David

Have you had the Carbs up and running on your motor before?? If it's a factory setup they have a location for the throttle return spring to attach to the air cleaner housing and the throttle. If it's a GT or GLS model it should have twin choke cables. If not you will need to get a twin choke setup or devise a suitable linkage setup to make both chokes operate off the single cable. would be a bit nasty starting from cold with only one choke activating. And yes it does need a return spring as the motor does make plenty of vacumm and can overcome the small radial springs on the carb's shaft's. I've had the return spring snap before and the throttle jammed half on. It wouldn't jam every time but wasn't very safe.

To make life simple for yourself if you ever strip a stromberg CD carb down always assemble it starting at the top (Dashpot) and work you way down to the fuel bowl last. This will help prevent needle bind on the needle seat.

There is two types of strombers that the hillmans use a CD3/150 or and CDS/150. If my memory serves me the twins only came out with CD3's on the Hunters. It can be a CD3 or CDS on a single carb setup. These carb look almost the same but have some big differences. I big thing to check when putting the carbs back together is to make sure the carbs have matching: 1. Needles (check at top and bottem of needle with a micrometer) 2. Needle seat orifice size 3. Dash pot sping length and weight 4. Both dash pots have the non riged needle fixing. 5. Fuel bowl valves have the same rateing. 6. Fuel floats are set at the same hight. As people have played around over the years trying to get an optimal set up they often try parts out of other carbs and can give some good results but often end up with a missmatching carbs. Its common to get a CD3 with a CDS dash pot in it. This works well in a single carb setup but make twin's nearly untuneable. ( I had this problem with mine ) When the carbs are all clean and put back together and on the motor there are 3x things you will have to do. 1. Centralise the needle seats 2. Fuel mixture 3. Carb balllence

As far as I can tell there is no reson why you can't run the twins on a straight up and down motor. If you use the large metel air cleaner box that comes with the twin strombers it probley wont fit in the engine bay of the minx, so would need to find something else for air cleaner(s). And no the alloy head manifold wont fit on the cast iron head block.

Dizzy. Anything goe's. I use a hatachi unit off a bluebird CA20C. I chose this unit as it turn anticlockwise and when you use the blubird coil it only need one feed wire. I made a rather interesting adaptor plate and chopped a bit out of the dissy mounting serface. The cap also needed to be turned 180deg to stop it hitting the side cover. I will have to get a camra one of these days.

Used to run a set of those twin stromby's on the standard GT mani. Went real well. But you could use up a lot more gas with your foot flat. And to get the water flow you just have to cut the heater feed pipe and plum it on to each end of the mani. So the water flows from the pump into the mani and out the other side to the heater core. This is how they came from the factory. If you have a hunter hand book it has a illustration of this setup. If your worried about throwing away horse power from heating the manifold then just dont connect the water jacket up. I've run it both ways and found that with it connected you didn't need to run the choke for very long. Someone used to make an adaptor to fit a single 45mmDCOE or DHLA to this type mani. I custom made one and it worked real well. not as good as running twin DCOE's but didn't have the problems of ballencing. Would be a good buy for someone as long as the carbs are not very worn. Be prepaired to rekit them and watch for spindle wear. The Haynes manual will be your best friend for tunning them.

The old 1725 doesn't mind a turbo mounted between the origonal intake mani and the origonal stromberg carb. Can get away with job for cheap. Just need to get creative with some mandrill bends and a welder, go for gold. Will be fun until you over rev it. Just worry about the brake booster and vacuum advance lines after you get it running.

Get the old tape out and look for and spare carby motor complete with tranz or manual that will slip in. I have seen a nissan FJ20 Turbo on the net fitted to a grunter before. could pick up a carby holden 3.8 v6 for a few hundred and plenty about. looks like one could fit, would have to see. Engine bay and tunnel are a resonable size in the grunter. It also doesn't take much power to drive the hillman's 800Kg shell.

Funny that I was thinking about a linear type but most of the ones I've seen wouldn't give much protecting from mosture , dust and oil ingreshion in the engine bay. There may be suitable ones (please tell me if there is) otherwise I'll just stick to a standard jappa type, wont to leave factory connectors and make loom to suit. So if any thing ever go's wrong I can just put a new bit in off the wreakers shelf, with no need to resolder or anything. Yea will have to set up some project threads got plenty of other projects on the go. Show every one where I've gone wrong so they don't have too.

Got the mani sorted. already had some plates plasma cut ready to bolt up to the head, so went ahead got some turned down some injector sockets and welded them into some fin wall tube and going to use slide valve bodys instead of butterflys like Jag used to use. But will be interesting making the throttle position sensor linkage. So once I've got all the gear and under way I might make a post if any one's interested. Will just set in up Batch injection, keep it simple for a start.

Thanks for all the info. Got it sorted ( I hope ).

Back in the day with escorts with disc brake front, most of the guys would rat 2x Hillman imp brake master cylinders, as they had the right bore to operate the factory escort brakes and already where set up with a remote reservoir, (In the Imp the reservoir is about 1/2 meter away from the master cylinder it's self). On doing this you threw away that manky escort brake booster and installed one of the single circuit remote brake boosters out of a Hillman hunter, connected to the front brake system only. These boosters are the goods as they have a 1:1 ratio and can be mount anywhere you can get vacuum and brake lines too. Just as long as you mount the booster lower than the brake fluid reservoir. If you didn’t put a booster in, you built up some pretty strong leg muscles in your right leg and made heal-toeing very hard. One advantage with the Hillman booster is that it will let the brakes operate like normal if vacuum is lost and by putting it only in the front brake system if there is a failure you still have back brakes. Although you are using different brakes you will have to find appropriate master cylinders, but I hope this info is of some use.

Sounds like the price of a Gen-2 could drop off when the Gen-3 comes out. So good Idea I will read the manual and sort out all my sensors and install them, by that stage the new Generation might be out, I hope. And use whatever is the most suited. Question: What are the drawbacks of not running a MAP or air flow sensor? After I’ve learnt what I’m doing with EFI and get a system going, I’m looking at going the next step and running a system that constantly has atmospheric pressure behind the inlet valve with no throttle body or any regulation controlling air flow to the valve. So a MAP sensor would be useless, although an air flow meter could be used. I know most people will say it can’t be done. The injector alone cannot control the fuel mix and RPM in this situation. That is correct and I intend to use a different system of control, that is mounted internally in the motor and the injectors are for fuel supply only. This is why I won’t to learn about retro fitting EFI to just gain the experience before under taking more complex projects. At this stage it’s not about making more power or coolness.

good idea. Will go for it and order a kit after I've done a bit of reserch what I need. Have scratch wired kit cars before should be no problem being a registered sparky helps too.

megasquirt looks like a good system. Is there a NZ agent?

Yea I've tryed all sorts of carb setups on these motors in the past and they all work a lot better than the origonal setup by miles. Just wont to have a go at EFI, been playing with these motors for 14years now so need to try something new.

yes is a alloy head hillman motor. Have made up all sorts of carb mani's in the past and currently running 2xDHLA40 dellorto's. So looking at setting up four throttle bodys with a independent injector on the vacuum side of each butterfly, angled towards the intake valve. I guess all the basics like crank angle, MAP, throttle, knock, O2 sensors would be required with all the electrics. And of course an upgraided fuel system. Really does any one know of a good dona car to get all the sensors and fuel system. also a good adaptable ECU. I'm considering after market if nessasary?

Been searching the net for information on retro fitting EFI to an old carby motor. Is it worth wile ratting all the gear out of a late model car and crossing my fingers it all goes well. Or is there some good web content on after market ECU's and looms ect. Keen to give it a go, would something suit a 1725cc would probley go for 4x throttel bodys but have noticed most EFI systems have air flow meters.I admit it would be probley easyer to drop a new power plant in what's the challenge in that.

How many Km's has it done. My mate had a 4age doing simila acts and we changed every thing and got no ware. With some advise it turned out it was burning a wee bit of oil. turns out if you mix a small bit of oil with petrol it brings it's octain rating down so tends to make your motor pink. It's worth wile checking all the other electrical parts first as they are cheaper than an unnecessary motor rebuild. But hay if you filling it with oil every other week it could be the answer.

And yea this one was an auto model fill of trade tools and would do just on 400km a tank. went down to 190km when the motor started playing up. think it only took someware between 40L and 50L to fill it.

I just had the fun of driving one of these vans with a 4g63 with all the same problems. It turned out to be a stuffed radiator cap. The heater core is close to level with the top of the radiator tank so its the first thing to stop working when the water level gets low. Also the thermastatic choke is the next thing to get jammed on as there is no water flow to make it operate. next problem is there is no water passing the temp pickup for the guage in the dashboard and it just shows cold all the time, so you think it's just got a stuffed thermostat. The motor starts getting bad run on when you turn the IGN off then you crack the head when the motor gets too hot. I've put a leak down test cap on the radiator before and it showed the system to be A1 but was still loosing water. turned out to be the radiator cap and of course that is the only part of the system that wasn't tested. I'll know next time. I'm not saying it has to be the cap. But the longer it's left the more likely the head is to crack. If you lucky just a headgasket.

yea pritty much. just finding a good one is the tricky bit. The motor outlast the car's body if it's looked after. so Just look for the normal stuff compreshion etc.. but do note the 1725cc doesn't have valve stem seal's, so does allow oil to travel down the intake valve stem and do end up with a carbon build up all over the show plus also tend to have hevy blowbye at revs when the throttle is closed suddenly due to a lack of stem seals. Most modern motors you would run and hide if you seen this carryon. Some of the latter motors like 76 or so had oil deflectors on the valve stem to limit this. I've had guys look at used 1725's to buy them and been put off with the carbon build up in the header and desided there no good.

The Sunbeam tiger MK1 had the 260ci ford and the Mk2 had the 289ci ford powerplant. The sunbeam,singer,humber and hillmans were all made by rootes group. so you could order a 289ci motor down at your hillman agent as i was on there parts list. They did fit the v8's into some of the other cars eg Superminx's, hunters, avengers but only as sponsor rally cars rather than hillman special additions. So you could have brought a new hillman and all gear to make it a v8 all from the same shop. so yes the 289 is period. I could be wrong there may have been some factory v8's sold off the yard. Yes the minx box does bolt up to the hunter motor. The hunter has the same box but different bell housing to allow the motor to sit on a lean in the hunter engine bay. You can't use a Hunter pre'engaged starter in the minx bell housing it wont fit. So you may need to fit the minx flywheel to the hunter motor as the ringgear assembly will be pressed onto the flywheel the wrong way around. pre 73 alloy head motors have the minx style starter setup. I have ignored the ringgear entry pitch and the starter only jammed 1 in 100 starts but you don't realy wont grandad belting the shit out of the starter in the supermarker car park. I've junked a cupple 71-72 motors and the ringgear is designed to take both types of starters. So a old crash starter needs the ringgear beavel on the friction side of the flywheel and a pre'engaged needs the beavel on the crank side of the flywheel. And it is possable to get flywheels with beavels on both sides. nothing worse than trying to start your hard work and the starter jams then finding you have to pull the dam thing apart.

For rods being stronger, probly not. The 1725cc does'nt like the old revs so much, not a problem for grandad. has more torque so would be ideal. The 1725 are normly badly balenced not that matters under 5500rpm. doesn't sound like much but the old fulla's making a real fuss at these sorta revs unlike a japa.

Yea there is only too options. go origonal or a Hunter alloyhead motor transplant. Pritty easy tansplant. You do have to use the cars origonal bell housing and engine mounts. just trying to remember i think the minx style engines have the engine mounts part of the front samwidge plate. Requires removel of the timing chain cover. rest is easy going. Technically you are ment to adjust the angle of the oil pick up in the sump but shouldn't be a problem and the fill level on the dipstick is about 4mm on the high side. I do remember someone having to change the sump from one motor to the other before. But i've never had to. I see someone suggested a 289 motor. I don't know about fitting a superminx. They do fit in Hunters with easy. Is period and a motor on Hillmans parts list. When rootes group fall apart they were just finnishing an all alloy overhead cam v6 for there new range of cars. I've seen pick of the Hillman design and is rumered to be what sprung up againg as the alloy tec motor. Would be a good transplant If you could get your hands on one. A alloy head 1725cc sounds a bit more relisic.