Spitfire twin carbs

[Alan Armstrong]

Hi, am getting nearer to full assembly and then car start up.

Although my car is a 13/60 herald it has aspitfire engine (mk3) with twin carbs

everything was disassembled when i got it, so lots of time have no points to refer to.

Please see picture from my phone, that I have edited and drawn 3 rings around 3 pipes that are bare coming out of the carbs.

As you can see, they are not for fuel, which is supplied centrally as you can see.

Normaly when I upload a picture it ends up inverted...lets see😁

[Tim Bancroft]

Hi Alan, they are for fuel, the top LHS one is for the fuel pipe from the fuel pump, the other two are joined together.

The central pipes are the breather from the rocker cover.

[RobPearce]

As Tim says, they are the fuel feeds. His photo is of a 1500 - the 1300s usually had the float caps swapped so the incoming feed went round the front of the engine, but that doesn't matter. Also, your breather hoses (and hence carbs) are Mk4 style, not Mk3, but again that's a minor point.

[Alan Armstrong]

Totally confused...

 

In my picture, the 2 black pipes are for fuel,they say so on them), they go to a y piece...then centrally off to the pump.

If I connect up the 2 circled pipes and run the it round to the single circled pipe, where does the resulting pipe go to please?

confused.com

[Velocita Rosso]

You say the black pipes have " fuel on them "....that is irrelevant , its what the pipes do which is important , every one has a different attitude to what they fit to engines, fuel line ,air line etc As Rob says....those black pipes are the breathers that go to emission controls and the 1/4" inch tubes at the carb floats are inlet pipes that go to the pump. So, you should have a 1/4 fuel tubing from pump, to the first carb float , a rubber or copper tube from the first carb float leading to the second float . I can now see that the accelerator linkage is blocking view....the two black emission tubes should attach to the rocker cover outlet pipe

 

Edited February 5, 2023 by Velocita Rosso

[Steve P]

And just as an aside, those air filters are more restrictive than the original.

Steve

[PeteStupps]

From your fuel pump, the pipe should run to one of the blue circled inlets on your left-hand (rear) carb. Then another separate pipe goes from the other side of that inlet, round in front of the air filters to the front carb. Those inlets are the float chambers, which is where the carb sucks fuel from.

As Rob says, the standard arrangement on the Spitfire would have you swap the float lids around and route your fuel supply round the front of the engine. But you can do it your way round. 

Try to keep the incoming fuel line well away from the exhaust manifold though. It gets very hot!

[standardthread]

Tim is correct in the first reply.

If your pipes are connected to the fuel pump someone has really cobbled things and put large adapters on because the outlet on the fuel pump is 1/4" (as per the pipes you have ringed).

If you try and start the car and it fires YOU WILL be in significant danger because fuel will get through your set up but you will not have valves to stop fuel flow because petrol won't be going through the carb float chambers.

 

[Alan Armstrong]

That all for your comments and putting me on the right track.....I cant believe I overlooked the float chambers, which gives you the   answer in itself!......MMM lucky me I now have bought a fuel pump!...just another item missing from this engine.

I live in the Swindon area, anyone local to me with a Spitfire engine set up I could visit and eyeball other problems I still have?

For example.. you can just see from my image that I am missing the metal water pipe that runs under the manifolds to the water housing. But according to the Canley diagrams, there are 2 variants of the pipe, both have a 90 degree turn but one has an additional outlet? I am also missing the union that connects said pipe to the housing.

Going to the Autojumble next weekend, so adding bits to my list wont do any harm

KR

Alan

[Velocita Rosso]

If you are going to Stoneleigh ask anyone to lift the bonnet and let you peruse all you need

[Clive]

1 hour ago, Alan Armstrong said:

That all for your comments and putting me on the right track.....I cant believe I overlooked the float chambers, which gives you the   answer in itself!......MMM lucky me I now have bought a fuel pump!...just another item missing from this engine.

I live in the Swindon area, anyone local to me with a Spitfire engine set up I could visit and eyeball other problems I still have?

For example.. you can just see from my image that I am missing the metal water pipe that runs under the manifolds to the water housing. But according to the Canley diagrams, there are 2 variants of the pipe, both have a 90 degree turn but one has an additional outlet? I am also missing the union that connects said pipe to the housing.

Going to the Autojumble next weekend, so adding bits to my list wont do any harm

KR

Alan

Sorry to break this to you, but I think the manifold pipe shopuld have a T on the back . They are often missing.

Pipework for mk3 spit below, all you need to do is use pipes to connect the your heater which has inlet/outlet in different places.

pipe 81 and 83 need to connect to that broken pipe of yours. I just did the same thing with a mk3 spit, and used a 1/2" t piece. You will need the under manifold pipe with the t off. 

I also suggest you get a decent manual for a mk3 or 4 spitfire, there may be onle online somewhere

[RobPearce]

3 hours ago, Clive said:

Sorry to break this to you, but I think the manifold pipe shopuld have a T on the back .

That depends on the model, and we've already established that this is not a pure Mk3 engine. Some had the tee, to feed both the heater and the bypass, while some fed the heater from a tapping in the head (between the rear two head nuts). It looks like this engine has that tapping but with a blanking plug fitted.

[standardthread]

18 hours ago, RobPearce said:

Some had the tee, to feed both the heater and the bypass, while some fed the heater from a tapping in the head (between the rear two head nuts). It looks like this engine has that tapping but with a blanking plug fitted.

The square headed 'bolt' similar to your gearbox drain plug.

On 05/02/2023 at 12:01, Alan Armstrong said:

That all for your comments and putting me on the right track.....I cant believe I overlooked the float chambers, which gives you the   answer in itself!......MMM lucky me I now have bought a fuel pump!...just another item missing from this engine.

 

The easier type of pump to get on with are those with a lever underneath to hand prime petrol if the car has been garaged for a few weeks. Saves the battery cranking the engine. Leyland unfortunately went to the non prime able version for the Dolomite etc.