Thanks for the possible connects on the carbs. My car is at "Johns Jaguar" here in SF. I like him so far. I will know more this week what I'll be doing about the carbs.
Here is the blurb from Marty with the MGOC.
"the ideal thing is to have your engine at '67 specs, that is, the only smog equipment being a PCV valve, which actually helps the engine to run better. I suggest doing this, but you probably just want to keep the old smog equipment just in case the government goes back on their word in the future. there is kind of the quick way to do this and then the proper way. the cylinder head and intake manifold are both different, as are the carbs, so the quick way would avoid dealing with these matters. you just take off all the stuff, plug up the places left open (intake manifold, carbs, mainly), plug up the exhaust port air injection ports in the head, figure a way to add a pcv valve, and that's it. There's things inside the carbs too, you could install early type throttle discs (this should be considered NOW so you don't do the same work twice-- in fact, you should probably think about getting a approx 67 set of carbs to rebuild because the 69 ones have various smog things that you really don't want- see below). The more proper way is to change things from the head gasket up. Get a head with no exhaust port air injection ports, get a 67 style intake manifold, 67 style carbs, get rid of the tall nut at the back of the head that supported the air injection rail, and other such details. The distributor is different too. Some people might want to consider some kinds of mods at this time, such as an aluminum stock style head, or other things. You probably want to learn all about all these options before you decide.
67 distributor is number 40897 (has advance curve and vacuum unit to suit pre-smog set up).
67 carbs are AUD 135F and AUD 135R, these have solid throttle discs, solidly mounted needles, no restriction on jet adjustment, no ports in carb body side, etc.
the problem with stock 69 carbs for smog is that the combination of features makes them hard to work on and prone to issues. The primary problems are caused by the spring loaded needle. In the normal world of SU this is just utter idiocy. An SU carb properly set up requires that the main jet needle be properly centered. A solid mounted needle, properly centered, does not ever touch the jet orifice. If it is not centered, the needle touches the jet opening, and causes friction and the piston cannot rise and fall properly. I don't know for sure, but over the years I have come to believe that some of the changes that were made in these cars were done because the manufacturers, in attempting to comply with US regulations, decided that people were not going to properly take care of things and made engineering adjustments accordingly. Thus the spring loaded needles, these are biased to one side, and constantly rub on the jet orifice, causing wear and friction. These are difficult to install and are not intended to be centered, centering is eliminated and this supposedly easy way results in horrible jet wear. The jet gets a groove worn in it and its orifice gets larger causing a richer and richer mixture. The throttle discs with poppet valves in them were (I think) an attempt to get rid of some tendency to backfire and also for the motor to run on (diesel) when shutting down-- the backfiring and tendency to run on, in a properly or slightly lean adjusted motor, are really a normal consequence of the high performance high compression setup and there is some debate as to whether modern gas is high enough octane to run properly on, but in my experience, with the '67 setup, properly adjusted, using 92 octane fuel, you will get a certain small amount of backfiring on down grades and if you are getting any dieseling, you need to slow the idle down and let the engine run at low idle speed for a short while before you shut down. If you are getting this situation you can richen your mixture a little bit and it will help. SU HS-4 carbs have a tendency to stick at a higher idle speed than they should and blipping the throttle to get the discs to go down to the low idle they should be at, can help-- but usually this condition indicates wear in the throttle shafts. Other fancier SU models have better throttle shaft sealing, and separate idle passages, so that you don't get this situation. But those carbs are on more expensive cars like Jags.
You may wish to discuss the carb/ smog situation with your mechanic because it is intimately connected with tuneups and carb setup/ repair. In other words you may not want to make repairs on stuff you are just going to take off.
Another thing to do SOON on your car if it has not already been done. In 68-70 or so they used an electric oil pressure gauge, which is not as reliable as what they had before 68. The sending unit is more expensive than the the whole gauge for 67 which gauge does water temperature too. In 70 or so they went back to an identical looking mechanically operated gauge- this is a reliable and what you want. The gauge goes right in the dash (vertical rectangular shape) and you have to run the solid metal piping from the gauge into the engine area and have a flex hose (as 67) to go to the engine. "
That's all of it I hope that helps you all.
scot
Hey there Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
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Mark
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