Hello all, new member here. I am fixing up a pair of 76 midgets, one to keep and one to sell. They both are in great shape now, body wise, but I need some help with finishing the engines. I am trying to decide what combination of dizzy and carb(s) to put in each. I have a pretty extensive collection of just about any combination of carbs and distributors that came on midgets and MGBs from the 60s on, including a couple Weber carbs. The "for sale" car came with a Zenith that someone really messed up, and an electronic distributor. The "keeper" car had no carb or distributor, so I'm starting fresh.

I'd like to put what ever is going to give me the most resale value on the car I'm selling and the most performance on the car I am keeping. I don't want to change the engine on either vehicle, so I think that eliminates the Webers. Any advice would be welcome. Also, were the engines painted in these vehicles?

I currently have 6 midgets, 5 MGBs and a Austin Healey. I had to retire early, due to an injury, and started working on these cars for therapy. Now my wife thinks I need therapy for my MG addiction

Thanks in advance,

TJ

I'd send the dizzy to Jeff Schlemmer (advanceddistributor.com) and tell him the application (bog stock 1500 midget with X carburetor). Your carb/manifold choice will determine vacuum signal for the dizzy (manifold vs port... port better).

Insofar as the carb is concerned, you can make anything work. If the car is to be sold to the widest possible market, get the Stromberg rebuilt and reinstall it... That way emissions strangled markets can still buy/use/register the car.

If you are not planning on widely marketing the car, put whatever strikes your fancy on it. In all liklihood the future buyer will either a) not care or know or b) change it anyway.

So long as it runs and looks good are the primary selling points 90% of the time.

Thank you for your response. As far as smog equipment, the "for sale" car appears to be in the middle of the desmog process. The air pump and rail has been removed. Should I complete the process and just include the equipment with the car, or reinstall a new rail and pump? My state exempts this age car from emmisions testing. Also, any idea about engine color? I know the engine compartment should be the same color as the car, but have no idea if the engine is painted or not.

Thanks again,

TJ

Emissions are your call. If your "sale" area doesn't care, then I'd just finish the desmog and put whatever carb I was most familiar with on it... even if it meant a 32/36 Weber (although I personally would go SU).

Yeah, engine painted black that era. Healy green is popular for the 1275 but I don't think there was any special color associated with the 1500 "Triumph" motor.

You are going to get many responses, as many of us have our own preferences. Personally, I would try to sell what you have and let the next owner fix what needs to be fixed, otherwise you will just be sinking in $$ you will likely not recoup. The 1500 RB cars do not command high selling prices and probably won't for years to come. If you must sink money into it, do what is cheapest for you. Use the parts from one engine to get the other operable and sell it. What is best for the engine, does not matter. Get it running and sell it to someone who knows what they want and what they want to do with it. Unless the rest of the car is top notch, you will not recover many, if any, of your sunk costs. For the keeper car, complete the desmog, but go a step further and get a set of dual SU's. Dual SU HS4's from a 1500 Spitfire are the best alternative, but the dual HS2's from a Spitfire 1300 will also work well. Manifold from other MG's will not fit the 1500. You can get 1500 HS set-ups from Quantum Mechanics online or on the Spitfire side of this website. Make sure they are complete with linkage. These will most likely be in need of a freshen up, but with a carb kit, this can easily be done yourself easily in your garage with hand tools and some knowledge/info, from this website and from the rest of the I-net, or you might already have this knowledge. SU's are not at all rocket science. They help the engine breathe, they look better, and there are more people familiar with them, than the Weber, at least on this website, though some might argue this. As for the dizzy, there are 2 trains of thoughts, basically electronic vs. points. Points are cheaper to fix if they fail. An electronic module kit is available from Pertronix for your stock L/O distributor. Personally, I suggest a brand new electronic dizzy, no slop, no play, no points to wear, no condensor to burn out, basically plug and play. The only drawback to an electronic dizzy is that if it fails, you can likely not fix it yourself, as the fault will be with the internal triggering system and few of us are electronic techs/engineers who can troubleshoot to component level. Finally, if you have one from previous projects, a HiF44 can be made to work well on the stock 1500 manifold. Do a search for info. The engines were black from the factory, which makes sense, but I personally like the engine color to match the car color, or to be a light color, so you can see and repair leaks more easily.

Thanks for the input. For the car I am keeping, I have a number of HS4s, HS2s and HS6s. I really don't know what vehicle any came from. If I take your advice and put a pair of HS4s on it, what is different between one that came from a Spitfire 1500 and one that came from any other car? I know that is probably a silly question, but I really have no idea. Do you, or anyone, have part numbers from a specific model of HS4, or is it just the way they are adjusted? Also, the keeper car has a extremely beat on electric dizzy already. Do I just purchase the "guts" of a new one and install it in the body of the stock dizzy? Are there any models that are better to put the guts in, if this is the case?

Like I said in my first post, I am restoring a number of Midgets and MGBs for a hobby/therapy. I will probably have many questions to follow. I will try to keep the truely stupid ones to a minimum

Thanks,

TJ

No, no! Stupid ones are the best!

Might as well head off the stupid (but well-meaning) answers with a stupid question or three.

To you most recent queries:

The HS series were differentiated primarily by the choke diameter expressed in 1/8" increments over 1" but other options could be built in. Single most obvious difference was in the angle (and side) of the float chamber. The chamber needs to be level so a few different adaptors are made to adjust the angle for the application from 0 degrees to (I think) 15 degrees.

Next was the needle profile which was specified by the purchaser (MG).

There may be some pattern to the part numbers for the complete carbs but other than the suffix "F" and "R" (front and rear) I can't figure it out.

The upshot of this is that you can make any HS4 body, float chamber and dome into any specification (unless it was a ball-bearing dome but you don't have to worry about that for our cars).

You can look at burlen fuel systems web-site (not the easiest to navigate) for stock specs/parts lists for fairly any application.

As for the dizzy, it really is best to send it to Jeff Schlemmer. He can ensure the bush is OK, tune the advance curve to the application and fix any number of issues, including the vacuum unit.