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Spitfire Midget carbs and manifold on 1500 Spit

Rhodyspit75

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I have a chance to pick up a set of carbs and manifold from a 74 MG Midget. I know the 1500 motors are shared between the two. Will the manifold from a 1300 Midget fit on the 1500 Spitfire?
 

Andrew Mace

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No. The 1300 (1275cc) Midget is the BMC "A" series engine, which is very different than the "SC" Spitfire engine. Midgets did not use the Spitfire engine until 1975. On the other hand, if the Midget engine in question looks like the Spitfire engine (likely FP prefix if original Midget from 1975-), then you're likely fine!
 
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Rhodyspit75

Rhodyspit75

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Thanks Andy. It sounds like it won't work out. I am looking for the dual SU's. So if the engine was actually a 75 then it had the same setup I have now, single Stromberg.
 

dklawson

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As Andy said, the BMC and TR engines are very different and the manifolds are not interchangeable.

However, if you currently have the single Stromberg, an easy change is to fit a single SU HS4 carb. There are some minor modifications required but they are not difficult.

There have been a number of threads about the HS4 SU swap to replace Strombergs. You may benefit from searching this site (mainly the Spridget forum) for the old threads.
 
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Rhodyspit75

Rhodyspit75

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Thank's Doug. What I was looking to do was to switch to dual SU's like the European Spit has. The Stromberg I have is OK. I rebuilt it and it works fine. Winter has set in and I figured it would be a nice project to do in my boiler room and rebuild the SU's and have them ready for spring if it ever get's here. I will keep looking, these showed up on CL not too far from home and I was hoping they would work out.
I remember tuning my TR3 carbs with a piece of rubber hose and listening for the same sound. Since my hearing is shot now I would have to do it differently.
 

eejay56

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Dual HS2 spitfire manifolds are pretty easy to find here in the US since the 1300s had them. The HS4 manifold is not that easy to find. They show up on Ebay once in a while though. Rimmer Bros has them but they are spendy. You can tell the difference by the bolt holes on the carb side. The HS2 has vertically aligned holes while the HS4s are diagonally aligned like this \/.
 

dklawson

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I see.

There are a couple of other differences to be aware of. The Midget 1275 would not only have a different manifold, in stock form it would also have used the smaller HS2 carbs. Some TR 1300 engines were outfitted with a dual HS2 manifold. However, the European 1500 Spits would have used the larger HS4 carbs. The HS2s and HS4s have different mounting patterns and the HS4 has a larger throat diameter.

The dual HS4 setups do show up on eBay frequently. You can also contact Ted Schumaker at TSI to see what his current price is for a complete setup. Ted typically has or can get the complete European setup.

I also have an acquaintance in the U.K. who recently bought a complete 1500 carb setup with the intention of fitting its HS4 carbs to his Mini. I suggested to him a better use may be to sell the complete HS4 setup to someone and use the proceeds to buy a pair of HS4 carbs off an MGB and buy a dedicated A-series manifold. If you are interested, PM me and I can forward you his contact information.
 
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