Tag Archives: Zenith

Carburetor SU HS6 Set up for Land rover series Part 1.

In search for the best replacement of original Zenith carb, I found few alternatives, again Internet is helping me a lot. In the spirit of sharing, I would like to share my carburetor set up. I have written: possibly the best carburetor for land rover series few days ago, so I will not cover why I choose SU (skinner union) carb. Here I will explain about the set up, lets start…

Installation is the most complicated one

  1. It requires you to fabricate the manifold / bracket to attach SU carb to your inlet manifold
  2. It needs us to alter the current linkage (to pedal) set up
  3. SU HS6 comes with many type: Left fuel bowl, right fuel bowl, 90* (up right position) and 30* (slightly tilted like in V8 rover)

Those three combination of complexity need us to think, the best placement for the carb. Is it facing to engine, is facing the bulk head or is it facing the radiator fan etc.. Undeterred by this complexity, I go ahead and by second hand SU HS6 and hell broke loose.. :)

Installation: The relatively easy part is buying… I am lucky to get New Old Stock SU HS6 quite cheaply,  so that is good..

SU-HS6
SU-HS6

Now lets make the manifold / bracket or anything you called to attach the carb to inlet manifold. The easiest way is go to a garage that have access on lathe and ask them to set it up for you. for my case I have to go to two different special garage, one is to make the base (two bases as you can see here: one goes to carb and one goes to manifold) the the other garage (exhaust specialist) to make the connection pipe and set it up in the landy. Here is the manifold ready to be installed.

IMG-20130407-00794

And finally here is the installed carb… Picture explain better than word.. :)

SU HS6 set up

With this set up I still retain part on the throttle linkage, just in case if I want to change it to zenith again, I still have the parts in there… Hence it installed away from bulkhead and closer to radiator fan. The oil bath filter is still there, although currently it is redundant… but yes you can use the oil bath filter again if you will cross Sahara desert… :)

So that’s all folks… if you have question please ask down below… stay tuned for part two I will talk about setting up the needle, jetting and spring and how it different with Zenith… see you later..

Possibly the best Carburetor for Land Rover Series

The original carburetor is Zenith, and from what I read is the best suited for land rover series. But the Zenith now is on the phase of extinction, the old one is mostly beyond repair, and it will be lucky if you can get new one at decent price. I am trying to order new Zenith from the manufacturer and they said that they produce no more…

So what is the 2nd best option for our pet..? Landy lovers around the world have tried many things with various success, the following brands are frequently mentioned as the best replacement for Zenith and Solex, not in particular order:

  • Rochester BV : for those who live in US seems prefer this option.. you can read it here: http://www.expeditionlandrover.info/landRoverFAQ/FAQ_rochester.htm  from Terry Ann Wakeman one of the land rover guru.
  • Weber : There are few types of Webers: usually 34ICH and 3236 again you can read it here: http://www.expeditionlandrover.info/LRpartNumbers.htm#carbs from terry wakeman site.
  • Skinner Union (SU): The other side of continent, Europe, they seems prefer this option (using SU HS6), a lot of Land rover forum is talking about this type of Carb to replace Zenith or Solex
  • Various Japanesse carbs : I’ve seen few landy  in Indonesia use japaness carbs and it si going OK..

All in all, I think land rover will take any Carb for its heart transplant, but the question is… what is the best carburetor for her.

I have no means of testing each of the brand, but what I can do is searching online, and  read comments about it and asking around in few forums. Now I will give few rating on each of the brand with few attributes (NOTE: this is personal opinion based on reading some online articles or user comments in forums)

Rochester BV Weber 34ICH SU HS6
Availability Difficult Very easy Easy
Easier to install Easy Very easy Difficult
Easier to set up Easy Difficult Very easy
Fuel Economy Good good Very Good
Reliability Very Reliable Reliable Very Reliable

So which one is the best for our landy…

Weber 34ICH, is a good all round carburetor, its plenty and easily available, easy to install etc. But it is more  more susceptible to dirt and water in the fuel and can frequently cause problems if the fuel is not clean and well filtered. Not easy to set up and a bit more sensitive to altitude change.

Rochester BV will be more reliable and easier to set up than Weber, but availability is difficult to obtain and expensive… I was quoted US$ 300 for NOS Rochester BV and the second hand is also quite expensive.

SU HS6, it is very reliable and very simple design, less moving parts hence the reliability. Availability is equal if not better than Rochester BV. Used in many British cars hence second hand are plenty and easier to get… the tricky part is, we need to make some kind of adapter to fit in landy series.

Simple test on the availability, go to ebay and type each type of the carburetor and which one is more readily available.

All in all, if I have access to those threebrands easily, I will say that my choice for the best carburetor for land rover series is SU HS6… I know I simplify a lot of things but that is my conclusion, if you have other opinion.. please write down below.

SU HS^
Second hand well used SU HS6

Will post the set up later

Cheers