Strombergs - are they worth bothering with?

[v8trev]

Is it worth rebuilding the Stromberg 175CD carbs on my 3.5 Rover V8 engine or should I just ditch them in favour of SUs?

Ta

[kiwicar]

the strombergs, compared to the SU's are more fiddly to rebuild, have more passageways to fill up with gunk, have a more limited range of needles and are a bit more hassel to set up. On the plus side they are dirt cheep second hand (especially if you already have two) wear less for a given age, stay set slightly better and will flow very slightly better. all carbs of this type are getting old and worn and worn leaky SU's will never set up properly (neither will knkd strombergs for that matter) with the SU's turner engineering used to make new piston/ cylinder assemblies to rebuild old carbs (I think they made whole carbs or had a source of new ones for a while) it really is down to what you have and what your budget is.
Mike

[Ian Anderson]

From memory the CD is a control emission stromberg designed for the Yank market in the 70s

I had some on the GT6 Triumph and the consumption was hopeless (Best ever was 27mpg at a steady 60mph (So this was in a light six cylinder sportscar)

I'd hate to think how mych fuel they could throw at a V8


Ian

[v8trev]

Intertesting comments - thanks.
I was particularly concerned about the performance side of things having always understood that the SUs provided more power - would make sense if the Strombergs were fitted to reduce emissions.

[kiwicar]

Strombergs were fitted because they were cheep! no other reason that I know of.
There are emision versions of the SU aswell, well worth avoiding. I had a pair on a 1500 midget years ago, the thing could not be set up to give a repeatable mixture as the carbs had a mod to make the mixture leaner in hot weather or when under bonnet temperatures went up, aparently it was meant to work on a wax mount for the main jet, guess what it never put the jet at the same height twice .
Mike