Weber replacement

OK, I'm going to get a barrage of abuse I suspect, anyway, I kinda know what I'm gonna do but thought I'd throw this out there.

Issue;
My recently purchased 84 Land Rover 90 with it's 2.25, petrol engine (yes it is a 2.25, not the 2.5), has a weber carb ( I believe to be the 34ICH), and it looks worse for wear. That is to say, it leaks a fair bit, which I can solve by taking it out and cleaning it up and putting on new gaskets ect, it looks original (58k miles), it might be ok with that and if so, I'll stick with just blowing out jets, cleaning etc...but I get this feeling with old carbs...
Short rant;
Of all the years I've rebuilt classic cars there is one thing I'm certain of, I do not like or know how to rebuild carbs properly, in my experience, the quickest and easiest way to fix an old tired carb is to whack on a new weber. I can't tell you how many days I've spent tinkering with twin SUs, single solex etc...only to end up plonking on a spanking brand new weber and driving away 2mins later. Last year my singer gazelle twin solex setup drove me to end of my tether, so I bought a twin weber kit at great expense....perfect. That said, if I charged minimum wage to myself, the weber was way cheaper.
Inevitable solution;
So, I'm simply going to buy a new weber 34 and plop it on next time she's in my garage being tinkered with. 10min job...done.

My Question;
Thoughts on a better weber to use that might make the engine breath better or even give more than the 6 mice in a spinning wheel power.(hopeful there). I kinda know the answer will be as the design of the 70hp engine and cam setup etc means you'll get no more power than the weber in question, however, it's worth asking the 1millon hours of experience out there.....

(I await abuse)

styleruk said:

OK, I'm going to get a barrage of abuse I suspect, anyway, I kinda know what I'm gonna do but thought I'd throw this out there.

Issue;
My recently purchased 84 Land Rover 90 with it's 2.25, petrol engine (yes it is a 2.25, not the 2.5), has a weber carb ( I believe to be the 34ICH), and it looks worse for wear. That is to say, it leaks a fair bit, which I can solve by taking it out and cleaning it up and putting on new gaskets ect, it looks original (58k miles), it might be ok with that and if so, I'll stick with just blowing out jets, cleaning etc...but I get this feeling with old carbs...
Short rant;
Of all the years I've rebuilt classic cars there is one thing I'm certain of, I do not like or know how to rebuild carbs properly, in my experience, the quickest and easiest way to fix an old tired carb is to whack on a new weber. I can't tell you how many days I've spent tinkering with twin SUs, single solex etc...only to end up plonking on a spanking brand new weber and driving away 2mins later. Last year my singer gazelle twin solex setup drove me to end of my tether, so I bought a twin weber kit at great expense....perfect. That said, if I charged minimum wage to myself, the weber was way cheaper.
Inevitable solution;
So, I'm simply going to buy a new weber 34 and plop it on next time she's in my garage being tinkered with. 10min job...done.

My Question;
Thoughts on a better weber to use that might make the engine breath better or even give more than the 6 mice in a spinning wheel power.(hopeful there). I kinda know the answer will be the weber in question, however, it's worth asking the 1millon hours of experience out there.....

(I await abuse)

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That is the right engine for an early Ninety, early ones had 2286cc petrol or diesel engines like a Series.

Weber 34 is a generic carb, so not perfect for a Land Rover engine. But they do work, so if that is what is on there now, it is probably the easiest option to replace it, as you will have the conversion kit fitted already.

I don't think there is a better Weber carb for that then the 34. The right carb for that engine is probably a Zenith, although I am not certain, somebody else may know. I think you can get Zenith carbs new, so might be worth looking into in future.

I don't like webers.. i mean they do the job, just!!
I certainly wouldn't be replacing an SU with one even if it was a bit worn!!
If it were mine and i was keeping it then I'd put an SU on. They are quite simple and perform very well

Listed for Series but same engine

kermit_rr said:

I don't like webers.. i mean they do the job, just!!
I certainly wouldn't be replacing an SU with one even if it was a bit worn!!
If it were mine and i was keeping it then I'd put an SU on. They are quite simple and perform very well

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Kermit do you mean that specific weber? I've seen loads of twin strombergs on v8's replaced with a big weber 500 and they're millions of times better, su's are great carbs but again on a v8 I'd have the big weber every single time.

I can't imagine any worn carb being better than a new weber, but then I've never liked the 2286 engine, mine ran on the zenith which was worn and fairly terrible.

Just interested to know why you think a weber is bad on that engine?

Gottschalk said:

Kermit do you mean that specific weber? I've seen loads of twin strombergs on v8's replaced with a big weber 500 and they're millions of times better, su's are great carbs but again on a v8 I'd have the big weber every single time.

I can't imagine any worn carb being better than a new weber, but then I've never liked the 2286 engine, mine ran on the zenith which was worn and fairly terrible.

Just interested to know why you think a weber is bad on that engine?

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Yes that's the one I've come across on various landies. They do tend to wear and once they do they run like a bag of spanners.
I don't like strommies either, the poor man's SU and hard to set up well.
I think the zenith was worse than the weber for running badly with a bit of wear.
A decent weber is good if set up right though you don't get great mpg

kermit_rr said:

Yes that's the one I've come across on various landies. They do tend to wear and once they do they run like a bag of spanners.
I don't like strommies either, the poor man's SU and hard to set up well.
I think the zenith was worse than the weber for running badly with a bit of wear.
A decent weber is good if set up right though you don't get great mpg

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Thanks man! I'd really love to do some work on my ex rrc v8, although I don't have a vehicle to put it in yet (unless my td5 packs up ) .

I have new cam and tappets, new carb, new chain and tensioner and new lecky dizzy, so I'm just really interested in the subject (and the new carb I bought was a weber 500).

I ran a 2.25 petrol for many years and did fit an SU at one time, went well enough but when I started 4x4 trials found the SU did not like working at extreme angles at times so rebuilt my Zenith 36iv
New ones not available today but you can get quality rebuild kits. The new copy's available today do not have a good reputation.

I don't know anything about the weber500, the only carb v8 I've touched was stage 1 with factory Strombergs.

tottot said:

I ran a 2.25 petrol for many years and did fit an SU at one time, went well enough but when I started 4x4 trials found the SU did not like working at extreme angles at times so rebuilt my Zenith 36iv
New ones not available today but you can get quality rebuild kits. The new copy's available today do not have a good reputation.

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Never had a problem with my SU and did some pretty hairy angles. Mine is the type with the float chamber underneath not on the side

Gottschalk said:

Kermit do you mean that specific weber? I've seen loads of twin strombergs on v8's replaced with a big weber 500 and they're millions of times better, su's are great carbs but again on a v8 I'd have the big weber every single time.

I can't imagine any worn carb being better than a new weber, but then I've never liked the 2286 engine, mine ran on the zenith which was worn and fairly terrible.

Just interested to know why you think a weber is bad on that engine?

Click to expand...

Weber 34 is a generic carb. used on lawn tractors among other things.

It works on a Series petrol engine, but the choke size is actually a bit smaller than the standard carbs, either Solex or Zenith, so it reduces performance slightly. And let's face it, with a Series or Ninety, you don't have much performance to spare.
There are also supposed to be issues with carb icing, but I have never met those, so not going to comment.

Nonetheless, I am a believer in doing things with the least possible hassle, so if OP has that set up, and it is working OK for him, I think he should stay with it.

kermit_rr said:

Never had a problem with my SU and did some pretty hairy angles. Mine is the type with the float chamber underneath not on the side

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Ah, mine had the side float chamber.

Went for the weber replacement in the end, nothing like the smell of a new weber in the morning. Starts much better, little flat spot when the second choke opens, I put that down to the shonky distro someone fitted. The cap is slack and has a bit of play, so that'll be my next replacement. Probably go for a complete distro as they are so cheap (electronic naturally). Then a decent tune up, maybe new coil while I'm at it. At least give it some hope to find some of those lost 70 horses.
Had another issue with the old carb (aside from leaks, and other odd behaviours), that is when warmed up, if I leave her to stand for 10mins, she is slow to start. Better with the new carb (yet to fully test that). I've had this with an old rootes engine, it was simply getting hot, to the point that on a very hot trip to Le Mans, we were pouring water over the inlet manifold to get her to start. Solved that with an ally head etc.... not an option for this engine.
I'll do a full tune up after new distro before looking into other things. Food for thought though.

Re the coil it's either good or bad, they don't 'wear out ' like plugs etc

vapour lock in the carbs, not the engine. Some carbs are more prone than others

Found this place sold decent quality parts in the past.

styleruk said:

Went for the weber replacement in the end, nothing like the smell of a new weber in the morning. Starts much better, little flat spot when the second choke opens, I put that down to the shonky distro someone fitted. The cap is slack and has a bit of play, so that'll be my next replacement. Probably go for a complete distro as they are so cheap (electronic naturally). Then a decent tune up, maybe new coil while I'm at it. At least give it some hope to find some of those lost 70 horses.
Had another issue with the old carb (aside from leaks, and other odd behaviours), that is when warmed up, if I leave her to stand for 10mins, she is slow to start. Better with the new carb (yet to fully test that). I've had this with an old rootes engine, it was simply getting hot, to the point that on a very hot trip to Le Mans, we were pouring water over the inlet manifold to get her to start. Solved that with an ally head etc.... not an option for this engine.
I'll do a full tune up after new distro before looking into other things. Food for thought though.

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We got a complete ignition kit from Accuspark, distributor, coil, leads and plugs.
It wasn't a lot of money, and is very good.
The one mistake we made was ordering the wrong plugs.
The plugs that are age appropriate to the vehicle are the ones with 3 electrodes around the centre electrode.
So we got those, overlooking the fact that the head had been replaced with a head which uses the single outer electrode plugs.
So make sure you get the stuff appropriate to what you have on the vehicle, not what was originally fitted.