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Anyone know of a reliable and efficient carb tuning specialists in the Midlands (UK).?

I had twin Webers and a 2.0 m10 fitted last year.
I think the car is overfuelling. It smells terrible and produces a lot of soot.

It had a fuel pump fitted in the engine bay which is controlled by a switch on the dash, otherwise it's running all the time the ignition is on. There is no fuel return pipe, so I was told to switch the pump off if the car isn't running or it will damage the carb floats.

Obviously I know nothing about engines, so I can't sort this out myself.

The car has done about 1100 miles since the new engine and carbs were fitted, so it's run in.
They're twin Weber 40's. I'm getting about 18 mpg.

Anyone help?

for a carb setup the original fuel pump would probably have suffice, if it was in doubt and you wanted to go electric then they should have fitted a carb type fuel pump. there should be no need for the driver to operate a fuel pump switch on a road car even with after market carbs. The fuel pump will regulate the amount of pressure (traditionally on modern pumps this is set during manufacture).

does sound like its not been jetted correctly though, unfortunately I cannot help you with a carb specialist in the midlands.

Thanks for replying Steed. I don't know anything about this stuff so I'm at a loss. I spoke to my local garage and the boss said 'ooo don't bring it here if it's got carbs. The lads won't know what to do with it. They just like to plug in a laptop...'
I've been taking my motability car there for years, but that doesn't full me with much confidence...

The old engine was junk (1.6 m10). So Fritz's Bits swapped it for a low mileage 2.0 m10, from a '76 2002tii.
They dumped the fuel injection and went for twin 40 Webers.

I know they had some trouble getting it set up, but before I picked it up it was dyno'd at 168bhp.
Thing is I don't know what that's supposed to feel like if you get my meaning. My wife drives a Cooper SD mini, which goes like stink but has less power.
I know you can't compare a brand new car with an old one but it was only when my dad was here last week and said it shouldn't smell like that, or produce so much soot,and that he thought it was running quite rich.

I know they fitted a small fuel pump in the engine bay, which they connected directly to the coil. I was told which spade connector to pull off if I had the ignition on but not the engine, as the pump would damage the carb floats.
I didn't want to faff so ran it to a small switch on the dashboard.

Thing is seeing as I don't know about this stuff I didn't know if it was a good idea or not. I'd rather not need it but it's finding people who know the cars, and will do the work without trying to take advantage of a guy in a wheelchair who doesn't know much about engines...

If there's no one around the Birmingham area I'd travel, but would need to be sure they'd do a decent job.

Al

I think perhaps your carb floats are just set too high, or maybe they are saturated and need replacement.

This can cause it to run very rich.

They're very easy to access on DCOE's, but i'm not sure I can adequately explain how to set them properly here.

also, you shouldn't have to pull off any wires to simply sit in the car with the ignition on.

I dont know what kind of fuel pump you have, but if it produces more than just a few PSI, there needs to be a fuel pressure regulator in there somewhere to keep it around 5 or 6 psi.

You van also check with Dutch member and carb expert Peter_V

If I thought it would help and I could afford it I'd jump on the ferry and come over so he could have a look!
Problem is dealing with people who don't know these cars. I'd much rather have someone who knows them well and how they should be. I daren't mess with the carb myself. I just don't have a clue. I did have a look at the Solex before I had the engine swapped out. I thought maybe the float was stuck or something. I started to take it apart and lift it off the car, but then the arm I damaged in the crash decided to have the mother of all nerve spasms. It flicked up and splashed petrol in both my eyes.
Christ does that stuff burn! Of course, I can't walk very well with out a stick or using a wheelchair so I had to crawl back into the house until I could rinse my face under the shower...
So I don't mess with the carbs anymore....

If you have no returnline and a electric fuelpump with to much pressure you can have problems with the floatingneedle offcourse.

If you do not want to switch off and on the fuelpump you can connect it to fuse number 3. This is the original powersetup for the magnetic idlevalve in the original carbs of the BMW E21.
So if you disconnect your ignition with the key the power goes off. Just as original it should be.

I must say that I never worked with the weber setups but I would love to have them once. I know for sure that the fuelpressure is a very important thing at the sidedraft carb.

Hi, if you are still looking for a carb specialist in the Midlands try Carbcare. 3 Nursery Croft Lichfield. WS13 7DY. 01543 305160. Alan really knows his stuff and was happy to come to me and sort my E9 3.0cs carbs.

Good luck.

Thanks. I've emailed him. Just waiting on a reply.
I notice you're based in Solihull. It's only up the road from me. Fancy meeting up for a coffee. Have a ride out?

No problem.

PM sent.