Series 3 Smokes like a chimney - carburettor advice please

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mikerajjers

Well-Known Member
Posts
1,467
Location
Bedford UK or Trnava SK
Hi all,
I've finally registered my S3 109 FFR so have begun tinkering.

First on the list it that it smokes like a chimney, I thought it was the fuel mixture being too rich. Set about adjusting the screw but found it does absolutely nothing whichever way I turn it and however many turns. I've added photos at idle and with some throttle. Any ideas what the problem could be?

Image with less smoke - idle (less than 500rpm)
Image with loads of smoke - throttle

My carb is a Zenith 36IV, it had the plastic screw cover, but it had obviously been tampered with in the past.

There also seems to be some kid of smoke (tiny amount) in the engine bay when pressing throttle, which I think is from the manifold to exhaust join. Photo also added, looks like there are some smoke deposits

I reckon the carburettor could do with replacing and I've bought two old unit off eBay which I plan to rebuild. I've never rebuilt anything before, but there is a good article with instructions in Land Rover monthly so thought I'd give it a go.

Any thoughts or pointers anyone may have are much appreciated.

I've also added a photo of my new door lock...spent about half an hour drilling the old one out as the previous owner didn't have a key for it...and there was no lock on the other door.

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That looks like oil it's burning if it has been stood for a long time with out running piston rings could be gummed up .
Might improve with use , think I have heard of people putting diesel down plug holes to let it soak into the rings and soften the gunk.
but it would probably mean you changing your oil afterwards you could.
 
it has stood for 15 years almost before March when the previous owner replaced a load of things and also got the MOT done. He said it should also improve with use, but I thought it might be the carburettor. Sometimes it hardly ever smokes, other days its horrendous. When I was having an MOT equivalent done over here before registering it, there was absolutely no smoke...before and after there was loads :)
 
I would expect the smoke to be a lot bluer if it was burning oil. To me it looks like it is running rich, does it smell of petrol?
 
I would expect the smoke to be a lot bluer if it was burning oil. To me it looks like it is running rich, does it smell of petrol?
It doesn't smell very much in fact, despite there being lots of smoke. I don't think it is oil that is burning, it is a sooty black colour, no blue whatsoever. I am inclined to think it is the choke as whenever I start it from cold it starts first time without me pulling the choke cable out, so it may be jammed. Bloke at the MOT station probably tweaked it for the emissions test as it was running beautifully at the time.
 
That's burning rich not oil. It may be something simple, like the float valve being stuck or the float height setting being wrong or a float being punctured. If the idle adjustment does nowt it means its either all coming from the main jet or its just ****ing petrol in constantly.

A strip down and rebuild of the carb is probably in order.
 
If you can actually drive it on a cold day after doing that you've got your carb set very rich, maybe in Queensland but anything below 15C and without choke putting your foot down at a junction will involve a pop a fart a bang and a landy parked across the junction!
 
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