Austin Mini + carbs

kalsey88

kalsey88

kalsey88

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25 May 2011
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3
Thought I'd get a first post out of the way!

For various reasons that include insurance (young driver, East London) and overall cost, I've decided to go with an Austin Mini. However on a lot of ads I'm seeing information about the carb (carb model, non carb model, carb recently done, recently tuned, etc). I've asked my dad who's been a mechanic for 40 years and he's never heard of the Austin Minis and anything particular about the carbs on them.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

Examples
http://pistonheads.co.uk/sales/2839835.htm
http://pistonheads.co.uk/sales/2764149.htm

Cheers guys
 
Thanks!

Alright well, second post :p. But first with some proper content in it.

Any other young drivers tried insuring themselves in London? Its absolutely mental, £2k on a 1.1 Peugeot 106. I'm 22 and I've got a years no claims too.
 
Not much of a mechanic if he has never heard of Austin Mini, they were the original mini with a 850cc engine along side the Morris Mini which were both swallowed up to become BL (British Leyland)
The early minis had a single SU carb. fitted (the GT may have had twin SU on it's 1275cc engine)
Like all BL cars they rusted for fun. Check the underside of the doors,the sills, the side in front of the door. And of course the main reason for them being scraped The rear subframe.
 
Only the Coppers S models has twin carbs (SU)
The GT had one carb along with all the rest.
Yes there is Austin Minis. (any mechanic of 40 years should know that, and should know about SU carbs)
The SU carb is one of the best carbs you can get, they are very reliable, and good on fuel.
Only the newest minis (Rover) had injection

Minis are very easily tuned, be exhaust, bigger carb, cylinder head etc.
Buy the one with the best bodywork as the engine is easy and cheap to fix.
 
I should clarify, my dad had heard of the Austin Minis (he worked for BL for a few years) but I was saying he hadn't heard of the Austin-made Minis and any particular issue with carbs.

Thanks very much for the help though guys, the first time I've posted a question on a forum and had it answered inside of a couple hours!
 
I think they just get worn out after time and leak air, which makes them run like crap. A lot of engines that run SU's you get that overly rich petrol smell in the exhaust, laced with a bit of oil. I don't know if they bleed a bit of oil into the air/fuel mix when they get worn out as well, but other manufacturers' engines that run Webers etc without dash pots don't seem to suffer from it.
 
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From 1959 to 1991 the mini's engine would have had an SU carb fitted (or two in the case of the original Cooper S). From about 1991 Rover fitted the SPI injection system. This is effectively like an electronic carburettor, a single injector within a single throttle body supplies fuel to all the cylinders. This is not a performance oriented system, it was purely for emissions control and it's quite common for people to replace this system with carbs.

In about 1996 Rover introduced the MPI system that uses two injectors, one mounted at each inlet port (the A series has only two inlet ports as it's a siamese design - two cylinders share a single port). This gave better performance and economy, but is very difficult to tune - unlike conventional one-injector-per-cylinder configurations, the injector timing is absolutely critical to make this system work without "charge robbing", where one cylinder gets the majority of the fuel, leaving the other one running weak.
 
They do wear out after time , like all carbs, but you do need to keep the dash pot filled with oil.

Webers and minis are pointless, unless you like to waste fuel
 
Bill101 said:
Like all BL cars they rusted for fun. Check the underside of the doors,the sills, the side in front of the door. And of course the main reason for them being scraped The rear subframe.
Click to expand...

The only reason the front subframes never rust was the amount of oil that leaked into it was a natural inhibitor, I've changed a rear subframe on minis and metros its not that technical just lots of swearing and hammering
 
maccapacca said:
The only reason the front subframes never rust was the amount of oil that leaked into it was a natural inhibitor, I've changed a rear subframe on minis and metros its not that technical just lots of swearing and hammering
Click to expand...

Assuming the heelboard stays where it's meant to be!

My front subby is perfect due to a dodgy headgasket leaking oil.

SU carbs are simple enough and cheap to fix if they are worn. I'm not sure I'd take a carb'd mini as a cheap daily though if you want worry-free motoring!
 
I noticed that you want to use the car around town but personally I would avoid the automatic Mini's if you were considering one. Gearbox on the Mini is fine and the automatics are very sluggish and can be tempremental.
 
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