They're Everywhere!

[GregW]

Man, the Healeys are coming out of the woodwork around here. Saw a black one two Sundays ago in the AM driving on Sunset Blvd heading towards the coast. Couple days after that, a custom blue BJ8 (I think) in Marina Del Rey. Today was a silverish BN7 with hardtop at a Staples. Was watching the Science channel, a program on the history JPL. They had old footage of a parade that had a 100-6 tooling along. The parade was for “Miss Guided Missle” Those crazy engineers.

 

[vette]

Greg, your tearing me up. Mine sit in my shop in pieces and will be for quite awhile.

 

[GregW]

Yeah, mines apart too. That list was just the ones that I hadn’t seen before. A friend that lives two blocks from me has a pretty rare BN7 tri-carb with center shifter. Four blocks away, a 100 is being slowly restored. There is another 100 I’ve seen parked near a Starbucks three blocks distance from time to time. Outside the immediate area, the list gets bigger including 3 for sale at Chequered Flag. It's a Healey hot spot I'm tellin' ya.

 

[tahoe healey]

Are you north of Montana and West of 26th Street in Santa Monica?

 

[GregW]

Sorry, my income doesn't allow me to be North of Montana. 1 block South. West of 26th. I'll go outside and wave at the satellite so you can see me. Wearing a blue baseball cap.

 

[tahoe healey]

I have long since moved form there but I lived on 19th north of Montana I had an XK 140 Jag at the time and there were a couple of others nearby. But with all the air craft guys around in those days, there were a lot of Healeys too.

 

[GregW]

Add another one to the list. Saw a Healey blue BJ7 (maybe BT7) today driving down Montana Ave.

 

[healeynut]

Greg - I note the picture of your fuel injection throttle bodies on your car. It looks very handsome. How difficult was it to set up, cost and does it give you any noticeable improvment in power / fuel efficiency?

 

[GregW]

Hi Alan,
Thanks, they’re actually Mikuni motorcycle carbs. Can’t tell you economy at this point since my car’s been out of commission since just after the engine was run for a short time (body work). I did a fair amount of modifying from the intake through the exhaust, so it’s hard to tell exactly how much the carbs add power wise. I did ride in an MGB that had a pair of the carbs put on a stock system and it gave a nice boost to acceleration. This may be the only Healey with this conversion, so I didn’t have any directions to follow. I had to fabricate most of the parts but was able to use original tri-carb manifolds, which helped. There were some hurdles to overcome, but I guess it wasn’t as hard as it could have been. Engine fired up the first time I pressed the pedal.

 

[healeynut]

Interesting.... what's the attraction of the mikuni carb? No leaking, good accelleration, reliable?

 

[GregW]

Yes to all the above, but I’d also add simplicity. There has been a big rivalry between Mikuni and Keihin for decades and I think it has pushed both companies to produce great products. I’ve had about a dozen motorcycles over the years with 2 to 4 carbs. Almost never had to touch them unless I was re-jetting for a new exhaust or cam. These particular carbs also have accelerator pumps, a nice addition. A nice subtraction, they don’t have butterflies.