Any floats yet?

[Stanley]

Remember a discussion a year or two ago about floats for the SU's. Who might manufacture them etc. Any good news?

Think my front float is shot. It's not where I set it, checked it then (and took photos) and now with a sightglass. It's down about 5 mm. Either the float's soaking up gas or possibly the tang is weak; don't know what else it could be. The other float is exactly where I set it over a year ago.

Those things are about as high-tech as a marshmellow, so you'd think someone could manufacture them.

Edited April 21, 2014 by Stanley

[zKars]

I remember the discussion well. Such things take more than wishes.Something about time and money... sigh...

I was sanding away on the body of my latest project with one of those black firm "Durablock" sanding blocks this weekend and for whatever reason I said to my self, "hey, this rubber stuff this thing is made of is pretty light. I wonder if a chunk of it will float in gasoline? and stay floating....". For some reason I couldn't bring myself to chop a hunk off my $35 sanding block...

I'de take yours out, float it in a little container of gas (glass, outside, away from children, you know the drill...) and see if it changes floaty position. Betcha it won't. Yours may be rubbing the side of the bowl or some such causing irregular action.Or the needle and seat are sticky, that happened to me once.

If you get stuck, I can "rent/lease/sell/pawn/give/provide/finance" you a float.

Edited April 21, 2014 by zKars

[Jarvo2]

As many british floats are still available for SU's, I'm going to start exploring the opportunity of swapping float bowls. Does anyone have any experience with this?

[zKars]

Dave, that's an interesting idea. Nothing special about one float bowl over another, other than volume and availability of parts (floats and needle/seats).

I suspect the hardest part might be mounting a different one to the carb body at an appropriate height, but the current setup is just one lousy little through bolt, how hard can it be to come up with a bracket for that?

And just what is that soft mount we have now good for? Heat isolation? Vibration mounting? Do we really need to keep that? Heck you could mount the float bowl(s) in the trunk if you can get the height right...

Just realized I should clarify the trunk mounting thing; "Could", not "Should"

Edited April 21, 2014 by zKars

[djwarner]

Since I have Weber carbs, this might be a dumb question about SU carbs. Wouldn't a weak float cause the bowl to over fill rather than under fill? Every other float I've seen pushes a needle upwards to seal off the flow of gas.

[Namerow]

Burlen Ltd. in England operates a group of carburetor-related business enterprises under the umbrella of The Burlen Group ( Burlen LTD Home page ). They appear to have purchased the manufacturing and brand name rights to the three principal (but long defunct) British carburetor companies: SU, Zenith and Amal. While looking through the latest edition of my favourite Brit car magazine this weekend ('Buying - Restoring - Repairing Classics' - worth checking out if you can find it in your area), I found an article on updating carbs to accommodate ethanol-cut fuels. In it, there was a picture of a recommended upgrade float, trade-named 'StayUp' (no viagra jokes please). I've now checked the Burlen website and find that this is one of their new ventures.

There are currently only three or four offerings in the 'StayUp' float lineup, but one of them (the 'T1' model) looks suspiciously like the Hitachi SU item found in our Z's. It goes for 21 Pounds Sterling (about US $30 if I did my math right), plus shipping. That's for one unit. If anyone wants to roll the dice and order one, I'm sure that the rest of us would be interested in finding out whether it fits the Hitachi SU clone. It might end up being something that MSA or Bruce Palmer at Z Therapy would be interested in stocking.

Have a look at: Home Page - StayUp Floats Co.

[Stanley]

Since I have Weber carbs, this might be a dumb question about SU carbs. Wouldn't a weak float cause the bowl to over fill rather than under fill? Every other float I've seen pushes a needle upwards to seal off the flow of gas.

Oh. Yeah.

Regarding the StayUp floats, That one looks like it, but might be wrong size float or attachment. But from their FAQ's, looks like if it doesn't work, they could probably make them if somebody sent them one to copy. Maybe there's a CZCC member near their location.

[Jarvo2]

This looks like a steal, but based on the pictures these might be reproductions as my OEM floats don't have the molding lines.

Datsun 240Z Su Carburetors Floats Pair L R Nice | eBay

[zKars]

Ztherapy has new ones sourced and coming. There was a thread a couple of months about it. No need to try other sources. Bruce, any news?

[Darrel]

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/su-carb-central/52268-good-news-floats-hitachis-have-been-sourced.html

From Bruce's thread in May.