Brian queried:
> 1. I have discovered that the PO had removed the standard SU Fuel Pump and
>added a small electric pump under the hood after the fuel filter and before
>the CD175 carb. I think the original pump (located on the boot kick board on
>the right side ?) had some kind of pressure shut off. This non-standard
>pump seems to run constantly from the time the key is in ACC to the time you
>switch off.
>
> Q: My carb is running rich, and I am rebuilding both the carb and pulling
>the engine for a rebuild this weekend. Should I look at replacing this pump
>with an original? If I use my handy Zenith-Stromburg tool can I keep the carb
>from flooding the engine? How about float adjustment?
When I first got my '66 MGB 16 years and 150K miles ago, it had a replacement
fuel pump that ran all the time. My car ran, well, inconsistently. And when
going downhill, the car would die. I installed an SU fuel pump and all of the
car's weird running problems disappeared. I just recently replaced that fuel
pump after 150K miles of completely ignoring it. That's reliable enough for
me. I suppose I could have rebuilt it, but I hate to mess with the fuel pump
under the car and have gas running down my arms dissolving, well, you know.
Someone mentioned Grose jets (as a replacement for the standard needle and
seat float bowl valve) -- I put those in my B after I first got it and they
fixed my sticking valve problem. But eight or nine years ago when I bought
my first MG 1100, I bought some for it against the advice of the guy selling
them to me. He said Grose jets weren't what they used to be. He was right.
Every time I drove that car, the jets would stick making the car dump gas all
over the ground. I've since used the stock valves in all my cars (except the
original Grose jets in the B) and haven't had any problem. Are new Grose
jets better?
> My bogus pump is new - Should I drop another $90 US and get the SU or can I
>fix > my fuel problem with carb ajustments?
Carb adjustments won't do it.
> ALSO:
> Q: What is a good way to de-carbonize plugs ? (I can sand or scrape them,
>but is there a cool solvent or something that removes carbon?)
After you fix your fuel pump problems, you won't have so much carbon on your
plugs.
Someone else asked about Splitfire plugs. I put these in my B and it
instantly lost vim and vigor. Nothing else was changed, so it had to be
the plugs. I put the OLD NGK's back in and it was much happier. In a
previous discussion on this same topic, someone pointed out that electricity
travels along the path of least resistance (oh no! here we go again!) so
you'd still only get one spark, not the v-shaped ball of fire that the
ads imply. I can't imagine why my car ran so much _worse_, unless the
unusually small gap used for Britcars made the angle out to the splayed
electrode cause the gap to be much bigger than the nominal measurement.
Okay, I'm ready for opposing viewpoints.
Denise Thorpe, who always votes for originality and minimal maintenance
thorpe@kegs.saic.com
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