I had the stock Stromberg emissions carb when I got the car. It's hard to tune, has a terrible intake manifold and does not really work all that well. What to do?
Well years back I did what many do - I bought a Weber 2 barrel downdraft kit for the car. It installed easily, ran poorly and taught me about the importance of proper crankcase ventilation. But even with all that, it was better than the Stromberg.
So years later when I finally had some time and money, I found a pair of SU HS4's, the stock carburetor in Europe, with their proper manifold, linkage and air cleaner on eBay. They looked complete - but awful. I took care of the air cleaner and intake manifold, sending them to get media blasted here. And then I sent the Carbs off to Dave Braun (www.dbraun99.com) who is a well known expert in restoring SU carbs. He got them cleaned up (vapor blasted, maybe glass beaded? I think) and re-built them. He also sent along great instructions for getting them running properly.
How it started:
The stock Stomberg setup. The intake manifold is pretty bad - those 90 degree turns are not doing us any favors, and cyl 1 & 4 have it worse than 2 & 3 so running smoothly can be tougher. It had to go.
The mosts common of the Weber conversions, the 32/36 DGV downdraft. This can work better but I could never seem to find the right adjustments to make it happy. There are piles of rumors about why or why not it is a poor fit for the car. It's also a little tricky to find an air cleaner for it that does not dent the hood. If I had money and time, I would find a set of real Weber side drafts, but that's an investment.
Our eBay carbs. Not really lookers, are they?
Test fitting while I had the head off (it needed a new head gasket). Nice straight runs from the carbs to the intake valves. Much more like it.
My first pic from Dave prior to shipping them back! Blasted, re-plated and perfected.
They were completely transformed, they looked and acted brand new.
The air cleaner, as we got it.
a little on the rough side
Here it is back from media blasting. I had drilled out the rivets to protect the tag.
Some grey hammertone paint...
Rivet the tag back on...
And boom! Now that is a carb setup! Beneath it are the stainless Moss 4-2-1 headers which are starting to turn colors.
I had misjudged which needle I would need, but was able to order the right one and set it up. The cars runs wonderfully now, and has for years (this all happened in 2013) I have not had to touch the carbs. <knock wood!> I just add oil to the dashpots every so often. (it's not critical)
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