Dellorto DRLA 40 tuning

I just rebuilt my single two barrel DRLA 40 and stuck it back on my car. Everything jet wise is what came with the carb. I am having a hard time getting it to idle. I am not that proficient when it comes to tuning. I can get it to run but making it run perfect is not my forte. Is there anything I can try to make it idle better? Also upon acceleration it falls on its face for a second and then picks up again. I watched a video on YouTube and the guy said that this is a lean condition.

Basically I need all the help I can get about tuning my carb.

check for vac leaks an put your hands over the stacks to slow down the air dont close off all the air an if its to lean it will run awsome if you do thatmight have to go up a jet size

i just did the hand thing and it ran better. what does that mean? it's obviously lean and not getting enough fuel but how do i remedy that?

Bigger fuel jets

If it ran ok before you rebuilt it. Make sure you don't have a vacuum leak. Try doubling up the gaskets where it mounts to the intake. Sometimes the gasket materal is not thick enough there. It might be best to pickup some gasket material and cut your own, if possible.

im pretty sure its not a vacuum leak because i did the hand trick over the stacks that doodle was talking about. and it seemed to run better. so that leads me to believe that it is running super lean.

I have run across several Dellorto's that were difficult to get clean. You may have to pull it apart several times and blow all the jets and passages out with compressed air...it doesn't matter how clean they look. Major pain in the butt when your dealing with 2. It may idle and have dead spots or not idle and function fine at WOT and pop and spit in mid range all due to trash in one or more jet including the airs. Running lean and vacuum leaks have the same symptoms and are in many cases are the same problem but may have different causes. I have had some good results putting a heavy leather glove on, revving the engine up and smothering the carb at the same time going WOT until it just about stalls then take your hand off the carb keeping it at WOT until it clears all the fuel out and starts running again. You may have to do this repeatedly and try revving it up and smothering it with the throttle plate closed, then uncover and go WOT before it dies. This process puts a hell of a vacuum on the different circuits of the carb and may pull some trash out that you otherwise wouldn't get out. The glove keeps you from loosing your hand in the event of a backfire, anytime you smother a carb it will get fuel on whatever is covering it. On one vehicle in particular I had to take the carbs down at least 10 times over a period of a couple weeks and do the smother trick repeatedly before it finally cleared up and started working....all from sitting and lack of use. They seem to be a little more sensitive then the Webers but that may just have been the ones I ran into. They are extremely sensitive to vacuum leaks and while you don't think you have any leaks it would be a good idea to hit the whole intake from the carb to the heads with some carb spray while it's running and watch for RPM change. I've kicked myself a time or two cause I was sure there was no leaks. Make sure you have a fire extinguisher handy before you do that though