Hello all,
I have been following all the posts on the triple carbs issue and now realise that I don't know as much as I thought. I have a 1968 series 1 1/2 with the original dual Strombergs and have been saving a triple carb set up from a sereis 1 XKE for eventual installation. If I am reading all this flow of information correctly, even if my triple carbs and manifold are correct, the change over is not as simple as just removing the dual Strombergs and installing the triple SUs.I still have to make other changes such as the distributor and cams. Am I understanding this correctly? If this is the case, is the correct distributor and cams from a series 1 XKE?
At one time I was told that for the best performance the best deal would be to replace the original head with one from a fuel injected XJ6 (Bigger valves) and install the triple carbs on that head. Any opinions on this?
Thank you all for flow of information.
Best regards.
Bill Berman.
1968 FHC.
Submitted by NE52-32043 on Tue, 01/18/2005 - 11:30
Bill,
I think you're reading a bit too much into the other posts. First, is the Triple SU setup you have from a 4.2 or 3.8 engine? If its from a 4.2, the manifold should be a direct bolt-on. You do have to be sure you have all the throttle linkage parts you need. But otherwise, it's a fairly easy conversion. If the manifold is from a 3.8, some of the water passages don't match up with the 4.2 head, and slight modification is needed to make it fit.
AS far as distributor and cams go, as long as your distributor is not a vacuum retard version, you should be fine. And your cams should be fine as well.
The issue with cams, distributors and "big valve" heads, etc., has to do with getting increased performance out of the engine, over and above what the Triple SU's alone will do. I put the SU's on my '70, left cams, head, etc. as they were, and I still felt a noticable increase in power. I did have to change the distributor, but that is because the '70 had a vacuum retard unit. Your '68 probably has either a vacuum advance or no advance distributor, which you should be able to use without any problems.
As long as you're not intending to race the car, simply putting the Triple SU's on will give you a nice power increase that will translate to a "seat of the pants" increase in enjoyment.
Steve Weinstein, JTC-NJ
'70 XKE FHC
'69 XKE OTS