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Midget 1500 SU Carbs

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blkcorvair

Jedi Knight
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So I have heard time and time again that a nicely tuned pair of Su Carbs would be the best choice for the Spridget. On my originally equipped with the Zentith 1500 can this conversion be done. I mean obviously it can but are there manifolds available to create this combination? Of must it be fabricated. Im sure some entrepenuer has addressed this before? What are the better choice of SU's for this application. Car is running 9:1 with Nice Midrange Cam. Would like to get this thing on the track one day so hopefully my choice would be applicable.
 
That engine does very well with the european type SU carbs. That SU manifold is difficult to find in USA but England has many of them. The carbs might be difficult to get at cheap prices, but rebuilds are available and certainly a good way to go.

Otherwise the Weber DCOE is a very good way to go, with the proper sidedraft manifold. I have seen in the past single DCOE manifolds for the 1500. They might still be available and they give wonderful performance, even compared to the SUs.
 
Of note, you do need to *cut into the sheet metal in your engine bay* if you're going to use the common spitfire 1500 SU carbs & manifolds. I think there's a euro manifold that's a little shorter and doesn't require body mods. Surely someone more knowledgeable will chime in here...

-D
 
I think any 1500 dual set up on a left hand drive car requires the mod. On the euro spec cars, the brace that interferes with the carb bowl is on the other side of the car. It's the whole right-hand left-hand drive thing.
 
You can also put a single 1-1/2" SU carb on your existing manifold.
Works decently....I've had it on a street car.
There are various SU carbs that are about this size.
The old-style H4 will need to have the holes slotted a little bit to fit. The newer HS44 will bolt on (I think).
I occasionally co-drive a 1275 racer with a single HS44 and it can pull about 110 mph.
 
I converted over to the dual SU setup on my 1500 a couple of years ago. I found it not difficult to do and think the dual setup looks great, performance is better and there is a lot of information available since the dual setup was standard in England.

You do have to cut a small area in the cross member and I also had to cut into the passanger footwell slightly as the fuel bowl was striking that it as well. I don't weld so ended up using epoxy. It turned out ok.

If you want I've got some information on the conversion with pictures on my website plus on some other carb setups:
https://www.visn2.com/BritishExperienceMidgetProject.html.

Go down towards the bottom of the page to the image with the engine and click on the carb setup. It will take you to the specific webpage.
 
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