice,    Mine tend to be trouble-free so it's a looooong time between service) I'll plug that channel and just get it over with.