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Peaches

New Member

• Jan 18, 2012

• #1

I've got a solex carb on my 2.25 which is apparantly knackered. I'm told there is a bearing inside it which is part of the body casting, and this is worn and letting air past ruining the fuel air mixture. It runs fine, but I'm getting some pretty awful mileage, so I though a replacement could help (or is that just wishful thinking).

The question is, I have seen these new replacement Zenith carbs on t'interweb which look like good value at around £50. However, its the 'replacement' part of the description that bothers me, and it makes me wonder if they are not cheap knock-offs of actual zenith carbs. Does anyone have any experience with them? I am aware that genuine zenith carbs have their problems, so a poor imitation could just be asking for trouble...

Thanks,

Pete

 

martin1512

Well-Known Member

• Jan 18, 2012

• #2

First of all if your engine is running fine, then there is unlikely to be a carb problem. How bad is your fuel consumption? For the 2.25 petrol 15-18 mpg seems to be about normal. Personally I would not trust an aftermarket carb, especially if supplied by Britpart. I would try a genuine part refurb kit, or try a genuine Weber carb. The Weber carb is reported to give better mpg, but at the expense of top end power. Both of these solutions are available here; L. R. Series - specialists in land rover, land rover series and range rover - gearbox, axle, transmission parts, spares and major units

 

n.r.g97

Active Member

• Jan 20, 2012

• #3

i had a zenith on my series until about 6 months ago, i was getting around 4mpg-I know thats not normal and when working well it used to get nearer the norm-around 15/16 when not being offroaded (which it nearly allways is )
i spoke to the local landy dealer (not main stealer but the landy garage) and they said theyve had loads that stop working right and then no matter how much theyre rebuilt and have bits repaired they dont work right ever again-i would say no your better off looking into a weber!
however i now run lpg and its looooaaaddsss better

 

johnny curt 1

Well-Known Member

• Jan 20, 2012

• #4

in my old series i went through 3 zenith carbs one of them rebuilt twice aswell in the end i had a 32mm twin choke webber fitted and made the world of difference just wasnt as pokey at the verry top end of the revs

further research into the zenith thing points to the carb getting hot specialy in summer in standing traffic this causes the casing orf the carb to warp slightly and offsets the idler needle against the inlet jet causeing it to **** petrol into the engine for fun and theres no ammount of stripping cleaning refurbishing or tuneing that can stop this
basicaly the carb is shagged

if you can find one i believe a carb from an old escort used to fit and work rather well but you need to make a conversion plate to do this

 

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dean68uk

Active Member

• Jan 22, 2012

• #5

Get your Solex rebuilt by a specialist or fit a genuine Zenith. I have tried a weber, a copy Zenith and now have a genuine zenith. The Zenith does warp but this is easy to fix. The weber strangles power and is a pain in cold weather as it ices up. The replacement zeniths tend to leak petrol over a hot engine so avoid! Or fit an SU kit from ACR.

 

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Peaches

New Member

• Jan 22, 2012

• #6

Yeah, I thought these replacement Zeniths sounded too good to be true. Having tried a webber im not particularly in love with them, but i may look into an SU kit. Thanks for everyones advice

 

johnny curt 1

Well-Known Member

• Jan 22, 2012

• #7

Peaches said:

Yeah, I thought these replacement Zeniths sounded too good to be true. Having tried a webber im not particularly in love with them, but i may look into an SU kit. Thanks for everyones advice

Click to expand...

the best su carbs i ever came across and used were the ones fitted to 1.9 MG-B roadsters

 

CakeBandit

Active Member

• Jan 28, 2012

• #8

The spindle wore on my original Zenith allowing petrol to leak onto the manifold and engine, so I replaced it with another Zenith. Ran great at first, then it slowly progressed to dieseling when shutdown, black smoke, no power under load. Took me some time to find out why, but the piece that is sandwiched between the two halves of the replacement Zenith had warped.

If you do buy another Zenith, keep this in mind because it might happen on random hot day.

Its easy to fix though, you might want to have a spare gasket set.