Hi there everyone,

Firstly I'd like to say I am glad to see so many people putting all the effort that you do to have a Skoda community.

The last time I posted on here I had only one Skoda, and now I have three (plus one for spares).

They're all old, and all my friends make fun of me, but I love them. Particularly the newest baby of mine, a Rapid 136. Photos will follow soon.

I am looking at a set of webers (DCOE 40s) on ebay, but I know NOTHING about webers. Perhaps, if someone could be so kind, would someone be able to tell me anything I should watch for when buying these carbs? After all, they generally sell for more than the entire value of the car, so I don't want to make a mistake and end up with something useless.

I read "4stroke performance tuning" by A. Bell, and he recommends the dcoes for this size of engine and state of tune.

I was just wondering (I have seen something about this) if there are good carbs and bad ones, I have seen some ads saying things like "these webers are from bologna, not the usual rubbish etc" so essentially I would not like to buy rubbish...

the only details the seller gives are as follows:

THE TIPO No. ON BOTH ARE 40DCOE 2 AND THE SERIAL No.s ARE 26894 AND 26377

I would be really grateful to anyone who can help me, because I have slaved to keep those cars so much, and as a med student I cant afford a mistake.

If there is anything I can do in return, I would,

Thank you



P.S. the auction ends in about 2 days, so any speedy response would be appreciated, thank you for your time

Russ

By the way, one interesting fact - I study in the Czech republic, in a place called Olomouc, if any of you know where that is. Anybody want parts for old timer Skodas? PLEASE let me know. Also, there are SO MANY old skodas just rotting in the streets, plenty of 120s and 100s, 110s, some of which are actually in servicable condition but uneconomical for their owners. If anyone has time and money for these little children, come to CZ and give them a home... (sorry just getting carried away there)

:)A man that shares my love of rear engined Skodas....nice to "meet" you. Please call in at the garage I run in Royston, Herts if you're passing....I'm slowly turning it in to Skodaland!

Could you post a link to the ebay ad, or quote the ebay number.

By the way, one interesting fact - I study in the Czech republic, in a place called Olomouc, if any of you know where that is. Anybody want parts for old timer Skodas? PLEASE let me know. Also, there are SO MANY old skodas just rotting in the streets, plenty of 120s and 100s, 110s, some of which are actually in servicable condition but uneconomical for their owners. If anyone has time and money for these little children, come to CZ and give them a home... (sorry just getting carried away there)

Olomóc :P Palackého Univerzita v Oloumouci ? That´s where you study ? Are you czech ?

So if you are looking for those webers, which i have totally no clue what that could be, the same way as my dictionary, just try to find some bigger skoda service and ask them where to find car breaker´s yard or ask some of the owners, if they´ll be looking like they could speak english.

You can usually find a LOTS of stuff in there...

Btw its called vrakoviště, in case you are not czech. you can read it like vra-ko-vys-tye

:)Mods...if this is wrong then do what you have to do, I'll understand....there is a Skoda forum at SKODA FORUM :: The International Skoda Community Forum that has lots of rear engined fans that are likely to be able to help with the Weber carb question.

thank you for the link Dave Rapid, I think you must have been writing your post as I was writing you a PM. The thing is, ALL of my colleagues make fun of my car(s).

However, I am confident that it is the people who used Skodas in the past (for example never using antifreeze or at least some rust inhibitor in the cooling system) who ruined the reputation of these cars.

I would like to keep the car as standard as possible, but make her outperform the three series BMs, Audi A4s and others that they have there.

Then I want to see their faces the next day at uni.

Thanks for the link again...

Russ

To OLAFCZ,

thanks for the tip, nejsem cech ale musel jsem se ucit cesky abych mluvil s pacientami. Vim, ze nemluvim poradne cesky ale se snazim! zatim cau...

by the way, this is the link to the carbs, if you have the time, I'd be really happy if you could take a look and offer any advice, thank you

WEBER TWIN 40'S DCOE CARBS (NOT DELLORTO) on eBay, also Injection Fuel Systems, Performance Tuning Parts, Car Tuning Styling, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 27-Dec-07 19:08:53 GMT)

thank you for the link Dave Rapid, I think you must have been writing your post as I was writing you a PM. The thing is, ALL of my colleagues make fun of my car(s).

However, I am confident that it is the people who used Skodas in the past (for example never using antifreeze or at least some rust inhibitor in the cooling system) who ruined the reputation of these cars.

I would like to keep the car as standard as possible, but make her outperform the three series BMs, Audi A4s and others that they have there.

Then I want to see their faces the next day at uni.

Thanks for the link again...

Russ

:)PM replied to.

These Skodas were mostly VERY reliable. One of mine is nearly 20 years old, has 270,000 recorded miles and has it's original engine, gearbox and other major mechanicals. Yeah it's getting knackered now, but it still starts up and drives and is safe. I'll get round to restoring it sometime before its 30th birthday, till then it'll plod on! :P

To OLAFCZ,

thanks for the tip, nejsem cech ale musel jsem se ucit cesky abych mluvil s pacientami. Vim, ze nemluvim poradne cesky ale se snazim! zatim cau...

Sorry za offtopic, ale parada , mluvis i pises skvele, pokud nekecas a nejsi cech ne vazne, porad lepsi nez moje anglina. Navic jsem pracoval s dost anglanama, co ani po vice jak peti letech neumej cesky ani ň. Takze respekt.

However, I am confident that it is the people who used Skodas in the past (for example never using antifreeze or at least some rust inhibitor in the cooling system) who ruined the reputation of these cars.

Never saw it that way. Suppose it makes sense if people go on price (which is what Skoda was mainly about back in the day), they might be less willing to part with money to give their car a proper service.

So - did you get the Webers? Have you got a suitable adaptor for mounting them? Do tell!

As for sticking it to Bimmers and Audis, the best way to show off is on tight corners. With decent treads fitted an Estelle/Rapid can flick round tight bends quicker than most front-engine cars out there. And if you're really nuts you can always rev to 4 grand, drop the clutch and pull a (momentary) wheelie - I've seen it done in a tuned Estelle 120 but, mind you, the 4-speed gearbox in those was apparently tougher than the 5-speed one in the Rapid.

Weber are a very good carb and jets are easy to obtain. If you can find a suitable inlet manifold

I would go for it.

Got The Carbs! at £151 including delivery, it seems I got a reasonable deal, as I have seen plenty of sets going for 200+. That said, the whole car is worth only £200, so not much of an investment...

As for manifold, I have been kindly referred to a gentleman who makes them, so I will make contact soon to have it's fabrication organised.

Whilst on the subject of modifying this rapid, what would anyone recommend for performance upgrades? I saw a webpage where someone had written about fitting discs to the rear:

Correspondance/Feedback...

A gentleman by the name Jim Jones makes reference to it - anybody know who he is, and how I would be able to beg him for the details to mounting rear discs to my rapid?

If anyone has done some serious tuning to their estelle/rapid, I would love to hear from you - perhas I should make a separate thread for this...?

Whilst on the subject of modifying this rapid, what would anyone recommend for performance upgrades?

Suspension would be first on my list. Theoretically, KYB makes mono-tube gas shocks for front and rear of any rear-engine Skoda, though you may have trouble actually finding them - ordering from Czech republic or Poland may be a dodge and could save you money too.

Also new treads, with or without new rims: standard rims are 5 inches wide and will accommodate up to 175 treads but the range of 13-inch treads now available is pretty crummy and I'd be tempted to go to at least 14-inch if only to give some options. Beware cheap treads: you get what you pay for. Budget radials from Kwik-Fit will let you down at the first hint of trouble, you can bet your shirt. Depending on where you're going to drive the car, you could go to 15-inch rims and 195/45 treads which will keep rolling radius the same. Watch out for clearance in the arch, though, I can't vouch for anything bigger than 185 treads.

What exhaust have you got? IIRC, Rapids had a higher-flow exhaust than Estelles - or was that 4-2-1 manifold and hi-flow exhaust an upgrade item? Can't remember but the standard Estelle exhaust is deeply nothing special so it's worth a look.

And make sure you get the engine rolling-road tuned if you want to get the best from those Webers. It's really the only way to get them jetted and set up properly. Before going to the rolling road, check your distributor and spark plugs are just so. Do Lumenition upgrades for disties still exist? One worked wonders on an old Hillman of mine, years ago. The point is that if timing is even slightly off, or worse still wandering (unstable from one rev to the next), you'll never get a proper rolling-road result.

Everything else pretty much relies on having the engine out and in bits. Head rebuilds (skimmed to increase compression ratio, ported to improve gas flow), bottom end upgrades (what's the price for a semi-custom steel crank these days? Be surprised if it's much under a grand, sadly), piston end-over-end balancing, flywheel lightening - the list is endless if you're determined. You'll get extra horsepower and/or reliability from all those things, not least because a major advantage of the Webers is that they allow much better breathing at high RPM but the stock engine is a bit inclined to fall to bits as it was never designed to rev to 5000 all day!

That's good advice, thank you. I wish the 4-2-1 header was standard but no, its not sadly. As for rims, I am still scratching my head on that because it has a PCD of 130mm, not much fits. I've seen loads of people putting some kind of spacers (don't know what they are called) and fitting different wheels, but firstly I don't have cash for an expensive set of alloys and second I was hoping not to increase the unsprung weight.

As for the distributor, I swapped the basic contact unit that came with the car for a contactless (emf type) distributor from a favorit, and it works well when everything is connected.

Everything makes sense, but there was one part I didn't understand - what does end-over-end balancing mean?

Thanks,

Russ

As for rims, I am still scratching my head on that because it has a PCD of 130mm, not much fits. I've seen loads of people putting some kind of spacers (don't know what they are called) and fitting different wheels, but firstly I don't have cash for an expensive set of alloys and second I was hoping not to increase the unsprung weight.

Oh, yes, I'd forgotten about the non-standard PCD. Actually I'm sure there were other cars that used that, unfortunately mostly even older than Estelle/Rapid and therefore no more likely to be on the radar for wheel vendors. Ask around some classic car forums, you may get useful tips. May even get some second-hand rims. I've a feeling Renault used that bolt configuration at one time, after graduating from 3-bolt rims. Of course, a large PCD like that is at least tough as old boots!

If you can't get replacement rims, probably about the best you'll do for treads is 175/65, which will give you about the same rolling radius, a bit more rubber on the road, and a good choice of brands and models. Conti EcoContact is available in that size, for instance, and is reckoned to be a very good tyre. Look for prices a shade under £50 as about the best you'll get. (I've just been tyre-shopping myself!)

I swapped the basic contact unit that came with the car for a contactless (emf type) distributor from a favorit

Yup, I should have thought of that!

what does end-over-end balancing mean?

Sorry, got carried away with the jargon! It means balancing up the piston/conrod assembly so that the top-end weights all match and the bottom-end weights all match too. It's a while since I did all this stuff, but as far as I remember typical pistons and rods are balanced to about 5g (gross mass), while precision-balanced ones are good to about 1g. Of course it's pointless unless you have the crank and flywheel balanced too, and you won't easily spot the differences on most engines unless you regularly give it at least 5000 revs. I suspect tolerances must have improved on modern engines as many of them are quite high revvers, but for instance a friend's Peugeot GTi 1.9 used to shake, rattle and roll at 5700 revs, though the red line was well above 6000.

I heard a rumour once, come to think, that old Skoda engines were unusually well balanced at the factory - anybody any idea whether that's true or just urban myth?

Hey, good news for someone (who was asking? I'm losing track!) on the Rapid wheels front: the original VW Beetle had PCD130x4 wheels so you can get aftermarket alloys for that or the VW camper (which was a Beetle chassis, of course). I just typed this lot into Google to check on the accuracy of my friend's suggestion of this morning, and found someone on ebay flogging a full set of Beetle alloys, ending 10 Jan. Sorry, forgot to save the link, I'm sure you'll find it if you want. You may end up with 15inch wheels, though, but then you can put some mean rubber on that!

Hi there Richard,

Thanks for the info and your time. I found the wheels, they remind me of the minilite types that used to be fitted to the 'Super Estelle'. That said, with a car that is worth only £200, those wheels are looking quite expensive already...

I was wondering how people make deep dish versions of standard wheels, I googled it to no avail. I would like to increase the track without using very wide tyres, and I have seen it done (see attached pic)

I know the car is, well, somewhat pooly, the rear wheel is quite interesting - I have yet to find people who would sell such wheels, do you think it is possible to make them?

Thank you for the info again though, I will certainly keep my eyes open for any beetle wheels and should I find some at a reasonable price then they will certainly be put on my car.

Thanks,

Russ

That said, with a car that is worth only £200

You can look at it that way, or you can just think of the final condition of the car and what it would cost you to buy one in that state. I've always been one to buy a basically running car for low hundreds of pounds and then spend probably twice or more what I paid for it doing it up. Result: something that will last reliably, and be a lot of fun to drive, for 2 or 3 years with minimal maintenance (barring unavoidable bummers like some twit driving into it parked at the roadside while you're fast asleep in bed) - and if you want to buy a car that fulfils that criterion from the day you buy it, you'll pay thousands, not hundreds.

I was wondering how people make deep dish versions of standard wheels

They don't, they just buy wheels with more offset (well, you can increase the offset by a little, perhaps up to 1cm, with spacer rings but it's not the cleverest trick in the book). Quite frankly, although increasing the width across the wheels sounds like a good thing at first, when you think of all the implications it turns out it's not quite so wonderful. Most obvious is that there's a risk of wheels rubbing on the wheel arch, which will trash tyres in no time and is an obvious safety hazard. Beyond that, you are fundamentally upsetting the geometry of the car by moving the contact point with the road relative to all the various pivot points and axes, so you can expect at the very least to have to reset toe-in, and probably camber and (at the front) castor too. And since those two are adjusted with a welder or a lump hammer on most modern cars (!) you'd better be prepared for some serious bodywork.

I know you see cars running around with wheels sticking out at the sides, but most of the guys doing that are 100% posers with little or no knowledge of car mechanics and they don't know and/or don't care that they've compromised handling, safety and tyre life. The few that don't fall into that category have probably half-rebuilt the car's frame. The one time you can increase offset with gay abandon is when you have an old-style RWD car with a beam axle (i.e. no Skoda since 1960!), in which case sure, go right ahead, the only possible problem is wheel-arch crash. Almost anything else, more than an inch or so is going to be more headache than it's worth.

That car in the photo looks like a full-on rally job, so goodness only knows what they've done underneath it. Anyway, rallying is another set of rules, for instance you reckon to trash a set of tyres in about 2 races because that's what happens if you drive sideways at high speed on gravel!

A bit late on this, but you only actually need 1 twin-choke sidedraft for a Skoda engine.

As for suspension, Bilstein shocks for Volvo 140 (front) and Saab 900 (rear). Leave the front springs standard; it was good enough for John Haugland back in the day. You may want uprated rears, which used to be available from Skoparts.