Tim,
If you are looking for someone who knows how to tune SUs, the guy in the garage
round the corner from me did a great job sorting mine out for my MOT a couple
of weeks ago - CO limit for the test is 4.5%, design specs say 3.5 +- 0.5%,
and he got it to 2.88% - HCs were down to 388 ppm (test limit is 1500 ppm).
It does mean a 15-minute trip along the A428 into the wilds of the
Cambridgeshire backwoods!
For more serious work, last year my emissions were off the scale, and I took
Daffy to a tuning specialist in Peterborough (just round the corner from where
I work). They ended up pulling the carbs to pieces and re-building (with all
the same components, as far as I know), but it made an amazing difference, and
for a lot less than the cost of reconditioned exchange carbs - fuel
consumption improved by 1/3 immediately as well! Sorry, I don't know of
anyone in Cambridge I can recommend!
Standard engine oil should be fine in the carbs, it is recommended in lots of
handbooks. I do use proper carb damper oil, but mainly because I pursuaded
TRGB to give me a bottle as compensation for something they had screwed up on
(sent me the wrong part, so I had to drive over there to get them to change
it, I think!).
As for the temperature thing, I guess the easiest place to stick in a
thermometer would simply be the coolant cap. Although, by the time you have
let the pressure escape enough to pull the cap off completely, you may already
have lost several degrees, so the reading will not be totally accurate. Not
sure what the reading should be anyway - I guess it should be a few degrees
above the thermostat operating temperature - whatever that is. Might be on
the 'stat packaging - didn't you just replace the 'stat? Bet you haven't
still got the box! Anyway, someone out there is bound to know what
temperature the 'stat is supposed to operate at.
It may be worth simply replacing your temperature transmitter - TRGB have it
listed at 5.60 (+VAT), at that price it is a cheap-ish and easy way to rule
that out as a cause, if your voltage regulator seems to be OK. Certainly is
cheaper than replacing the gauge (33.95 +VAT).
Good luck, hope you sort it out, and if you want more details on either of the
places I suggested for tuning let me know.
Richard and Daffy
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