Hello Out There
This is my first post so please be nice.
I am a proud owner of a Series 3 Lightweight. It has its original 2.25L petrol engine. At some point a previous owner has replaced its Zenith with a Weber 34ICh. This carb caused me a fair amount of grief with under fueling so I replaced it with a brand new shiny Weber 34 ICH. This has been absolutely fine up until last week.
I had noticed that the old under fueling issue was re-occurring. I traced this to the float not opening when it should. In fact when I took the top of the carb off to investigate the float was ever so slightly stuck so not allowing the jet to release more fuel into the bowl. I also noticed that the float had turned completely black from its nice shiny brass colour. The main jet is also black and part of the float jet is also black. This seems to have gummed it up a bit.
At first I though that this was some basic oxidation so a bit of brasso would remove it. Didn't work. I then took a piece of very very mild sand paper to just see how deep the black went. I rubbed briefly enough to take of what should be just a surface coating and it was still black.
Now my understanding of modern fuels is that there is a fair amount of ethanol in them that will react with Brass. I didn't think that it would do this to a new carb in 7 months. The only additives I have used is the Castrol one or Millers for the LRP bit. Admittedly I have used in nearly every tank (I now know this to be over doing it and it just needs one every so often).
Has anyone else come across this or have any thoughts. I was thinking about getting a replacement plastic float to replace the brass one. Still concerned about the jets though since I will have to replace them as well.
Any help / advice will be gratefully received.
Will post some pictures later.
This is my first post so please be nice.
I am a proud owner of a Series 3 Lightweight. It has its original 2.25L petrol engine. At some point a previous owner has replaced its Zenith with a Weber 34ICh. This carb caused me a fair amount of grief with under fueling so I replaced it with a brand new shiny Weber 34 ICH. This has been absolutely fine up until last week.
I had noticed that the old under fueling issue was re-occurring. I traced this to the float not opening when it should. In fact when I took the top of the carb off to investigate the float was ever so slightly stuck so not allowing the jet to release more fuel into the bowl. I also noticed that the float had turned completely black from its nice shiny brass colour. The main jet is also black and part of the float jet is also black. This seems to have gummed it up a bit.
At first I though that this was some basic oxidation so a bit of brasso would remove it. Didn't work. I then took a piece of very very mild sand paper to just see how deep the black went. I rubbed briefly enough to take of what should be just a surface coating and it was still black.
Now my understanding of modern fuels is that there is a fair amount of ethanol in them that will react with Brass. I didn't think that it would do this to a new carb in 7 months. The only additives I have used is the Castrol one or Millers for the LRP bit. Admittedly I have used in nearly every tank (I now know this to be over doing it and it just needs one every so often).
Has anyone else come across this or have any thoughts. I was thinking about getting a replacement plastic float to replace the brass one. Still concerned about the jets though since I will have to replace them as well.
Any help / advice will be gratefully received.
Will post some pictures later.
