carburetor Archives - Just British

VotW - Joe Curto discusses the different types of SU Carburetors

VotW – Joe Curto Discusses Types of SU Carburetors

January 17, 2019 Michael Carnell Comments Off

When it comes to our classic British cars, SU carburetors are one of the common denominators. Sure there are Zenith Strombergs, Amals, and others plus fuel injection, but the SU is the norm. And when it comes to SU carburetor experts, Joe Curto is the man. Joe Curto provides carburetor rebuilding. He also provides a full range of replacement and repair parts. and now, thankfully, he is making much of his knowledge available to us via videos on YouTube. Our video this week is a great introductory one with Joe discussing the different varieties of SU carburetors. After watching this you will not be able to stop yourself from going out to look at your car to make sure of what is bolted up to that manifold. Joe also now offers float bowl koozies. The koozies are used to prevent […]

S.U. History – Skinner’s Union Book

November 10, 2016 Staff Comments Off

Congratulations to Mike Harvey who has been awarded the Pre-War Car Michael Sedgwick Award 2016 for his publication ‘Skinners Union – A History of the skinner family and S.U Company‘. The award, that takes the form of a plaque and £250 given by the Michael Sedgwick Memorial Trust, hopes to ‘encourage new research into motoring history and to make the finding available to the public’. The winner has to demonstrate excellence in research, presentation, readability and novelty, that will materially further our understanding of the subject. A short list of nominated books were assessed by a panel of judges, who are themselves respected authors and highly knowledgeable enthusiasts. The panel was headed by chairman Guy Loveridge, motoring author and broadcaster and Deputy Chairman of the Guild of Motoring Writers. ‘Skinner’s Union – A history of the Skinner family and the […]

VotW – Dual S.U. Carburetor Tuning

November 9, 2016 Staff 2

For our Video of the Week this go round I want to go back to something that gives folks a lot of headaches – tuning a dual S.U. carburetor setup. We are also going back to an old friend for this, John Twist of University Motors. While this video specifically addresses the HIF4 carbs of the MGB, the same basic principals of tuning and balancing apply to all dual SU setups. We covered the basic theory and operation of the S.U. side drafts in the past, but this video is more specific to their actual tuning. [Corrected, see below] By the way, do you know what the “I” in the “HIF” stands for? It means “integrated”, as in the float bowl is in-line with the carburetor itself, in this case directly under it. If the float bowl is to the side […]

VotW – Side Draft Carburetors and How They Work

April 13, 2016 Michael Carnell Comments Off

Maybe it is the fact that I have been playing with a lot of carburetors recently – both SU and Zenith-Stromberg. Or perhaps it is the fact that I had a friend ask how such a simple design could work. They literally stared at me in dumbfounded amazement when I explained the basic principles by which our carbs work. But, whatever the case, there are a lot of people who consider carburetors a bit of black magic, and I thought this video from Moss might help sort that out. To that end, our Video of the Week (VotW) is “Side Draft Carburetors and How They Work” from Moss Motors. Now in addition to providing a wealth of great parts, Moss also does its part (get it?) to keep our cars on the road by producing a series of videos on […]

New Book on Skinner’s Union

November 16, 2015 Staff 2

Burlen Ltd, maintainers of the S.U. brand, are happy to announce the release of ‘Skinner’s Union – A History of the Skinner Family and the S.U Company‘, a book which gives a comprehensive history of the S.U. Company and the members of the Skinner family involved. This new book by Mike Harvey comprises over 300 pages with copious photographs, drawings & illustrations (many not previously published). The book focuses on the period from 1908 when the leather bellow carburetter was introduced, through to Carl Skinner’s retirement in 1947 when the S.U. carburetter company became part of the Nuffield Organisation. The book also covers Barbara and Peter Skinner’s hill-climbing and other racing activities and gives details on the skinner specials, as well as the companies contributions during WW2 manufacturing carburetters used on Rolls-Royce Merlin engines for the RAF. This book is available […]