Well it appears we now have my car working properly (save for a but of a tune with the gas analyser when I have the time!)!!!!
Guess what it was.
On the back of the HIF44 (well at least on the one I have anyway), there are 3 small holes which need air flow through them. I think two of them have something to do with the piston moving up and down, and the third is a breather for the float bowl.
Anyways remember how I said no matter how rich a needle we put in there it was just ending up lean, well apparantly the carby doesn't like it at all when you block that float bowl breather hole off!!!
Now I know what you're all thinking - Bob f^&ked it up.
Well there's a little story behind that too.
I bought a K&N filter, but the only one they make that fits with the GR manifold is the offset one for the 1 1/2" SU, so you have to ream the holes out to suit. Hours of fun with a die grinder.
Now, I didn't know which of the holes needed air flow, so I did the logical thing and opened it up for all of them. Not neat, but does the job. Didn't have a gasket so used silastic.
All good. You all saw it like that at the Dyno day, and apart from the fueling problems (that was the choke O-ring gone - more of a C-ring!!) it went ok. I got 2nd in class at the khanacross the following day so something must work.
Went back to Grahams to try and sort it out, and everyone's fabourite K1w1 (Jai) graciously put a kit through the carb for me.
Remember how I said I didn't have a gasket? Well there was one in the kit, so naturally Jai used it to replace my bodgy silastic job. No more problems with fuel bleeding through from the choke - but now car ran too lean!! Stuffed around with it there for a few hours (I've nearly had a contract taken out on me by the missus because of the time/money I've spent on this car!!) and no matter what needle we used we just couldn't get it to run right. Had today off and put the Weber back on to make sure it was the carby that was the problem. Not neck snapping performance, but ran nicely. Jets WAY to small for monster engine now, but it still went OK and proved that it was my carb that was the issue.
Apparently Graham doesn't like something as simple as an SU beating him so he started to investigate. Blew some compressed air through a couple of holes. It was a classic. He was just saying something like
there's gotta be a blockage here somewhere when he blew some air up the fuel pickup and we heard the tell tale psssssh.....POP noise.
That new gasket didn't have a hole in the right spot!!!! ARRRRGH!!!
Oh well at least it was a simple fix in the end!!
Tried another needle in it and it goes fine. When time permits we'll get the gas analyser onto it and tune it all up properly, but for now it goes quite well - especially since the throttle linkage I have is a piece of crap and I'm only getting about 70% throttle when my foot's to the floor!!!
All I need now is a decent exhaust, some 1.5 rockers and full throttle and it should go like crap off a shovel!!!
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God love ya bob!