Rover V8 Carbs | Technical matters | Back Room Forum

Sun 11 Dec 2005 20:11

Rover V8 Carbs - mrmender

Goodevening every one i've a kit car (traka) based 95% on a old range rover. Now the engine is 100% good with a known history (v8 rover of course) have been told that both carbs not in the best of health (strombergs) is it worth the cost of fitting a new webber carb with a full conversion kit at a not cheap price of £550. I have no real probs with the price BUT will it run £550 better!!! any help would be good

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Sun 11 Dec 2005 21:44

Rover V8 Carbs - ChrisMo

Greenways Engineering on this page
www.lrm.co.uk/mainpages/advertisersindex/advertise...l

are a specialist carb reconditioner, maybe worth giving them a call about reconning your existing ones. I haven't had one done there, just had a chat with them one day a long time ago about the carb in my land rover.

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Mon 12 Dec 2005 00:17

Rover V8 Carbs - Hugo {P}

Mrmender

I have a Rover 3500 Haynes manual that you can have for the cost of postage if you needed it, assuming you've not got one.

hugo_moderator@honestjohn.co.uk

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Mon 12 Dec 2005 00:48

Rover V8 Carbs - Pete M

Didn't Rover 3.5 engines also come with two SU HD8 (2")? From my Jag experience these are vastly better than the Strombergs, and should be fairly cheap at a breaker.

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Mon 12 Dec 2005 06:59

Rover V8 Carbs - mrmender

Pete yes SU's would be better but won't fit under my bonnet where as the webber conversion will

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Mon 12 Dec 2005 07:41

Rover V8 Carbs - Andrew Moorey (Tune-Up)

From experience the Weber conversion is a Rochester or Carter. My own preference would be 650cfm Holley on an Edelbrock dual plane inlet manifold. Of course if you are using standard exhausts you are never going to get the real benefits. I am preparing to get my wrists slapped by the BRM but I just happen to have in the workshop a 3.9 Rover engine with such a carb and demon bespoke exhaust manifolds..........
Andrew
--
Simplicate and add lightness!!

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Mon 12 Dec 2005 08:26

Rover V8 Carbs - Armitage Shanks {p}

I live 100 yards from a man whose living is selling and refurbing SU carbs. If you want his details contact me at djg6-kr4u@ spamex.com

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Mon 12 Dec 2005 09:59

Rover V8 Carbs - nick

Get a Yahoo id and then join the groups sd1online, roversd1 or rover-v8. Lots of helpful people there.

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Mon 12 Dec 2005 10:28

Rover V8 Carbs - tr7v8

650 Holley is miles too big for a 3.5 irrespective of state of tune, in fact the 390 is slightly to big which is why they're a pig to set up.
The carb that everyone is now using is the Edelbrock/Carter/Webber 500 on either a Edelbrock dual plane or the Offy 360 which is much easier to set up and will give slightly better power and better economy.
Edelbrock dual plane is 1inch + taller than Offy hence why my 7 runs a 360!
Have a look on the V8 forums & also google RPI as their site is a mine of info.

Jim

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Mon 12 Dec 2005 10:32

Rover V8 Carbs - tr7v8

Try this one

www.v-8.org.uk/forum/

and this one

www.v8engines.com/homepage.htm

Jim

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Mon 12 Dec 2005 13:06

Rover V8 Carbs - Number_Cruncher

Would the SUs fit underneath the bonnet if they were fitted to a MGB V8 manifold? - these were different to the standard Rover manifold, in order to clear the MGB bonnet.

Number_Cruncher

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Mon 12 Dec 2005 13:01

Rover V8 Carbs - ChrisX

Find a pair of SU's !!!

There is a whole load of data on the Net regarding needle sizes and adjustment.

In the 1960-70's the cars fitted with SU's all had nice dark grey exhaust pipes whereas the Ford carbs always gave a sooty black exhaust. I've set up and balanced many an SU.

Look at all this engine management crap today. How many cars do you see with a nice clean grey exhaust pipe and that includes my own Volvo V70 which has two, yes two, exhaust gas sensors to get the Stochiometric mixture point?

Chris.

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Mon 12 Dec 2005 13:43

Rover V8 Carbs - tr7v8

Errr, you won't get a grey exhaust with unleaded petrol ever!

My 7 runs no management just a Webber 500, even the dizzy has points, but has a black exhaust and is running near stoch. Your Volvo with management will run very close to Stoch.

The SUs on the B maifold would fit but are A. Expensive to find the manifold & B. is a very poor manifold design.
I have here a set of late SU 44HIFs from a defender and they would probably replace the Strombergs as they're relatively low line. Mail me through a mod. if you want them.
Jim

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Mon 12 Dec 2005 16:09

Rover V8 Carbs - nick

Errr, you won't get a grey exhaust with unleaded petrol

ever!

My 7 runs no management just a Webber 500, even the

dizzy has points, but has a black exhaust and is

running near stoch. Your Volvo with management will run very close

to Stoch.

The 4.6 sd1 I just bought runs a 500 Weber on an edelbrock performer manifold. The guy I got it off said he's never had to touch it once it was set up.

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Mon 12 Dec 2005 14:23

Rover V8 Carbs - GGH

Check the rubber diaphragm piston lifters, they perish with time.

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Tue 13 Dec 2005 17:10

Rover V8 Carbs - autumnboy

I thought that the early Rover V8's had only SU's before the injection era, as SU was part of the Great Empire BMC/BL, and the Triumph V8's had strombergs.

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Tue 13 Dec 2005 19:12

Rover V8 Carbs - mrmender

Most Carb V8 rangerover had strombergs some had SU's prehaps someone could explain why the difference
AS Strombergs seem to make mechanics suck through their teeth & shake their heads. Without exception they all say they are not much cop
Mine won't idle longer than 1 min and when you lift off the throttle the engine is sill reving quite high until it settles down to a idle then stalls
Yes pistons & diaphragms are all ok apparently the carbs are worn out and difficult to set up again after a overhaul thats why i was interested in webbers or even SU's

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Tue 13 Dec 2005 19:20

Rover V8 Carbs - Armitage Shanks {p}

Useful SU specialist in the East Midlands has a website at

www.su-carbs.co.uk

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Tue 13 Dec 2005 20:32

Rover V8 Carbs - mrmender

Useful SU specialist in the East Midlands has a website at

www.su-carbs.co.uk

Many thanks have been to web site and will phone in morning

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Wed 14 Dec 2005 07:01

Rover V8 Carbs - Andrew Moorey (Tune-Up)

The stalling problem is due to the fact that your carbs are probably fitted with 'poppet' valves in the butterflies. These are little spring loaded valves which were 'designed' to pop open when the throttle was shut and progressively shut controlling the revs down to idle over a few seconds to reduce exhaust emissions. Over the years the springs get weak and the valves stay open for far too long as in your case giving a fast idle. The idle stops are wound fully off to try and compensate so when the valves eventually shut the engine stalls. Quick fix is to solder the valves shut or replace with plain butterflies. SU's from the same era have the same problem.
Andrew
--
Simplicate and add lightness!!

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Wed 14 Dec 2005 19:14

Rover V8 Carbs - mrmender

Thanks to everyone for there advice spoke to Andrew Turner su-carb.co.uk who specialises in carb refurb he was extremly helpful. My strombergs will be off to him soon
He comes accross as a man who knows his subject and has a great enthusiasm for his subject he assured me that the stromberg is better built carb than the SU and was built to aircraft standards. It was used on V8 landrovers as it gave better torque but was not so hot on power it also had better emmissons characteristics so was used a lot on British cars for export to the US where as a equivelent Britsh model would have had SU's.
He also said mine would be slightly modified as part of the refurb to give slightly more power and the poppet valves talked about in one reply will be done away with
I will let you know of the end result

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