UK Car Repair: Webber Carburetors, webber carburetor, mini clubman

Question
I have recently restored 1973 mini clubman which has extensive modication to body work and engine compartment and running gear. Got rid of the pooly 1100 engine and replaced if for a Low milieage Metro 1300 A+, Unfortantley one of my kind friends took a shinning to my SU Carb so as you Can imagine They just fanished into thin air!, Which left me with a bit of problem, Couldn't get any of my fuel into the engine. But never mind Webber to the rescue "or so I thought". After making all the alterations to fit blessed things, I was expecting things to work within reason (ie run). I altered the Venturi I belive the recommended mainjets were the correct size as advised by my so called mate who by the way has his mini that we rebuilt last year fitted with a very firmilar SU Carb!!
But back to the problem in hand... When the engine idles around 800-950rpm it ticks over just fine(even better when I suck vacum advance on the distrubter). When I twick the accerator slowly fine. When comes to driving thats when My problems really start. Their is no exsesive smoke coming from the exhaust. The occasional backfire she just dies on me To me if feels like a lack of fuel or to much air! Is there a way that I can resolve this problem, before getting her on a rolling road?

Yours Thankfully
Tony Jessett

Answer
Ok, first things first, using cutting edge DNA and fingerprint analysis you can find your SU thief. I prefer to $#@! %$#!$#%!%! "A.K.A. rendering them rectally impaired" the offending party and stuff their bleeding mass into a refrigerator, then; slip them into a body of water with a fast current and large exposed rocks. Many casual readers of this post might express distress towards my ruthless and Morales’s judgments towards the offender. But I’m guessing those people never had a pair of nice SU's and hadn't a clue how hard it is to get a pair that are dead nuts perfect! Get another set and sell that Weber off to someone who's numb enough to put up with it. Use 2 HS2 side bowl like you would find on a midget/sprite 1275cc "1300" from 1965-1967. Make sure to install oversized throttle shafts and solid butterfly valves.  Those will drag every ounce of power out of that little engine. The reason why you can't get anything out of it is the Webber’s venturi arraignment is too large for the volume requirements of a small displacement engine. If you used a Monster furry camshaft with a crazy amount of lift and lobe separation you could probably tune it to work well between 1000 and 6000 RPM. Now, I'm not saying that making this run with the Weber is impossible and or is not a common and or popular. However; I would just like to make the point that being a Nazi was popular for a while too, and that still didn’t make it right!  Use SU's, their is noting that compares to them or that will out shine them in this case. Just to give you an idea, in the USA on 91 Octane fuel, I get 94 HP and 102 Ft lbs of torque out of a 1275cc midget engine with two HS2's and a 10:1 compression ratio, balanced and blueprinted. I make 120 HP and 145 ft lbs of torque with a M62 Eaton blower running 7LBs of boost and a single HS4. The guy I spank weekly at the track in his midget "I drive a Minor 1000 coupe" runs a Weber and makes 64 HP and 71 ft lbs of torque.

Happy Motoring!



Regards,


John