Hi all
I’m in the process of my stromberg to triple SU’s upgrade, and as part of that I’m going to address other, esthetic, issues. We all know the XK engine is a joy to look at, and many here have spent time and money to enhance it. So here’s an opportunity to show off your efforts. Looking for inspiration… Show me what you’ve got! (Particularly S2 with ribbed cam covers! 
)
Thanks David! Looks nice. I like your use of the acorned nuts on the intake manifold and thermostat housing! I was planning on using brass nuts and giving them a bit of polish, but you’ve got me thinking…
Sorry, Series 1.
Yep! Something like that! I’m doing the SU’s with brass screws, banjo bolts, float bowl bolts, dashpot dampers, etc. so I thought the brass nuts on the intake might look good…
Drew, S1 is good! My S1.5 will be, appropriately, half S1 w triple SU’s and half S2 with ribbed covers and S2 thermostat housing!
Nice! It looks like you polished some of your intake manifold, but painted some of it. Is that right?
Also you mounted your coil on the frame, which I don’t think I’ve seen before
Bob,
On the later Series 2’s, they moved the coil from the front breather cover to the picture frame. The ballast resistor which was introduced at the same time is mounted alongside. You can also see that the notch in the top edge of the ribbed cam covers for the stamped steel crossover (not present as the car now has triple SUs) is towards the center of the covers, whereas on yours (and mine) it is towards the rear for the aluminium cast crossover.
Bob- I considered going the triple SU route but thought I’d try to maximize the ZS carbs first. As you can see in the earlier photo I posted there is no linkage to the secondary throttles, because there are none. I not only removed the secondary butterflies, I sleeved the entire secondary manifold so that the this is what the ZS carbs “see”:
This basically removes the entire secondary manifold from the flow path, removing the considerable extra volume and additional sharp edges from influencing the intake velocity/mass flow into the engine. I hope these mods will make the car very much like the triple SU carb setup.
No paint. The SU assembly is brand new from Burlen, and the rest is just fusion blasting of the aluminum at the time of overhaul.
Some pics of other parts done the same way:
The car had the coil mounted on the picture frame when I got it, along with a ballast. That went away when I went to Electronic Ignition as part of the story. It’s mounted in the same place.
Hi Doug
Thanks for the info, but I much prefer the functionality of the SU, and the esthetics! They just look right to me. And too late now. I’ve pulled everything off and have all the new bits I need. Just waiting for a couple more parts to show up in the mail.
Pat
I’m impressed with the polishing of the head itself. The front area by the breather looks great. Did you do that?
Dana
I’ve never heard of fusion blasting…
I’ve never heard of it either, and I’m not exactly sure of the process or the mechanics of how it’s done, other than I liked the samples they provided and went with it.
Nice James. I see you’re using velocity stacks. Are you filtering at all?
