Given carburettors handle two of the four things vital to a working engine (fuel and air – the other two being compression and ignition), a carb rebuild is one of the simplest things you can do to maintain your classic’s basic health, and its original performance.
A classic Mini Cooper S came with a pair of SU carburettors, and in the latest episode on Hagerty’s 1965 Mini rebuild series, it’s time to refresh those SUs before the now largely rebuilt engine comes back together.
With a couple of kits in hand, Hagerty host Davin gets to work deconstructing each carb – one at a time, ensuring there’s always a complete and working carb for reference – cleaning up the pieces, and installing the new components included in the rebuild kits.
One of the other few items still to get some attention is the rocker assembly, so after pulling that to pieces, its constituent components get a bath in a rotary parts cleaner and the rocker shaft has a date with the lathe and an abrasive pad.
None of these components were especially bad in the first place – as you’ll already have seen, the A-series engine block was the cause of the Mini’s early smoking problem – but with everything apart, it would be daft to throw it all back together without a spring clean.
With the block, head, transmission and many of the ancillaries already refurbished, the next stage will be bolting everything back together. You can keep track of Hagerty’s Mini build right here on the website, or head over to the Hagerty YouTube channel to watch all of the Mini videos and other automotive content in one place.
Read more
Mini manual transmission assembly begins | Redline Rebuild
Freeze Frame: Hopkirk, and Mini, become Monte Carlo legends
Mini Cooper prototype brought back a famous name
