Weber or Mikuni?

[geezer101]

^good advice from SubGothius. Make sure you get a genuine Weber as there are knock-offs (licensed copies) of Webers on the market and they are a death spiral of grief to work with. There is another carb option that has become popular which is the Weber 38DGES. This is a similar but newer design of the 32/36 with 38mm throats. If you want to lean more towards performance it will suit the 2.6L better than the smaller 32/36 and is set up to function the same way. There are other modifications you may want to think about when doing the Weber swap like deletion of the EGR valve, tap and threading a grub screw into the coolant port hidden on the mating surface of the manifold to prevent coolant from coming up under the carb gasket. Using a sealed air cleaner assembly is preferred. The after market open air filters will pull hot air from the engine bay and rob the engine of torque. I'd wrap the headers in thermal tape to keep engine bay temperatures down and aid exhaust gas scavenging (hot gases move faster) which will allow you to be a little more aggressive with tuning.

[SubGothius]

Buying from Pierce Manifolds or Carbs Unlimited should ensure you get a genuine Weber made in Spain; they don't appear to list any "economy grade" versions that would be a troublesome clone. Just for the record: the genuine article has the Weber name/logo and "Made in Spain" cast right into the carb body, which has a rough/dull casting finish, whereas the clones just have Weber on a decal or ink-stamp and a smooth/bright finish. The electric choke housing can also be a clue, as genuine ones have an off-white plastic cover while clones have a black plastic cover, but it's not a dead giveaway as these can be mismatched (e.g. to upgrade a water choke to electric).

I don't think the 38 DGES is any newer of a design than the 32/36 DGEV; I'm pretty sure that dealer tech who said it was a newer design than a 32/36 was referring to the mirror-image 32/36 DFEV design there, which is indeed older. Aside from the larger and same-size throats on the 38, it also has a synchronous linkage meaning both barrels open simultaneously, whereas the 32/36s are progressive meaning the larger secondary barrel only starts opening past a certain point in pedal travel, but driving with a lighter foot keeps it on the smaller primary barrel for better fuel economy.

Speaking of that grub screw to block the coolant port in the manifold, I'd recommend tapping that port just deep enough for the screw to clear the carb mounting face when screwed in tight, and be sure to use thread sealant (e.g. Permatex 59214).